He is the laser-sharp lyricist behind James Bond’s most stirring theme songs, the man with the Midas touch.
The Oscar-winning writer was responsible for five 007 classics: Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Surrender from Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. Such is Black’s standing in Hollywood that even Steven Spielberg was starstruck when he met the legendary songwriter. ‘The Don Black?’ gasped the director.
Maud Adams, Roger Moore and Britt Ekland in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). Don Black was responsible for five 007 classics, including this one
Black is also a lyrical legend in musical theatre. His work with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Sunset Boulevard, Aspects Of Love and Starlight Express has produced some of the genre’s most memorable moments. Next month he will receive the prestigious Olivier Special Award, joining a curtain call of previous winners including Stephen Sondheim, Harold Pinter and Alan Bennett.
His songs touch people’s lives. Love Changes Everything, written for Aspects Of Love – a number Michael Ball made his own – has become a modern-day standard.
‘I remember being in the South of France when Andrew first played the tune to me,’ Black recollects. ‘Walking around this fabulous place in Cap Ferrat with that melody playing in my head and the sentiment is true – love does change everything. If you can hit on a truth like that in a song, then you’ve done your job.’
Black is loyal to Lloyd Webber, with whom he began working in 1978. ‘I’m godfather to his son,’ says Black. ‘So he’s family. Andrew is often maligned for no reason. Probably jealousy. He is the most successful composer the world has ever known, they tell me. I read that he’s made more money than all the great songwriters combined. Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, the lot.
‘But I feel protective when critics say his music is trite or simple or familiar. He’s the most stimulating person to write with, because when he gets the right melody it’s like an archaeologist finding a lost city.’
Black is sitting in the kitchen of his elegant apartment in London’s Holland Park. He modestly claims that his job mostly involves ‘a lot of walks around parks and staring out of windows’, but this laid-back approach has won him a clutch of Ivor Novello Awards, a Golden Globe, five Academy Award nominations and, for Born Free in 1966, an Oscar.
He has recently completed his memoir, The Sanest Guy In The Room (out on June 18), which takes us from his humble East End Jewish beginnings to Tinseltown phoniness and pop-star excess.
Black was present at the birth of pop in the early Sixties. ‘I had an office next to Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, and I got very friendly with him, but I didn’t see much of the boys. I suppose they were busy.’ He later met Paul McCartney and had a good songwriter’s shop-talk. ‘He’s on his way up, that boy,’ chuckles Black, 81, who is four years Macca’s senior.
Black’s other hits include Michael Jackson’s 1972 ballad Ben, about a boy and his rat. ‘They said, “You wrote about lions for Born Free, why can’t you write about a rat?”’ tuts Black. ‘But, of course it’s not about cheese and traps, it’s about friendship.’
Legendary lyricist Don Black
When Black decamped to California for tax purposes in the mid-Seventies, Jackson became a regular visitor at his house in Bel Air. ‘Michael used to come over to play pool with my kids,’ says Black. ‘It was innocent, he was 14 and he’d be in the swimming pool with us just having a great time.’ So what happened to that young man? ‘He was so protected from real life by his father,’ he sighs. ‘His father wasn’t very nice.’
Family is sacrosanct to Black. His wife Shirley, whom he called ‘my secret weapon’, died in 2018.
‘You hear people say that their marriages had ups and downs, but we never had any downs. It was 60 years of happiness. It was such a big thing when I lost her.’
Black graciously accepts accolades. Just don’t call him a genius. ‘Genius?’ He scoffs. ‘People have told me I’m a genius,’ he says, raising a Bond-like eyebrow. ‘They don’t know what they’re bloody talking about.’
The Olivier Awards 2020 with Mastercard take place on Sunday, April 5 at the Royal Albert Hall, with highlights broadcast the same evening on ITV