Vintage Rock Presents - The Beatles - UK (2021-02 & 2021-03)

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John Barry

It had taken until the end of 1958 – Duane

Eddy’s Rebel Rouser – for teenagers to

be taken seriously, and for rock’n’roll in

Britain to garner chart success. Only in 1960

did Barry and his band begin to have hits.

Their Columbia debut Hit And Miss, the

catchy theme tune Barry composed for TV’s

seminal Juke Box Jury show, kicked off the

new era. A cover of the Johnny Smith song

Walk Don’t Run, and Flick’s inspired, guitar-

licking cover of the western The Magnificent

Seven soon followed. Barry was also busy

moonlighting as Johnny Prendry and

arranging songs for other acts such as young

Decca trio, The Barry Sisters (no relation).

From 1959-62, he was employed by EMI

arranging orchestral accompaniments

for the company’s artists and mentoring

upcoming sensation Adam Faith. “Of all the

people involved in my career, he was the

most significant,” Faith later observed. His

musical style was totally moulded by Barry

and the result was 12 Top 20 entries in three

years. Barry arranged Faith’s first No.1,

What Do You Want?, with its pizzicato

strings in the style of Buddy Holly’s

It Doesn’t Matter Anymore. Amidst the

material written for Faith, Barry also penned

his first score: 1960’s flick Beat Girl.

At 29, John Barry was already a veteran

of ‘va voom’ tracks with high production

values. He had also perfected his own

distinct, heavily reverbed, twangy trademark

sound: ‘stringbeat’. The term became

the title of Barry’s debut solo LP in 1961

• a daring showcase of 15 original tracks.

Left to right: Les Reed, Vic Flick
and Mike Peters get a tune out
of a Univox portable keyboard

John Barry with Eddie Cochran,

Adam Faith and Gene Vincent in 1960