LAURIE JOHNSON

(7 February 1927 - 16 January 2024)

The English composer, conductor, arranger and bandleader Laurie Johnson, who specialised in music for films and television, has died aged 96. He had a long and very productive career and was recognised as one of the best arrangers in the music business, especially for big-band jazz and pop music. Many will have heard his music without realising he wrote it. He worked a lot for the Keith-Prowse-Maurice organisation, or the KPM, originally a division of EMI which merged with EMI’s company Musichouse.

Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson was born in Hampstead, north London. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams. During his years in the Coldstream Guards, he played the French horn, before joining the world of band leaders Ted Heath and Jack Parnell among others, for whom he arranged their music. In 1959 he wrote a musical adaptation of Henry Fielding’s play Rape Upon Rape which surfaced with Lionel Bart’s lyrics at London’s Mermaid Theatre as Lock Up Your Daughters and ran for over 300 performances. It was subsequently revived at the Mermaid and ran for more than twice the original performances. It never reached Broadway but was filmed without the songs. He later wrote music for the Harry Secombe musical The Four Musketeers at Drury Lane.

Laurie Johnson continued writing for the KPM Music Library, covering both light orchestral and big band jazz arrangements, some of which were issued as commercial recordings. He had hits with ‘Sucu Sucu’, the theme music for the TV series Top Secret and his music became an ever-present addition to This Is Your Life, The Avengers, Jason King and The Professionals, etc, as memorable theme tunes. Perhaps the most memorable would be ‘Las Vegas’ for the Johnny Morris children’s show Animal Magic.

Johnson wrote some thirty film scores including J. Lee Thompson’s The Good Companions, from the Priestley novel, and Thompson’s Tiger Bay which introduced Hayley Mills, and David MacDonald’s The Moonraker, from Arthur Watkyn’s play. Films in the 1960s had music by Johnson for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove, H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon, Michael Winner’s You Must Be Joking!, And Soon the Darkness, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, The Belstone Fox, The Maids, Hedda and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet.

Johnson was honoured by having many of his early compositions re-issued by Unicorn-Kanchana, including The Royal Tour, The Wind in the Willows and Symphony – Synthesis which involved both jazz and symphony orchestras plus jazz icons – not to mention the London Philharmonic. He also issued CDs of the film music of Dmitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann. His To the Few marked the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and later on he toured with The London Big Band with great professional artists and released albums of their recordings.

Laurie Johnson married his wife Doris in 1957, they lived in London and had a daughter, Sarah. His autobiography, Noises in the Head, was published in 2000 and in 2015 he retired to the West Country. He received the MBE in 2014 for his services to music, a well-deserved award for a lifetime of producing popular music for a world audience. His music will always be appreciated wherever his film compositions are heard, where his concert music is performed and where his collection of library music is used for giving visual performances a musical boost.

MICHAEL DARVELL