Wikipedia

Johnny Douglas (conductor)

Johnny Douglas(19 June 1920 – 20 April 2003) was an English composer, pianist,musical director,conductor, and stringarrangerprimarily working withfilm scoresand orchestras.[1][2]He recorded more 500 tracks forDecca Records,over 80 albums forRCA Records,and provided music for 36 films during his career.[1][3][4]He was nominated for a BAFTA for his soundtrack for the 1970 filmThe Railway Children[5]and led RCA'SLiving Stringsfor many years.[1][6][2]In addition to films, Douglas composed and conducted music for television series includingSpider-Man and His Amazing Friends,[7][8]Dungeons & Dragons,[9]The Incredible Hulk,[10]G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero,[11][12]andThe Transformers.[5]

Johnny Douglas
Birth nameJohn Henry Douglas
Born19 June 1920
Hackney,London, England
Died20 April 2003(2003-04-20)(aged 82)
Bognor Regis,West Sussex,England
GenresEasy listening
InstrumentPiano
Years active1939–2003
LabelsDulcima Records
RCA Records
Capitol Records

Early years

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John Henry Douglas was born in theHackneydistrict of London, England on 19 June 1920, the eldest of two sons.[13]In Douglas' early years, the family moved toBermondsey,another district of London, where his mother May was a housewife and his father John was later analdermanfor theWest Bermondsey Council.[10]He showed an innate talent for music at a very young age; by two and a half, he couldplaya song he had heard on one of his father's records on the piano.[4]At four, he started taking piano lessons and by 10, he was studying instruments andtranspositions.[1][13][6]By 12, he was arranging and writing music.[13][6]

Douglas attendedSt. Olaves & St. Saviourson a government scholarship.[1][6]At 13, he formed a dance band with his school friends which gained enough local reputation to win several awards.[1]Following school, he worked as an accounts clerk and continued playing with his band.[13][6]He joined theRoyal Air Force,where he formed his owndance band.[1][6]An arm injury prevented him from playing piano for about two years following the war, during which he concentrated on arranging and composing.[6][1]

Career

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Douglas' first professional appearance as with the Neville Hughes Sextet in 1939 as a pianist inLondon's West End.[1][6]Following his time in the war, he reached out to popularbandleadersand heard back fromGeorge Elrick,who hired him as a staff arranger.[6][13]He arranged a number of BBC programs and for many famous bands includingBert Ambrose,Ted Heath,andEdmundo Ros.[6][1]He also worked as an arranger for and pianist with theCyril Stapleton Band.[1][6]Douglas won a Jazz Jamboree Award fromMelody Makermagazine in 1944 for "best arrangement/composition for [a] dance band."[6]

He joined amusic publisherin 1948 as a staff arranger and began writing for orchestras rather than dance bands.[1][6][13]In 1953, he started scoring and conducting vocal backings forDecca,his first hit beingTex Ritter'sHigh Noon.[6][1]With Decca, he recorded over 500 titles, backed musicians such asAl Martino,and served as musical director for a number of hits.[13][14][1]In 1958, he was invited to conduct a 61-person orchestra, with whom he played his own arrangements, atKingsway Hallin London.[2][6]That same year, he also became the main scorer forRCA'sLiving Stringsseries.[1][6][2]He subsequently began working withEthel GabrielofNew York City's branch of RCA.[15][1]During this 25-year partnership, he scored and conducted more than 80 albums and received agold discforFeelings,aLiving Stringsrecord.[1][6][2]

Douglas' broadcasting career began in 1955 withBBC,where he hosted the programmeIn the Still of the Night,which featured his own orchestra, the Johnny Douglas Orchestra[16][1][14][5]In the 1960s, as he began moving towards film scoring, he hosted another radio show calledSwing Songand arranged for stars such asShirley Jones,Howard Keel,Vera Lynn,andShirley Bassey.[5][13]He won an award at theCannes Film Festivalfor his work on the filmThe Traitors(1962) and was nominated for aBAFTAforThe Railway Children.[4][1][14][6]He conducted theRoyal Philharmonic Orchestrafor the filmDulcima(1971) and worked on 21 films forThe Scales of Justice.[13][6]During the 1970s, Douglas was a frequent guest onBBC Radio 2programmes such asOpen House,Top Tunes,After Seven,The Terry Wogan Show,andCharlie Chester'sSunday Soapbox.[14][1][5]

In 1983, Douglas startedDulcima Records,a record label producingdigitally recordedeasy listening albums with different artists and with his own orchestra.[3][1][6][13]The name comes from the1971 filmof the same title for which he had written the score.[1]By the end of 1999, he had written and conducted his first twosymphonic poems,The ConquestandThe Aftermath,both recorded by an orchestra composed of his friends and colleagues.[1][14][13]

Death and legacy

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Douglas died at his home inBognor Regison 20 April 2003 after several years of battlingprostate cancer.[14]He was survived by his wife, Marion, and two daughters, Norma and Martine, and three grandchildren; his son Martin preceded him in death in 1988.[1][10][5]Douglas was married four times during his life.[10]

Following his death, Dulcima Records licensed past recordings Douglas worked on throughout his career, the ninth of which was music fromThe Railway Children.[13]In 2008, Dulcima acquired the rights fromSony Musicand began releasing hisLiving Stringsalbums.[13]

Filmography

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Douglas composed, arranged and conducted for the following selected films:

Films released postmortem include:A Cinderella Story(2004),[12]Laws of Attraction(2004),[12]Trick 'r Treat,(2009)[12]andPlaying for Keeps(2012).[12]

Collaborators

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During his career, Douglas worked with a range of musical artists, includingShirley Abicair,[18]Moira Anderson,[19]Bert Ambrose,[1]Shirley Bassey,[1][5]Stanley Black,[13]John Boulter,[20]June Bronhill,[16][1][21]Max Bygraves,[1]Frank Chacksfield,[13]Billy Cotton,[1]Cyril Stapleton Band,[1]Maggie Fitzgibbon,[16]Susan Hampshire,[13]Ted Heath,[1]Anne Heywood,[18]Vince Hill,[22]Frankie Howerd,[1][18]David Hughes[16]Neville Jason,[16][21]The Johnston Brothers,[18]Shirley Jones,[5]Howard Keel,[5]Elizabeth Larner,[16][23]Barbara Leigh,[16]Joe Lossm[6]Vera Lynn,[1][18][13]Ken Mackintosh,[24]Mantovani,[1][6]Alfred Marks,[13]Al Martino,[1][14][18]Chas McDevitt,[18]Kenneth McKellar,[1][13]Mike Preston,[18]Joan Regan,[6][18]Tex Ritter,[6][1]Malcolm Roberts,[13]Edmundo Ros,[1]Patricia Routledge,[13]Lita Roza,[6][18][13]Mike Sammes,[23][18]Harry Secombe,[1][13]Semprini,[13]Anne Shelton,[1][13]Barbra Streisand,[1]Jimmy Tarbuck,[13]Vico Torriani,[18]Dickie Valentine,[6][18]Frankie Vaughan,[1]David Whitfield,[25]Eric Winstone,[13]Mark Wynter,[13]Yana,[26]andJimmy Young[13]

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References

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  1. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoapaqarasatauMcDonald, Tim (23 April 2003)."Johnny Douglas".The Guardian.Retrieved20 February2022.
  2. ^abcde"Musical Kaleidoscope – Volume 1".Robert Farnon Society. 2007.Retrieved20 February2022.
  3. ^ab"Timeless talent. Sensational scores. Magical music".Dulcima Records. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  4. ^abc"Composer and musical arranger who worked with the biggest names in light entertainment".The Times.25 April 2003.Retrieved20 February2022.
  5. ^abcdefghi"Railway Children composer dies".The Argus. 21 April 2003.Retrieved20 February2022.
  6. ^"Spiderman And His Amazing Friends".Dulcima Records. 2021.Retrieved20 February2022.
  7. ^"Spider-Man/Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Music".Cartoonopolis. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  8. ^Doody, Declan (8 September 2018)."Dungeons And Dragons Theme – Johnny Douglas".The Arcade.Retrieved20 February2022.
  9. ^abcd"Johnny Douglas".The Independent.24 April 2003.Archivedfrom the original on 14 June 2022.Retrieved20 February2022.
  10. ^"'G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero' Soundtrack Album Released ".Film Music Reporter. 21 November 2020.Retrieved20 February2022.
  11. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy"Johnny Douglas".Turner Classic Movies. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  12. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacCamby, Norma (2009)."JOHNNY DOUGLAS BIOGRAPHY".Percy Faith.Retrieved20 February2022.
  13. ^abcdefg"Composer Johnny Douglas dies".BBC. 21 April 2003.Retrieved20 February2022.
  14. ^McArdle, Terence (12 April 2021)."Ethel Gabriel, trailblazing producer and executive at RCA Records, dies at 99".Washington Post.Retrieved20 February2022.
  15. ^abcdefg"Keeping Track - Dateline March 2005".Robert Farnon Society. 2005.Retrieved20 February2022.
  16. ^abcdefghijklm"Johnny Douglas".BFI Filmography. n.d. Archived fromthe originalon 21 February 2022.Retrieved20 February2022.
  17. ^abcdefghijklm"Johnny Douglas [GB1]".Secondhand Songs. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  18. ^"Moira in Love".Dulcina Records. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  19. ^"Carl Gresham's unbelivable singles collection".Carl Gresham. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  20. ^ab"Noël Coward Collection"(PDF).University of Birmingham. 2019.Retrieved20 February2022.
  21. ^"The Railway Children – (Music from the Motion Picture)".Vince Hill. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  22. ^"Ken Mackintosh (1925–2014)".National Jazz Archive. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  23. ^"David Whitfield - Accompaniment directed by Johnny Douglas".Secondhand Songs. n.d.Retrieved20 February2022.
  24. ^"Gossip"(PDF).World Radio History. 1956.Retrieved20 February2022.
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