Over the course of a six-decade long-career, songwriter Don Black has done it all, from extensive work in musical theatre to writing lyrics for everyone from Meat Loaf to Quincy Jones to Robbie Williams.
He’s also penned the words to no less than five Bond themes – Diamonds Are Forever, Thunderball, The Man With The Golden Gun, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough – and in a new interview in the Telegraph, was asked about the possibility of being asked to do the new one. Now, aged 88, he’s realistic about his chances.
“I’d be thrilled,” he says. “But lately, it’s always gone to whoever’s popular. So I’m sure the next one will have Harry Styles or Taylor Swift or something. That’s probably how it’ll go.”
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Indeed. Billie Eilish and Finneas wrote the No Time To Die theme in 2021. Before that, Spectre was given to Sam Smith and Skyfall fell to Adele.
Black also bemoaned the royalty rates he gets from streaming services, describing what he receives as “a terrible rate, there’s no question about it”.
Talking in general, he cited the example of a friend and colleague, the late Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the lyrics to I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.
Describing the song as a Number One “everywhere”, Black said: “I said to him, ‘You must be making a fortune.’ It was a billion hits or something silly like that. And he got £1,500. That’s all you need to know.”
Black worked with John Barry on three of his Bond themes – Man With The Golden Gun, Thunderball and Diamonds Are Forever. Regarding the latter, he remembers Bond producer Harry Saltzman initially raised objections to his lyrics: “He thought it was too sexy. Well, he thought it was filthy – ‘touch it, stroke it and undress it,’” Apparently, it was Barry who defended his colleague, asking Saltzman “What do you know about songs?”
