Don Black (musician)
Encyclopedia
Don Black, OBE
(born 21 June 1938) is an English
lyricist
. His works have included numerous musicals
, movie
themes
and hit
song
s. He has provided lyrics for John Barry
, Charles Strouse
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
, Quincy Jones
, Jule Styne
, Henry Mancini
, Michael Jackson
, Elmer Bernstein
, Michel Legrand
, Hayley Westenra
, A. R. Rahman
and Marvin Hamlisch
.
, England, the youngest of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone. During his childhood the family lived in a flat in Tornay House, Shore Place, South Hackney
.
. He also had a brief spell as a stand-up comic
.
He was personal manager
to the singer Matt Monro
for many years and also provided songs for him (usually writing English language
lyrics
to continental songs). These included "Walk Away" (music: Udo Jürgens
) and "For Mamma" (music: Charles Aznavour
).
(1965). His association with the Bond series continued over several decades, with Diamonds Are Forever
and The Man with the Golden Gun
, in collaboration with John Barry
, and Tomorrow Never Dies
and The World Is Not Enough
, in collaboration with David Arnold
.
Black's film work culminated when he collaborated with Barry on the title song of 1966's "Born Free
", which won the Oscar for Best Song and provided a hit for Matt Monro. (Pianist Roger Williams made the Top 40 with an instrumental version.) The song was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1967 Grammys
. (Black later collaborated with Barry on Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves
, and an ill-fated Broadway
musical, The Little Prince and the Aviator
.) In 1967, Lulu
took the Black-Mark London
title song of the film "To Sir, with Love
" to No. 1 on the Billboard Top 40. Black received his second Oscar nomination for Best Song with the title theme, written with Elmer Bernstein, of the 1969 John Wayne western "True Grit". That same year, he partnered with Quincy Jones for the title song of the Michael Caine caper film The Italian Job
. He received a third Oscar nomination for the title song of the 1972 film "Ben", a No. 1 hit for Michael Jackson written with Walter Scharf
. Further Oscar nominations came for "Wherever Love Takes Me" (music: Elmer Bernstein
), from 1974 film Gold, and "Come to Me" (music: Henry Mancini
) from 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again
.
In addition, Black teamed with Charles Strouse on the songs "Growing Up Isn't Easy" and "Anything Can Happen On Halloween" for the 1986 HBO film The Worst Witch
, based on the novel by Jill Murphy
.
(music:John Barry), Bar Mitzvah Boy
(music:Jule Styne
), Dear Anyone (music:Geoff Stephens
), Budgie (music:Mort Shuman
) and several Andrew Lloyd Webber shows: the 1980 song-cycle, Tell Me on a Sunday
, which was performed by Marti Webb
(whom Black also managed for a time); Aspects of Love
, which propelled Michael Ball
to stardom; and, together with Christopher Hampton
, the musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder
film Sunset Boulevard
. The latter brought Black and Hamilton a Tony Award for Best Book.
In 2002 he worked with India
n composer A. R. Rahman
on the musical Bombay Dreams
. In 2004, Black's second musical collaboration with Hampton, Frank Wildhorn
's Dracula, the musical, debuted on Broadway. He also collaborated with John Barry once more, on the musical Brighton Rock. Based on the Graham Greene novel, it debuted at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2004. In 2006, Black created the lyrics for the musical adaptation of the book Feather Boy
for the National Theatre in London.
In 1993 Play It Again
released Born Free - The Don Black Songbook, which remains the only album to date which consists solely of songs co-written by the lyricist.
In 2007 Black was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
. That same year, Black was credited on "Sexy Lady", the 2007 debut single and hit for rapper Yung Berg, which samples the Black-Barry theme for "Diamonds Are Forever".
On Sunday 17 August 2008, the tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black was held at the London Palladium
featuring performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists. The evening, hosted by Michael Parkinson
and recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 2
, included an exclusive performance of two songs from Black's new musical The Count of Monte Cristo. The concert included contributions from Lee Mead
, Gary Barlow
, Elkie Brooks
, Craig David
, Maria Friedman
, Joe Longthorne
, Lulu
, Peter Grant
, Raza Jaffrey
, Matt Rawle, Ryan Molloy
, Marti Webb
, Jonathan Ansell
, Hayley Westenra
, Phil Campbell
and Mica Paris
. The singers were accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
, led by Mike Dixon
and with guest conductors Michel Legrand
and David Arnold
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 21 June 1938) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
. His works have included numerous musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
themes
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
and hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s. He has provided lyrics for John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
, Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist.-Life and career:Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel Strouse...
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
, Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...
, Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
, A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
and Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
.
Background
Black was born Gerald Blackstone in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, the youngest of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone. During his childhood the family lived in a flat in Tornay House, Shore Place, South Hackney
South Hackney
South Hackney is a district in the London Borough of Hackney situated north east of Charing Cross.It is immediately north of Victoria Park and the area centred on Victoria Park Road and Lauriston Road...
.
Early career
He began his music industry career as an office boy with a music publishing firm, and later worked as a song-pluggerSong-plugger
A song-plugger was a piano player employed by music stores in the early 20th century to promote and help sell new sheet music, which is how hits were advertised before quality recordings were widely available. Typically, the pianist sat on the mezzanine level of a store and played whatever music...
. He also had a brief spell as a stand-up comic
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
.
He was personal manager
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
to the singer Matt Monro
Matt Monro
Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...
for many years and also provided songs for him (usually writing English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
to continental songs). These included "Walk Away" (music: Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens is an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spans over fifty years...
) and "For Mamma" (music: Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
).
Film work
Black's first film work was the lyrics for the theme of the James Bond entry ThunderballThunderball (film)
Thunderball is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham...
(1965). His association with the Bond series continued over several decades, with Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever (film)
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
and The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun (film)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth spy film in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
, in collaboration with John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
, and Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering...
and The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond film series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It...
, in collaboration with David Arnold
David Arnold
David Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
.
Black's film work culminated when he collaborated with Barry on the title song of 1966's "Born Free
Born Free
Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilds of Kenya. The movie was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia...
", which won the Oscar for Best Song and provided a hit for Matt Monro. (Pianist Roger Williams made the Top 40 with an instrumental version.) The song was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1967 Grammys
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
. (Black later collaborated with Barry on Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...
, and an ill-fated Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical, The Little Prince and the Aviator
The Little Prince and the Aviator
The Little Prince and the Aviator is a musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics by Don Black, and music by John Barry.Based on the classic book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the musical deviates from the original in that aviator Toni, whose plane crashes in the Sahara Desert, explicitly is...
.) In 1967, Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
took the Black-Mark London
Mark London
Mark London is a soundtrack composer, songwriter and producer. He is particularly notable as the co-writer of the song "To Sir With Love".-History:...
title song of the film "To Sir, with Love
To Sir, with Love (song)
"To Sir With Love" is the theme from the 1967 film To Sir, With Love. The song was written by Don Black and Mark London."To Sir With Love" was initially recorded by Lulu for the film of the same name...
" to No. 1 on the Billboard Top 40. Black received his second Oscar nomination for Best Song with the title theme, written with Elmer Bernstein, of the 1969 John Wayne western "True Grit". That same year, he partnered with Quincy Jones for the title song of the Michael Caine caper film The Italian Job
The Italian Job
The Italian Job is a 1969 British caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley and directed by Peter Collinson. Subsequent television showings and releases on video have established it as an institution in the United Kingdom....
. He received a third Oscar nomination for the title song of the 1972 film "Ben", a No. 1 hit for Michael Jackson written with Walter Scharf
Walter Scharf
Walter Scharf was an American film composer.Born in New York, he was the son of Yiddish theatre comic Bessie Zwerling...
. Further Oscar nominations came for "Wherever Love Takes Me" (music: Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
), from 1974 film Gold, and "Come to Me" (music: Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
) from 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Pink Panther Strikes Again is the fifth film in the Pink Panther series and picks up where The Return of the Pink Panther leaves off...
.
In addition, Black teamed with Charles Strouse on the songs "Growing Up Isn't Easy" and "Anything Can Happen On Halloween" for the 1986 HBO film The Worst Witch
The Worst Witch (TV movie)
The Worst Witch premiered in 1986 on Central Independent Television and HBO. It is based on the children's book by Jill Murphy.-Plot:The film follows the plot of the 1974 book from the series, portraying the incidents of when Mildred turns herself invisible and transforms Ethel into a pig, Miss...
, based on the novel by Jill Murphy
Jill Murphy
Jill Murphy is a London-born English children's author, best known for The Worst Witch series and the Large Family picture books...
.
Musical theatre
Black's stage credits include the musicals BillyBilly (musical)
Billy is a musical based on the novel and play Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. The book was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the music is by John Barry, and the lyrics are by Don Black.-Production:...
(music:John Barry), Bar Mitzvah Boy
Bar Mitzvah Boy (musical)
Bar Mitzvah Boy is a musical with a book by Jack Rosenthal, lyrics by Don Black, and music by Jule Styne.Based on Rosenthal's award-winning 1976 BBC1 teleplay of the same name, it focuses on young Eliot Green who, filled with apprehension, escapes from the synagogue where he is about to make his...
(music:Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
), Dear Anyone (music:Geoff Stephens
Geoff Stephens
Geoffrey 'Geoff' Stephens , was one of the top British songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...
), Budgie (music:Mort Shuman
Mort Shuman
Mort Shuman was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas"...
) and several Andrew Lloyd Webber shows: the 1980 song-cycle, Tell Me on a Sunday
Tell Me On A Sunday
Tell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love...
, which was performed by Marti Webb
Marti Webb
Marti Webb is a musical actress from England, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980...
(whom Black also managed for a time); Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
, which propelled Michael Ball
Michael Ball (singer)
Michael Ashley Ball, born 27 June 1962) is a British actor, singer, and radio and TV presenter who is best known for the song "Love Changes Everything" and musical theatre roles such as Marius in Les Misérables, Alex in Aspects of Love, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Edna Turnblad...
to stardom; and, together with Christopher Hampton
Christopher Hampton
Christopher James Hampton CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of...
, the musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
film Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
. The latter brought Black and Hamilton a Tony Award for Best Book.
In 2002 he worked with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n composer A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
on the musical Bombay Dreams
Bombay Dreams
Bombay Dreams is a Bollywood-themed musical, with music by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and the book by Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan,and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The London production opened in 2002 and ran for two years...
. In 2004, Black's second musical collaboration with Hampton, Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
's Dracula, the musical, debuted on Broadway. He also collaborated with John Barry once more, on the musical Brighton Rock. Based on the Graham Greene novel, it debuted at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2004. In 2006, Black created the lyrics for the musical adaptation of the book Feather Boy
Feather Boy
Feather boy is a novel by Brighton-based author Nicky Singer; it was first published in 2002 by HarperCollins, under the Collins imprint. The story is about Robert Nobel, a boy who despairs of his newly divorced parents. Robert is the butt of classroom jokes and a victim of Niker, the classroom...
for the National Theatre in London.
Personal life and legacy
Black lives in London, England with Shirley, his wife of over 50 years.In 1993 Play It Again
Play It Again (record label)
Play It Again is a British record label formed in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in November 1989, by Geoff Leonard, Gareth Bramley and Pete Walker. Leonard had had an idea of releasing some of John Barry's music on CD in an effort to publicise a book on the musical career of the composer, which he had...
released Born Free - The Don Black Songbook, which remains the only album to date which consists solely of songs co-written by the lyricist.
In 2007 Black was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
. That same year, Black was credited on "Sexy Lady", the 2007 debut single and hit for rapper Yung Berg, which samples the Black-Barry theme for "Diamonds Are Forever".
On Sunday 17 August 2008, the tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black was held at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
featuring performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists. The evening, hosted by Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
and recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, included an exclusive performance of two songs from Black's new musical The Count of Monte Cristo. The concert included contributions from Lee Mead
Lee Mead
Lee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre actor, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC reality TV casting show Any Dream Will Do...
, Gary Barlow
Gary Barlow
Gary Barlow is an English singer-songwriter, pianist and record producer. He is frontman and lead vocalist of pop group Take That and is currently the head judge on the eighth series of The X Factor. Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters...
, Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks is an English singer, formerly a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. Elkie has been nominated twice for Brit Awards' top female singer. She is known for her powerful husky voice...
, Craig David
Craig David
Craig Ashley David is an English singer and songwriter. He has released five studio albums: Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes..., Trust Me, Signed Sealed Delivered and a Greatest Hits album...
, Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman is an English actress working in television, musical theatre, and concerts. She has won three Olivier Awards for her stage work.-Early years:...
, Joe Longthorne
Joe Longthorne
Joe Longthorne is an English singer of Romani ethnicity, who has performed in several Royal Variety Performances.-Biography:...
, Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
, Peter Grant
Peter Grant
Peter "G" Grant was an English music manager. Grant managed the popular English bands The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and Bad Company, among others, and was also a record executive for Swan Song Records. Grant has been described as "one of the shrewdest and most ruthless managers in rock history"...
, Raza Jaffrey
Raza Jaffrey
Raza Jaffrey is a British actor, most notable for playing the character of Zafar Younis in the BBC1 television spy drama Spooks / MI-5.-Early life:...
, Matt Rawle, Ryan Molloy
Ryan Molloy
Ryan Molloy is a British singer, songwriter and actor, who replaced Holly Johnson as the lead singer in Frankie Goes to Hollywood . He has also been successful in musical theatre, appearing in a number of hit musicals in the UK....
, Marti Webb
Marti Webb
Marti Webb is a musical actress from England, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980...
, Jonathan Ansell
Jonathan Ansell
Jonathan Mark Ansell is an English singer, formerly the high tenor of the vocal group G4.Jonathan Ansell was born in Bognor Regis in 1982, where both his parents were primary school teachers. Influenced by his mother’s tapes of Pavarotti and the Three Tenors, Jonathan joined the West Sussex Boys'...
, Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
, Phil Campbell
Phil Campbell
Phil Campbell may refer to:* Phil Campbell , British guitarist, member of Motörhead* Phil Campbell, Alabama, a town in the United States...
and Mica Paris
Mica Paris
Mica Paris is an English soul singer, radio and television presenter, and occasional actress. Her forename is pronounced Misha.-Beginnings:Paris' roots are in soul and gospel music...
. The singers were accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
, led by Mike Dixon
Mike Dixon (conductor)
Michael Dixon is a British conductor. He is a 1979 graduate of Trinity College of Music. Among other orchestras, he has led the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. In 2004, together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he recorded Seven: A Suite for Orchestra by Tony...
and with guest conductors Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...
and David Arnold
David Arnold
David Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
.
External links
- Official Don Black website
- Don Black at the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- James Bond Composer David Arnold to Present Award to Don Black