Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE CHARTS - 1976
Song that entered the charts : " Nadia's Theme "
Performed by : Perry Botkin Jr & Barry De Vorzon
Highest chart position : 8
Nadia was Nadia Comaneci, a 14 year old Olympic gymnast who received a perfect score. The theme was also used in " The Young And The Restless" - a daily TV soap opera.
RON GOODWIN
Ron Goodwin learned to play the piano from the age of five. When he was nine the family returned to London, and at Willesden County Grammar School he took up the trumpet and joined the school band.
When War broke out, the family moved to Harrow, and Ron transferred to Pinner County Grammar School, where he formed his own band, The Woodchoppers. In 1943, after a brief spell as an insurance clerk, he joined the arranging department of music publisher Campbell, Connelly & Co. There he received invaluable help from arranger Harry G. Stafford, and he also took private conducting lessons from Siegfried de Chabot, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music. He subsequently worked as an arranger for Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services and played trumpet for Harry Gold and His Pieces of Eight. In 1945 he became head of the arranging department at Bron Associated Publishers, and very soon he was arranging for bands of the day including those of Ted Heath and Geraldo and the BBC Dance Orchestra. From 1949 Ron Goodwin conducted for the Polygon company, arranging and conducting recordings of Petula Clark and Jimmy Young, including the latter’s 1951 UK no 1 hit ‘Too Young’. He then began an association with George Martin of Parlophone Records, which from 1953 saw him arranging and conducting more than 300 recordings for over fifty artists,
He simultaneously made his own series of recordings and broadcasts as Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra, and in addition began to compose scores for documentary films at Merton Park Studios.
He really made his name with the wider public with the film 633 Squadron, producing an ingenious main theme featuring six fast beats and three slow beats.
Music for Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) cemented Ron Goodwin’s high public profile, as did that for Battle of Britain (1969). Others of over sixty feature films to use his music included The Trap (1966), which featured Oliver Reed and had a theme that became widely familiar through television coverage of the London marathon. Ron also composed the scores for Where Eagles Dare (1969), Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972) and Force Ten from Navarone (1978).
Meanwhile Ron Goodwin’s highly successful LP albums on the Studio Two label, models of good taste in their integration of elements of jazz and swing into the classical orchestral format, earned him a gold disc to mark the sale of a million albums. In 1970 he first appeared as guest conductor of leading orchestras, with a repertory combining current popular music and film themes and with his own linking anecdotes. These concerts proved hugely popular, leading to invitations to conduct across the world.
Goodwin earned three Ivor Novello Awards, including a lifetime achievement award.
CHEROKEE
"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a jazz standard written by Ray Noble and published in 1938. It was originally intended as the first of five movements for an "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue).
MHO
A "bigger than life" rendition of this famous standard with Maestro Goodwin firmly in control of his musicians. The arrangement is intense, high profile and above all, highly entertaining.
Hope you'll enjoy our theme presentation entitled "Where Is The Magic". Take it away Maestro !
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE CHARTS - 1976
Song that entered the charts : " Nadia's Theme "
Performed by : Perry Botkin Jr & Barry De Vorzon
Highest chart position : 8
Nadia was Nadia Comaneci, a 14 year old Olympic gymnast who received a perfect score. The theme was also used in " The Young And The Restless" - a daily TV soap opera.
RON GOODWIN
Ron Goodwin learned to play the piano from the age of five. When he was nine the family returned to London, and at Willesden County Grammar School he took up the trumpet and joined the school band.
When War broke out, the family moved to Harrow, and Ron transferred to Pinner County Grammar School, where he formed his own band, The Woodchoppers. In 1943, after a brief spell as an insurance clerk, he joined the arranging department of music publisher Campbell, Connelly & Co. There he received invaluable help from arranger Harry G. Stafford, and he also took private conducting lessons from Siegfried de Chabot, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music. He subsequently worked as an arranger for Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services and played trumpet for Harry Gold and His Pieces of Eight. In 1945 he became head of the arranging department at Bron Associated Publishers, and very soon he was arranging for bands of the day including those of Ted Heath and Geraldo and the BBC Dance Orchestra. From 1949 Ron Goodwin conducted for the Polygon company, arranging and conducting recordings of Petula Clark and Jimmy Young, including the latter’s 1951 UK no 1 hit ‘Too Young’. He then began an association with George Martin of Parlophone Records, which from 1953 saw him arranging and conducting more than 300 recordings for over fifty artists,
He simultaneously made his own series of recordings and broadcasts as Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra, and in addition began to compose scores for documentary films at Merton Park Studios.
He really made his name with the wider public with the film 633 Squadron, producing an ingenious main theme featuring six fast beats and three slow beats.
Music for Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) cemented Ron Goodwin’s high public profile, as did that for Battle of Britain (1969). Others of over sixty feature films to use his music included The Trap (1966), which featured Oliver Reed and had a theme that became widely familiar through television coverage of the London marathon. Ron also composed the scores for Where Eagles Dare (1969), Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972) and Force Ten from Navarone (1978).
Meanwhile Ron Goodwin’s highly successful LP albums on the Studio Two label, models of good taste in their integration of elements of jazz and swing into the classical orchestral format, earned him a gold disc to mark the sale of a million albums. In 1970 he first appeared as guest conductor of leading orchestras, with a repertory combining current popular music and film themes and with his own linking anecdotes. These concerts proved hugely popular, leading to invitations to conduct across the world.
Goodwin earned three Ivor Novello Awards, including a lifetime achievement award.
CHEROKEE
"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a jazz standard written by Ray Noble and published in 1938. It was originally intended as the first of five movements for an "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue).
MHO
A "bigger than life" rendition of this famous standard with Maestro Goodwin firmly in control of his musicians. The arrangement is intense, high profile and above all, highly entertaining.
Hope you'll enjoy our theme presentation entitled "Where Is The Magic". Take it away Maestro !
