Stanley Black

Stanley Black (14 June 1913 – 27 November 2002) was an English bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores, recording prolifically for the Decca label (including their subsidiaries London and Phase 4). Beginning with jazz collaborations with American musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter during the 1930s, Black moved into arranging and recording in the Latin American music style, and also won awards for his classical conducting.

Life and career Black was born as Solomon Schwartz on 14 June 1913 in Whitechapel, England. He began piano lessons at the age of seven and trained in piano and composition under Rae Robertson at the Matthay School of Music. He was aged only 12 when his first classical composition was broadcast on BBC Radio. His first professional job was for a C.B. Cochran 1930 theatrical revue followed by winning a Melody Maker competition for his arrangement of a jazz chorus the next year.

In the early 1930s, he was employed in dance bands, and had worked with Howard Jacobs, Joe Orlando, Lew Stone, Maurice Winnick and Teddy Joyce by the time he joined Harry Roy in 1936. Black later presented his own programmes on radio and television, including Black Magic and The Marvellous World of Stanley Black.

Black died in London, aged 89, on 27 November 2002.

Works Black is remembered for writing numerous scores for radio, television and cinema, including the theme-tune for The Goon Show.

Other films he composed scores for include Laughter in Paradise (1951), The Naked Truth (1957), Blood of the Vampire (1958), Too Many Crooks (1958), The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), West 11 (1963), The System (1964), Crossplot (1969), and the Cliff Richard musicals The Young Ones (1961) and his orchestral backing for Richard's follow up, Summer Holiday (1962), which won him an Ivor Novello Award. His work also became familiar to millions of cinema audiences as a consequence of his theme tune and music library for Pathé News, written in 1960.

He also recorded many classical works, including collections of Tchaikovsky and George Gershwin. In 1965 he won a Gramophone Award for his version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol. In addition, he arranged and conducted many commercially successful albums on LP and later CD like Tropical Moonlight, Cuban Moonlight, Black Magic, and series of Film Spectacular and Broadway Spectacular for Decca.

Selected discography The Cash Box Instrumental Hits, London LL158 Plays for Latin Lovers, London LL248 Jerome Kern's Symphonic Suite, London LL579 Berlin Suite, London LL811 Some Enchanted Evening, London LL1098 Dancing in the Dark, London LL1099 Carnival in the Sun, London LL1100 (1955) Festival in Costa Rica, London LL1101 Music for Romance, London LL1149 (1955) Cuban Moonlight, London LL1166 (1956) Music of Richard Rodgers, London LL1209 Plays for Latin Lovers, London LL1248 The Night Was Made for Love, London LL1307 Summer Evening Serenade, London LL1332 The Music of Lecuona, London LL1438 (1958) Music of Cole Porter, London LL1565 Red Velvet, London LL1592 (1956) Tropical Moonlight, London LL1615 (1957) Moonlight Cocktail, London LL1709 (Dec 1957) Place Pigalle, London LL1742 (1957) Sophisticate in Cuba, London LL 1781 (1958) The All Time Top Tangos, London PS 176 (1959) More Top Tangos, Decca SKL 4812 Gershwin Goes Latin, London PS 206 (1960) Ravel - Bolero, London Phase 4 SPC 21003 Rhapsody in Blue, London Phase 4 21009 Spectacular Dances for Orchestra, London Phase 4 SP 21020 Overture!, London Phase 4 21028 Great Rhapsodies, London Phase 4 21030 Exotic Percussion, London Phase 4 SP 44004 (1962) (No. 30 US) Spain, London Phase 4 SP 44016 (1963) (No. 33 US) Film Spectacular, London Phase 4 SP 44025 (1963) (No. 50 US) Film Spectacular Vol.2, London Phase 4 SP 44031 Music of a People, London Phase 4 SP 44060 (1965) (No. 148 US) Broadway Spectacular, London Phase 4 SP 44071 Russia, London Phase 4 SP 44075 Film Spectacular Vol.3, London Phase 4 SP 44078 Broadway Blockbusters, London Phase 4 44088 Dimensions in Sound, London Phase 4 SP 44105 (1968) Fiddler on the Roof, London Phase 4 44121 Film Spectacular Vol. 4, London Phase 4 44173 Rhapsody in Blue, London Phase 4 21009 Digital Spectacular!, London LDP 30001 Film Spectacular Vol. 5, London Phase 4 SP 44225 South of the Border, London: Richmond B 20003 Melodies of Love, London: Richmond B20004 Music of Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin, London: Richmond B20011 Accent on Romance, London: Richmond B 20024

Selected filmography

Dual Alibi (1947) It Always Rains on Sunday (1948) The Fatal Night (1948) Laughter in Paradise (1951) Escape by Night (1953) The Naked Truth (1957) Blood of the Vampire (1958) The Trollenberg Terror (1958) Further Up the Creek (1958) Too Many Crooks (1958) Make Mine a Million (1959) Jack the Ripper (1959) The Battle of the Sexes (1959) Hand in Hand (1960) The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) Hell Is a City (1960) Sands of the Desert (1960) The Siege of Sidney Street (1960) The Full Treatment (1960) The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961) House of Mystery (1961) Double Bunk (1961) The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) The Pot Carriers (1962) Maniac (1963) 80,000 Suspects (1963) West 11 (1963) The System (1964) Rattle of a Simple Man (1964) City Under the Sea (1965) Crossplot (1969) Valentino (1977)