Monty Noserovitch

Monty Noserovitch was born in the East End of London to Jewish immigrant parents from Latvia and served in the Royal Air Force. In the 1950s, he sang with big bands including Cyril Stapleton and Ted Heath before turning to songwriting. He achieved major West End success composing musicals, including Irma la Douce (1958) which transferred to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination, and The Crooked Mile.

In 1962, film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman hired Norman to score the first James Bond film, Dr. No. Adapting a melody he had previously written for an unproduced musical based on V.S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas ("Bad Sign, Good Sign"), Norman reworked the rhythm into the swaggering, twangy guitar riff orchestrated by John Barry. The "James Bond Theme" became the most famous movie theme in cinematic history, accompanying twenty-five official Bond films. Norman defended his authorship in successful high-court libel cases, receiving royalties for life.