Snippets
Welcome to Snippets. From time to time we will be including items, which, though not necessarily news, should still be of interest to John Barry fans. If you have anything you consider likely to be of interest please enter our submission form below.
Examples of this would be mentions of JB in the press, artists covering his music, TV programmes using his music, and anecdotes about recording sessions and concerts.
Click on the links for the full articles or videoclips.
- Alexander Klein conducts "The Christmas Wine" and "A Christmas Song"
November 11, 2011
Music by John Barry. Conducted by Alexander Klein.
Performed by the Chamber Choir of Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia.
(19/10/11)
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 The Christmas Wine (live)
- A Christmas Song (live)
- John Barry's Golden Touch: Discussion
November 11, 2011
Miguel Mera is joined by musicians Martin Phipps and Richard Jacques to discuss the work of the late film composer, famous for his brand-defining Bond scores and work on Midnight Cowboy and Out of Africa.
Recorded at London's Somerset
This event was part of BAFTA’s ‘Behind the Screen’ series held alongside the 2011 Somerset House 'Summer Screen' programme with American Express.
- John Barry interviewed at Rules Restaurant, 1991
September 02, 2011
We are very grateful to Mark Jensen for alerting us to a brief interview with John which appears on the website of Rules Restaurant, one of John's favourite London haunts.
It was evidently carried out just before the Oscars in 1991, as John's nomination for Dances with Wolves is mentioned. JB is featured from approx. 4m 55s to 6m 35s.
http://www.rules.co.uk/video/showvid.asp?video=rules.flv
- John Barry in 1980s Japanese TV commercial - Youtube
August 25, 2011
An intriguing
1980s Japanese TV commercial has appeared on Youtube featuring John Barry and Kirk Douglas with a taste for Maxim coffee.
Barry music collector James Culbertson, who lives in Japan, comments in the Yahoo John Barry group:
"Lots of American/European stars did commercials in Japan. The salary for one commercial was unbelievably high. ...
The begining of the Barry commercial the narrator says "Lake Tahoe".....the rest is just about the coffee. Towards the early 80's the Japanese started sending out film crews (which was cheaper) to various countries to get stars in commercials."
Watch the commercial here
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- John's marriage to Jane Sidey - clarification
June 12, 2011
We have been contacted by John's third wife, Jane Sidey, who has informed us that contrary to the reference to a "short-lived marriage" in Andrew Billen's 1999 article "Dude Barry was a lady-killer", the couple were actually married from 1969 to 1978, making it his second-longest marriage. We are happy to put the record straight.
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Give Me A Smile - the 2001 Corina Brouder RAH rehearsal vocal
May 16, 2010
Ruud Rozemeijer
Corina Brouder's private rehearsal recording of John Barry's "Give Me A Smile".
Corina recorded it for the 2001 Royal Albert Hall concert that never happened.
To sing it Barry chose Corina Brouder, with whom he had previously worked on "To Love and be Loved" from Swept From The Sea (Amy Foster).
http://www.corinabrouder.net
- John Barry in the Classic FM Hall of Fame
April 28, 2010
Nick Taylor, Classic FM
"A great deal of John Barry's work has recently been voted in to the Classic FM's Hall of Fame. This is a chart of 300 classical music pieces and is the biggest survey of classical music tastes in the world and following John Barry's death there has been a surge of votes in this year's survey as our listeners were keen to pay sufficient tribute to the great man.
The Beyondness of Things is back in as a re-entry at No. 150; Out of Africa sits at No. 108 (101 places higher than last year) and Dances With Wolves is at its highest position yet in the survey's 15 year history, climbing to No. 84.
Check out the official Hall of Fame chart website for more info."
- Desert Island Discs,
John Barry, BBC Radio 4, First broadcast: Sun 13 Jun 1999. BBC website
April 28, 2010
- "The Beyondness of Things" used by BBC TV
During April the BBC screened a two-part series on Royal Weddings. During the segment relating to the marriage of the heavy drinker, Princess Margaret to Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Barry's "The Beyondness of Things" track was played throughout. It fitted like a glove!
April 16, 2010
- "Elizabeth Taylor in London soundtrack danced to the rebel screen queen's tune"
"Composed by John Barry, the 1963 TV film's soundtrack is a fitting tribute to Hollywood's first rock'n'roll starlet" by
Rob Fitzpatrick, Friday 25 March 2011, 16.20 GMT, guardian.co.uk
31 March 2011
Steven Saragossi M.A.
- John Barry Special on All India Radio, 107.1 FM
On February 4, 2011 Fali R. Singara did a special show live of John Barry's best themes and his legacy to Bond on All India Radio in Mumbai.
Over 300 people called in and sms-ed (texted) their comments during the three hours he was on live. Fali did the show in two segments - Bond & Non Bond work.
The Top 3 favourite Barry movie scores according to Indian listeners (other than Bond) were Born Free (number 1), The Lion In Winter & Somewhere In Time. The top 3 Bond scores were From Russia With Love (Number 1), On Her Majesty's Secret Service & Goldfinger.
Almost all the listeners agreed that Matt Monro was the best male vocalist to do a Bond theme while Shirley Bassey was the best female singer.
6 February 2011
Ruud Rozemeijer
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Johnny De Little, a talented vocalist much associated with John Barry in the 60s, appeared in several pantomimes during that era. More...
15 November 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Beat Girl Boots
It's getting more and more difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal DVD releases. Take Beat Girl. There have been various DVDs issued over the past few years, mainly in America, and none of them very good quality and almost certainly mastered from a video released back in the 90s.
However, a couple of years ago Orbit released a DVD which had all the hallmarks of being a genuine remastered release. Or was it? I met a representative of Renown Pictures at a film fair, recently, who assured me that this release was not authorised, a point they had just made to Orbit's legal team, and that Renown would be releasing their own, better quality version in 2011.
Buyer beware clearly applies in this case!
14 November 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Whisperers / Equus booklet - where are the notes, Krizterland?
We are quite proud of this website and of the wealth of information about John Barry it contains. We also like to think it's useful to anybody working on a project involving John Barry, such as a CD release, and Geoff is always willing to help in this respect, if asked. More...
13 November, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- JOHN BARRY IN CONCERT - the original planned 1999 programme
JB's 1999 RAH concert - as it was when the BBC were going to be
filming the second half. It got changed when filming didn't go ahead.
October 22, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- IMDb.com is 20 years old today.
As part of the celebrations, IMDb founder & CEO Col Needham is going to re-watch the film he saw on video that evening in 1990 - Body Heat!!
John Barry did not approve the Body Heat CD mix by producer John Lasher and apparently regards the resultant CD as "unofficial". He has not spoken to Lasher since it was released.
Miklos Rozsa was the original choice to score Body Heat (as a sort of homage to his score for Double Indemnity - a much earlier film with similarities) but refused, saying he found the film "disgusting".
Rozsa and Barry had shared the bill at the 1972 Filmharmonic concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
October 17, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- In April 1964, the Shirley Bassey/Matt Monro/John Barry concert scheduled for The Colston Hall, Bristol, was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
Even though it was just before Shirley & John's huge success with Goldfinger, it seems incredible that the concert could not be "sold" on their names alone. All were well-known in the UK and all had achieved huge success with hit records, concerts and TV appearances.
Just imagine (if it was still possible) having those three legends playing in concert together today - you wouldn't be able to get a ticket!!
October 4, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Beat Girl was released in the USA as "Wild for Kicks". You can see the hilarious trailer for the American release on youtube. If I hadn't already watched the film several times I imagine I would
have believed all the rhetoric, especially "the most exciting film of
its kind since ....."
October 4, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- The music heard during the "exotic strip" scene in Beat Girl is "Esmeralda" by Benny Bennet.
Hear it in full on Youtube
October 4, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Link to an article about John Barry's old villa in Mallorca. Here's the automated google translation of the same page.
Thanks to Edward for putting up the link in our forum
September 7, 2010
- In The Guardian (26 Aug.), there was a report titled "To Russia with love: screenwriter suspected of bonding with enemy". Wolf Mankowitz, one of the men behind the early James Bond films, was suspected of being a communist agent, according to MI5 files at the National Archives released today. Apparently he introduced the Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Salzman to one another and was involved in writing the script for Dr No. But also as Geoff says in The Man With The Midas Touch, he was also involved with John Barry in the original script for the musical of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock.
August 27, 2010
Keith Calnan
- ITV 1 are currently trailing 'The Unforgettable Bob Monkhouse' for viewing on Sunday, 8th August at 9.00pm using JB's Midnight Cowboy and what sounds like a snipppet from The Beyondness.
August 7, 2010
Keith Calnan
- A short interview with Jane Birkin reveals that she stripped off in Antonion's film Blow-Up as a dare. She was married to John Barry at the time and Barry never thought she would ever do it, 'because we turned the light out when we slept together.'
The Sunday Times magazine 1/8/10 ("Welcome to The Times and The Sunday Times websites.
Available exclusively by subscription.")
August 3, 2010
Keith Calnan
- John Barry at Royal Film Performance of "Born Free"
Here is fascinating footage of the stars and the royal party from the Royal Premiere of Born Free in 1966. More...
This will puzzle anybody who has read the Matt Monro biography since it is stated therein that of the Born Free song crew, only Matt turned up and had to alert Don & John that the song was omitted from that print!
July 30, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- The latest 007 magazine from Graham Rye features two pictures of John Barry: one has JB with Lionel Bart, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli and in the other he is with Lionel Bart and Ian Fleming at a party at Pinewood celebrating From Russia With Love.
July 23, 2010
- Was the film "Promise Her Anything" (1965) a
rejected John Barry score?
19 July, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Jon Burlingame's John Barry 75th birthday tribute reprint
19 July, 2010
Geoff Leonard
- Johnny Worth told them to stuff it
12 July, 2010
By Johnny Worth (added by Geoff Leonard)
I have an interesting story re John Barry. Adam Faith was doing a film with Jane Wyman and that awful British actor with the comic plummy voice.* The film was called Mix me a Person.
The producer was a a guy called Sergei Nolbandov and he worked for or ran a company called Vic Films.
I had written the title-song, which John had arranged - also an instrumental piece to be used during a car chase called "One double zero". I was producing these tracks in the studio and suffered constant interruption from a fellow in the control room who I didn't know from Adam (joke) - so I told him to please shut up or kindly leave the stage - which he did!
When I arrived home my wife said Vic Films have been on the phone. Apparently there was a guy in the studio in charge of their music department named Muir Mathieson and he was very impressed with the way you handled everything. They want you to write the score for the movie.
I said "how much?" and they said £150! I told them to stuff it so they asked John Barry to do it instead. That was virtually the start of his movie career.
* he means Anne Baxter & Donald Sinden.
It's an interesting anecdote though possibly not entirely accurate. JB receives only a "songs arranged by" credit for this film while Muir Mathieson is "musical advisor". Nobody is credited for writing the score, such as it is.
- Mr Moses LP lined up in '60s?
14 May, 2010
by Ian McDonald
"Tony Palmer, head of A&R at EMI UA in the mid 60's had this (a Mr. Moses LP, ed.) all lined up. It even got a listing in the 'Gramaphone' Catalogue (!!). I actually saw the front sleeve proof when I visited their offices in Manchester Square. Alas, it never saw light of day, but surely those tapes are somewhere in the EMI vaults. It was never listed for a US release... Probably around 40 mins or so."
- Dulux advert has Midnight Cowboy as backing track
April 15, 2010
Keith Calnan
New Dulux advert on ITV has Midnight Cowboy as backing track
- Paul McCartney in an interview with Paul Gambaccini, December 1978:
14 March, 2010
(transcribed by Gareth Bramley)
"
I was asked to write Diamonds Are Forever. Somebody I knew was connected with the Bond thing and said 'would you like to do a song' and I said 'Yeah!!!! (straight away, you know, YEAH!!!)
I couldn't do that one coz I think it was John Barry and they had it all sewn up anyway, so maybe (you can do) the next one. "
- A Man Alone
7 March, 2010
Pat Boone recorded a single called "A Man Alone" in 1966
- The Criminal
5 March, 2010
A report recently circulated that director Joseph Losey heard John Barry's brassy score for Beat Girl, and wanted him for The Criminal (1960), but Barry turned down the gig because he was working on the Peter Sellers Never Let Go movie at the time.
We cannot confirm or deny this but it is on record that Barry & Losey were to work together on the original aborted musical of Brighton Rock in 1964, and eventually did work together on Boom! (1968) so the story could well be true.
- Whispers about "The Horse Whisperer"
3 February , 2010
Ian Macdonald contributed a fascinating piece to the Barry Yahoo group:
"I have just been viewing the 'Filmnotgraphy' section of the website. I note with interest that it is thought that JB wrote and recorded a full score for this movie, so, for what it is worth, I thought I would contribute my knowledge of what actually happened and why Barry left the film."
- From Russia With Love - Matt Monro
January 30, 2010 / February 3, 2010
We are grateful to Richard Moore, who was responsible for the remastering on the new Matt Monro box-set, for providing the following definitive explanation to something which has puzzled Bond fans and others for years.
- John Barry's music used on TV
In this section we list the use of John Barry's music on TV.
January 30, 2010
- 1970s John Barry concerts
- MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES (1973)
presented by
BRYAN FORBES and ROGER MOORE
January 30, 2010
- Filmharmonic '72
January 30, 2010
- The Concert John Barry LP
Being one of the lucky ones, I attended the 1972 Filmharmonic Concert at RAH that this album was based on.
January 29, 2010
- Listen back to our special New York programes
- Aedín interviews John Barry and Elaine Stritch
In two *Green Room Cinema Special *programmes, Aedín travels to New York
to meet renowned composer John Barry and veteran star of stage and
screen Elaine Stritch. You can listen back here...
28 June 2007
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