Don Black (lyricist) - Film Work

Film Work

Black's first film work was the lyrics for the theme of the James Bond entry Thunderball (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.