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News at SoundtrackCollector
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Monty Norman beats John Barry in 007-case..!
19-Mar-2001 - Mr Norman was present in court when the jury announced its unanimous verdict after some four hours' deliberation. Mr Norman said that the article, with the title "Theme tune wrangle has 007 shaken and stirred" had effectively "rubbished" his whole career.
Mr Norman's counsel, James Price QC, told the jury the newspaper claimed the famous tune owed nothing to Mr Barry except a short piece of a much-altered melody line.
Awards
The court heard that apart from Dr No, Mr Norman was credited with stage and film songs such as Expresso Bongo, Songbook and Poppy.
He has won Ivor Novello, Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier awards.
Mr Price said the article damaged his client's reputation by suggesting he had dishonestly passed himself off as the creator of the Bond theme for 35 years.
Dispute
Mark Warby, for Times Newspapers, denied libel and said the newspaper article was neutral, sensibly balanced and a classic example of a report and comment piece on a live dispute.
He said the article reported only that Mr Barry was claiming to have written the tune.
The Sunday Times alleged Barry composed Bond tune
Mr Warby said Mr Barry had been brought in six months into the project to create a more memorable tune, because Mr Norman had run out of inspiration.
Mr Warby added: "In short, it was composed by John Barry with some input from an idea by Monty Norman."
Giving evidence, Mr Barry said that the producers of Dr. No Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli had been "unhappy" with Mr Norman's efforts at a theme tune.
Flat fee
Mr Barry said that a deal was struck whereby he would receive a flat fee of £250 and Mr Norman would receive the songwriting credit.
Mr Barry said that he had had never challenged the registration of the songwriting credit with the Performing Right Society and had no intention of doing so.
He had accepted the deal with United Artists Head of Music Noel Rogers because it would help his career - and it was a "terribly good deal because the whole Bond thing took off."
Mr Barry composed soundtracks for many other Bond films as well as Born Free, Zulu and Midnight Cowboy.
Quote from Norman:
"The Sunday Times always said that they were only interested in the truth - well, now they've got the truth"
Case closed..?
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