There can be no doubt, pop lyricists are truly the unsung heroes of the songwriting world. Billions of people know Elton John’s tunes but, when they’re singing along, do they appreciate the words embedded in their brains and coming out of their mouths are actually the work of master wordsmith Bernie Taupin? Broadway superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber’s name now appears above every one of his titles but, unlike Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe or Kander and Ebb, these days his lyricist’s names most often appear on a lower and separate line. What too often seems to be lost when people talk about Sir Andrew is that, without Tim Rice, there’s no “crying for Argentina“, without Trevor Nunn and T.S. Elliot there’s no questioning of whether the moon has lost her “Memory” and without legendary lyricist Don Black, there’s no “Unexpected Song” or “Sunset Boulevard“.

Don Black began his creative life as a stand up comedian, he has said he “wrote his first song waiting for a laugh in Manchester“. His first musical for the stage, Maybe That’s Your Problem, dealt with the misfortunes of premature ejaculation and was, as you might imagine, less than successful. Still, it was only a few years later that his lifetime collaboration with celebrated film composer John Barry began, when Barry first approached Black about putting some words to the theme he’d written for the feature length documentary Born Free. That collaboration lead to an Academy Award for the composer and lyricist and established Don Black as the go-to-guy when Hollywood was in need of some words to sing with the tunes. What followed were several James Bond title songs, written once again with Barry, and the monster hits Lulu’s To Sir, With Love and the only song ever written about that “special relationship” between a boy and his rat, Ben, which Michael Jackson took to the top of the pop charts in 1972.

In the many years since, Black has collaborated with some of the greatest living composers of our time. That long and impressive list includes; Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Jule Styne, Charles Strouse, Michel Legrand and Marvin Hamlisch. With Andrew Lloyd Webber he has worked on the Broadway musicals, Tell Me on a Sunday/ Song and Dance, Aspects of Love, Starlight Express, Whistle Down the Wind and the Tony Winning Sunset Boulevard. Most recently Don Black worked with composer Frank Wildhorn on the Broadway musicals Dracula and Bonnie and Clyde and, just last month, he put words to the theme of the popular PBS series Downton Abbey which will be featured on an upcoming episode of Dancing with the Stars.

I think it’s only fitting we begin our interview today with a Don Black classic from one of his many John Barry collaborations, enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PB: Now you recently collaborated with composer Frank Wildhorn on the Broadway musical, Bonnie & Clyde,  which closed at the end of December after a very brief run. From all reports the audiences loved it, but the critics- who I am now convinced have it in for Wildhorn- were surprisingly harsh. What do you think happened there?

DB: Well, this is the real shock of my career, up until the opening night, all through the month of previews, there was a standing ovation every single performance. There were lines around the block, people raving about it and coming back, one guy saw it twenty times, people were saying, “I’ve seen it 12 times”, “I’ve seen it 10 times”, it was fantastic, and the fact that we opened to bad reviews, particularly the New York Times, really surprised us. However, it will have a happy ending I think, we opened in Japan a couple weeks ago and it was a huge success and we are definitely going to go to London, I had emails about it yesterday, they’re over there now working out a West End production and we’re hoping the rest of the world will enjoy it and, you know, we can always come back to the states.