Matt Monro
Encyclopedia
Matt Monro was an English
singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabaret
s, nightclub
s, music halls, and stadiums in Australia
, Japan
, the Philippines
, and Hong Kong
to Africa
, the Middle East
, Europe
, and the Americas.
, London
and attended Duncombe School in Islington. Affectionately nicknamed "the singing bus driver" (because one of his many occupations prior to achieving fame was driving the Number 27 bus
from Highgate
to Teddington
), he got his first break in 1956 when he became a featured vocalist with the BBC
Show Band. An important influence on his early career was the pianist
Winifred Atwell
, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage name, and helped him sign with Decca Records
.
In 1957 Monro released Blue and Sentimental, a collection of standards. Despite the album
's critical acclaim, Monro languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan
by recording
cover version
s of American
hits
. (Monro even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of Eden
" during this period.) A short recording contract
with Fontana Records
followed.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade fame had evaporated, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties
from a TV
advertising
jingle
for Camay
soap
. In 1959 he recorded a country
pastiche
song
, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue
, a feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin
shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack
themes.
album
Songs For Swinging Sellers in 1960, George Martin
asked Monro to record a satirical ditty to help the comedian imitate the song with a Frank Sinatra
-type styling. When Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to open the record rather than record his own version. However, Sellers billed Monro as "Fred Flange," and though it was a demoralizing experience at the time, the incident developed into a lifelong friendship with Martin, who subsequently asked Monro to begin recording with him for EMI
's Parlophone
record label
. Their second single, "Portrait of My Love," Penned by Norman Newell OBE reached number three in the UK Singles Chart
.
By the following year, he had been named Top International Act by Billboard
. In February 1961, the British
music magazine, NME
reported that Monro had won ITV
's British Song Contest with "My Kind of Girl". His follow-up hits included that song, plus "Softly as I Leave You
" (1962) and the song from the James Bond
film
From Russia with Love
(1963). For the latter, his vocals were not used in the opening titles, as became the standard for the series; they were heard on a radio during the film and over the final credits. At the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest
, singing "I Love the Little Things
," he finished second behind Italy
's 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti
, despite an "excellent performance of the only English language song of the night." The Austrian entry "Warum Nur Warum?
", sung by Udo Jürgens
, caught Monro's ear, despite its sixth-place finish, and he recorded an English
version titled "Walk Away" (with lyrics by Monro's manager Don Black), earning him another hit single
late in 1964. He also had a hit with The Beatles
' "Yesterday
" in 1965, releasing the first single of the most recorded song of all time, predating even the Beatles' own. The following year, Monro sang the Oscar
winning title song for the film, Born Free
, which became his signature tune. The opening scene for the film The Italian Job
featured Monro singing "On Days Like These
." These two movie themes featured lyrics also written by Don Black, who started his career as a renowned songwriter when Monro challenged him to pen the English lyric that became "Walk Away". On 31 December 1976, Monro performed Walk Away on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music
, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee
.
Monro achieved fame in the United States
when "My Kind of Girl" (1961) and "Walk Away" (1964) hit the Top 40. In 1966, following the death of Nat King Cole
, EMI moved Monro from Parlophone to Capitol
. After relocating to California
and recording several albums with American arrangers
, Monro returned to the UK and began appearing on EMI's Columbia
label, his final U.S. album release being Close To You in 1970. This LP contained "We're Gonna Change The World", a semi-satirical song about women's liberation, which was not a hit in either the US or the UK but was nevertheless widely played, and became enduringly popular, on BBC Radio 2
.
He continued touring and recording until just before his death, releasing a single and promoting it throughout the UK and Australia in 1984. In one of his final appearances, he praised Boy George
, noting the importance of quality recordings in all musical genres.
in 1985 at the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington
, London, leaving a widow, Mickie, and three children: Mitchell, Michele, and Matthew. Mitchell, a professional pilot
, also died of cancer in 2004. A Memorial was held in Harrow.
The twentieth anniversary of Monro's passing spotlighted the continuing interest in his music, with a Top 10 tribute compilation
CD
(UK), a No. 1 concert
DVD
(UK), a BBC TV documentary, and an official website all appearing in 2005. A 2007 compilation CD entitled From Matt With Love reached the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart
during its first week of release. His songs were featured on Friday Night is Music Night
on October 8, 2010.
In Autumn 2005 Matt Monro Jr. toured the United Kingdom
with a tribute concert commemorating the anniversary. Also, EMI re-released Matt Sings Monro, a 1995 duet
album that combined his voice with the senior Monro's. Another posthumous Matt Monro duet, with Cliff Richard
, appeared on Richard's duets CD, Two's Company, in 2007.
Monro never recorded a "live" concert album, preferring the technical purity of the recording studio and wanting his public performances to retain an element of uniqueness. However, in the past few years, commercially-released concert albums have emerged following meticulous remastering of radio and television shows, private recordings he commissioned. These include an intimate 1967 cabaret performance from his first tour of Australia; a 1967 BBC concert with Nelson Riddle; a 1966 arena concert before 24,000 fans in Manila; and one of his final concerts, recorded on the last night of his fourteenth and final Australian tour in 1984.
In recent years, many singers riding the resurging wave of retro-pop have cited Matt Monro as a strong influence, including Michael Bublé
, Monica Mancini
, and Rick Astley
. Musicians' biographies regularly note his stylistic influence on their subjects, including Cass Elliot
and Karen Carpenter
. He continues to feature prominently on radio stations and CD compilations featuring popular easy-listening vocalists.
His daughter Michele has written a biography, The Singer's Singer: The Life and Music of Matt Monro.
standards during his career. (The exception was Matt Monro sings Hoagy Carmichael, one of his most highly-regarded albums.) Instead, he and Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and commissioned English lyrics
for dramatic melodies written by European composer
s. He also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, his recordings featured arrangements by Sid Feller
, Billy May
, John Barry
, Buddy Bregman
, Kenny Clayton
and Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. He also had a long and fruitful musical partnership with British arranger Johnnie Spence. Monro also teamed up with American star arrangers Nelson Riddle
and Billy May
and leading British bandleader Ted Heath
, for concerts broadcast by the BBC
.
In 1973 Monro released a vocal version of the popular Van der Valk TV-series theme titled "And You Smiled". It was his final hit. In 1977 he recorded "If I Never Sing Another Song", which became a latter-day standard among his contemporaries, its lyrics referring to the "heyday" of fan mail, awards, and other trappings of celebrity that had faded for them.
† Before 1973 the BPI did not have an album/single certified award scheme.
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...
singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
s, nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s, music halls, and stadiums in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and the Americas.
Early career
He was born Terence Edward Parsons in ShoreditchShoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
, London
London
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...
and attended Duncombe School in Islington. Affectionately nicknamed "the singing bus driver" (because one of his many occupations prior to achieving fame was driving the Number 27 bus
London Buses route 27
London Buses route 27 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London. The service is currently contracted to London United.-History:...
from Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
to Teddington
Teddington
Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...
), he got his first break in 1956 when he became a featured vocalist with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Show Band. An important influence on his early career was the pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Winifred Atwell
Winifred Atwell
Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or April 1910 or 1914There is some uncertainty over her date and year of birth. Many sources suggest 27 February 1914, but there is a strong suggestion that her birthday was 27 April. Most sources give her year of birth as...
, who became his mentor, provided him with his stage name, and helped him sign with Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
.
In 1957 Monro released Blue and Sentimental, a collection of standards. Despite the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
's critical acclaim, Monro languished among the young male singers trying to break through at the end of the 1950s, many of them emulating Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan, CBE, DL was an English singer of traditional pop music, who issued more than 80 recordings in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.-Life and career:...
by recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hits
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...
. (Monro even recorded a version of Vaughan's "Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
" during this period.) A short recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
followed.
By the end of the 1950s, Monro's mid-decade fame had evaporated, and he returned to relative obscurity. He and his wife Mickie lived from her wages as a song plugger and his royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
from a TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
for Camay
Camay
Camay is the name of a scented hand and body soap, made by Procter & Gamble. It was first introduced in 1926 and marketed as a "white, pure soap for women," as many soaps of the time were colored to mask impurities...
soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
. In 1959 he recorded a country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
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...
, "Bound for Texas", for The Chaplin Revue
The Chaplin Revue
The Chaplin Revue is a 1959 film comprising three silent films made by Charlie Chaplin. The three shorts included are A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim. All three star Chaplin's trademark character, The Tramp. For the 1959 release, Chaplin added a soundtrack to help appeal to modern...
, a feature-length compilation of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
shorts. It would be the first of many Monro soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
themes.
International success
Prior to producing the Peter SellersPeter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Songs For Swinging Sellers in 1960, George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
asked Monro to record a satirical ditty to help the comedian imitate the song with a Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
-type styling. When Sellers heard the recording he decided to use it to open the record rather than record his own version. However, Sellers billed Monro as "Fred Flange," and though it was a demoralizing experience at the time, the incident developed into a lifelong friendship with Martin, who subsequently asked Monro to begin recording with him for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. Their second single, "Portrait of My Love," Penned by Norman Newell OBE reached number three in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
.
By the following year, he had been named Top International Act by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
. In February 1961, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music magazine, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
reported that Monro had won ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's British Song Contest with "My Kind of Girl". His follow-up hits included that song, plus "Softly as I Leave You
Softly, as I Leave You (song)
"Softly, as I Leave You" is a popular song composed by Hal Shaper, Antonio De Vita , with original Italian lyrics by Giorgio Calabrese....
" (1962) and the song from the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film
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...
From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
(1963). For the latter, his vocals were not used in the opening titles, as became the standard for the series; they were heard on a radio during the film and over the final credits. At the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1964
The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark after the Danish victory the previous year. Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers. They did however broadcast it...
, singing "I Love the Little Things
I Love the Little Things
"I Love the Little Things" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964, performed in English by Matt Monro. The song was written by Tony Hatch...
," he finished second behind Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
's 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti
Gigliola Cinquetti
Gigliola Cinquetti is an Italian singer, TV presenter and journalist.-Biography:At the age of 16 she won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964 singing "Non ho l'età" , with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri...
, despite an "excellent performance of the only English language song of the night." The Austrian entry "Warum Nur Warum?
Warum Nur Warum?
"Warum nur warum?" was the Austrian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964, sung in German by Udo Jürgens.The song was performed sixth on the night...
", sung by Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens is an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spans over fifty years...
, caught Monro's ear, despite its sixth-place finish, and he recorded an English
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...
version titled "Walk Away" (with lyrics by Monro's manager Don Black), earning him another hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
late in 1964. He also had a hit with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Yesterday
Yesterday (song)
"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded...
" in 1965, releasing the first single of the most recorded song of all time, predating even the Beatles' own. The following year, Monro sang the Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
winning title song for the film, 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 became his signature tune. The opening scene for the 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....
featured Monro singing "On Days Like These
On Days Like These
"On Days Like These" is a song sung by Matt Monro, with music by Quincy Jones and lyrics by Don Black. It was written in 1969 for the British caper film The Italian Job, where it is played prominently in the opening credits, uninterrupted by background sound....
." These two movie themes featured lyrics also written by Don Black, who started his career as a renowned songwriter when Monro challenged him to pen the English lyric that became "Walk Away". On 31 December 1976, Monro performed Walk Away on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music
A Jubilee of Music
A Jubilee of Music is a one off BBC Television entertainment show of 75 minutes duration, broadcast on 31 December 1976 on BBC1. The show was produced to celebrate the British music successes of the first twenty-five years of Elizabeth II's reign, ahead of the commencement of 1977, the year of her...
, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth realms...
.
Monro achieved fame in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
when "My Kind of Girl" (1961) and "Walk Away" (1964) hit the Top 40. In 1966, following the death of Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, EMI moved Monro from Parlophone to Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
. After relocating to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and recording several albums with American arrangers
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, Monro returned to the UK and began appearing on EMI's Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
label, his final U.S. album release being Close To You in 1970. This LP contained "We're Gonna Change The World", a semi-satirical song about women's liberation, which was not a hit in either the US or the UK but was nevertheless widely played, and became enduringly popular, on 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...
.
He continued touring and recording until just before his death, releasing a single and promoting it throughout the UK and Australia in 1984. In one of his final appearances, he praised Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, noting the importance of quality recordings in all musical genres.
Death and legacy
Monro died from liver cancerHepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
in 1985 at the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London, leaving a widow, Mickie, and three children: Mitchell, Michele, and Matthew. Mitchell, a professional pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, also died of cancer in 2004. A Memorial was held in Harrow.
The twentieth anniversary of Monro's passing spotlighted the continuing interest in his music, with a Top 10 tribute compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
(UK), a No. 1 concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
(UK), a BBC TV documentary, and an official website all appearing in 2005. A 2007 compilation CD entitled From Matt With Love reached the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
during its first week of release. His songs were featured on Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....
on October 8, 2010.
In Autumn 2005 Matt Monro Jr. toured the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
with a tribute concert commemorating the anniversary. Also, EMI re-released Matt Sings Monro, a 1995 duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
album that combined his voice with the senior Monro's. Another posthumous Matt Monro duet, with Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
, appeared on Richard's duets CD, Two's Company, in 2007.
Monro never recorded a "live" concert album, preferring the technical purity of the recording studio and wanting his public performances to retain an element of uniqueness. However, in the past few years, commercially-released concert albums have emerged following meticulous remastering of radio and television shows, private recordings he commissioned. These include an intimate 1967 cabaret performance from his first tour of Australia; a 1967 BBC concert with Nelson Riddle; a 1966 arena concert before 24,000 fans in Manila; and one of his final concerts, recorded on the last night of his fourteenth and final Australian tour in 1984.
In recent years, many singers riding the resurging wave of retro-pop have cited Matt Monro as a strong influence, including Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
, Monica Mancini
Monica Mancini
Monica Mancini is an American recording artist and concert performer.Monica Mancini is a Concord Record recording artist and 2005 Double-Grammy award nominee, who has carved out an impressive career as a singer and concert performer, appearing with major symphony orchestras worldwide.Mancini is...
, and Rick Astley
Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and radio personality. He is known for his 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was a #1 hit single in 25 countries...
. Musicians' biographies regularly note his stylistic influence on their subjects, including Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
and Karen Carpenter
Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love...
. He continues to feature prominently on radio stations and CD compilations featuring popular easy-listening vocalists.
His daughter Michele has written a biography, The Singer's Singer: The Life and Music of Matt Monro.
His music
Most of Monro's recordings were produced or overseen by George Martin. Unlike his contemporaries, Monro recorded very few Tin Pan AlleyTin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
standards during his career. (The exception was Matt Monro sings Hoagy Carmichael, one of his most highly-regarded albums.) Instead, he and Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and commissioned English 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...
for dramatic melodies written by European composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s. He also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, his recordings featured arrangements by Sid Feller
Sid Feller
Sidney "Sid" Feller was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including Georgia on My Mind and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour...
, Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
, 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...
, Buddy Bregman
Buddy Bregman
Buddy Bregman is an American musical arranger, record producer and composer.He has worked with many of the greatest musical artists of 20th Century popular music including; Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Matt Monro, and Frank Sinatra.Born in Chicago, he studied...
, Kenny Clayton
Kenny Clayton
Kenny Clayton is a British music producer, arranger, conductor and jazz pianist.Clayton studied piano at the Trinity College of Music in London...
and Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. He also had a long and fruitful musical partnership with British arranger Johnnie Spence. Monro also teamed up with American star arrangers Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
and Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
and leading British bandleader Ted Heath
Ted Heath (bandleader)
Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records...
, for concerts broadcast by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
In 1973 Monro released a vocal version of the popular Van der Valk TV-series theme titled "And You Smiled". It was his final hit. In 1977 he recorded "If I Never Sing Another Song", which became a latter-day standard among his contemporaries, its lyrics referring to the "heyday" of fan mail, awards, and other trappings of celebrity that had faded for them.
Hit Albums
| Year | Album | Peak positions | Certifications† |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
BPI (UK) British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
||
| 1965 | I Have Dreamed | 20 | N/A |
| 1966 | This Is The Life | 25 | N/A |
| 1967 | Invitation To The Movies | 30 | N/A |
| 1980 | Heartbreakers | 5 | Gold |
| 1982 | Matt Monro - The Very Best Of Matt Monro | — | Gold |
| 2005 | The Ultimate | 7 | Gold |
| 2007 | From Matt With Love | 30 | — |
| 2010 | The Greatest | 28 | — |
† Before 1973 the BPI did not have an album/single certified award scheme.
Hit Singles
| Year | Single | Peak positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US | ||||||||
| 1960 | Portrait Of My Love | 3 | — | ||||||
| 1961 | My Kind Of Girl | 5 | 18 | ||||||
| Why Not Now? / Can This Be Love | 24 | 92 | |||||||
| Gonna Build A Mountain | 44 | — | |||||||
| 1962 | Softly As I Leave You / Is There Anything I Can Do | 10 | — | ||||||
| When Love Comes Along | 46 | — | |||||||
| My Love And Devotion | 29 | — | |||||||
| 1963 | From Russia With Love | 20 | — | ||||||
| 1964 | Walk Away | 4 | 23 | ||||||
| For Mama | 23 | 135 | |||||||
| 1965 | Without You (I Cannot Live) | 37 | 101 | ||||||
| Yesterday | 8 | — | |||||||
| 1966 | Born Free / Other People | — | 126 | ||||||
| 1973 | And You Smiled | 28 | — | ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that failed to chart/were not released | |||||||||
Marriages
He was married twice:- Iris 1953 (divorced); one son Mitchell (died 2004)
- Mickie Schuller born 19. July 1933 in Berlin, died 25th, February 2010 aged 76 in Middlesex, England (bone cancer) married 1959-1985; one daughter Michele and one son Matt Monro, Jr.Matt Monro, Jr.Matthew Frederick Monro , is the son of the English singer Matt Monro and is a singer in his own right, often performing his father's work....