Black was born as Solomon Schwartz on 14 June 1913 in Whitechapel, England. His parents were Polish and Romanian Jews. He began piano lessons at the age of seven. He was aged only 12 when his first composition was broadcast on BBC Radio and continued his early success by winning a Melody Maker arranging competition aged 15.
In the early 1930s he was employed as a jazz player and composer and had worked with Howard Jacobs, Joe Orlando, Lew Stone, Maurice Winnick and Teddy Joyce by the time he joined Harry Roy in 1936. He had also broadcast and recorded with several American musicians, including jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, who had first heard Black on late night radio shows with Lew Stone's band. When the two eventually met in London, the reviewer Edgar Jackson suggested they record together, and a notable collaboration is a duet version of Honeysuckle Rose.
During World War II, Black joined the Royal Air Force, and became involved in managing the entertainment of servicemen based at Wolverhampton. In 1944 he was appointed conductor of the BBC Dance Orchestra, and remained in the job for almost nine years, broadcasting as many as six nights a week.
By this time he had also begun recording under his own name for Decca. Now well involved with the film industry, he went on to compose, arrange and direct music for about 200 more films, notably after being appointed music director at Elstree Studios in 1958. He was also principal conductor of the Associated British Picture Corporation Orchestra and musical director composer of that organisation from 1958-1963.
Stanley Black's radio work kept him in contact with a large listening audience through his incidental music for shows such as Much Binding in the Marsh and the first two series of The Goon Show. He later presented his own programmes on radio and television, including Black Magic and The Marvellous World of Stanley Black.
In the early 1950s he regularly topped the Melody Maker lists of the most-heard musicians on radio. He was chosen to be included on Decca's first release of long-playing records in the UK in June 1950. This enabled him to continue his conducting, arranging and performing and resulted in a large number of albums. He was particularly popular in United States, as evidenced by his inclusion in the Billboard best-sellers lists.
During his life, he conducted many of Britain's major orchestras, and until the 1990s he was still directing regular broadcast sessions at the BBC studios, despite the onset of deafness in later life.
Stanley 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 Records.
April In Portugal
Stanley Black Lyrics
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When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too,
And madly I said: "I love you."
Too soon I heard you say:
"This dream is for a day"
That's Porugal and love in April!
Those tears I know so well,
They told me it was spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be,
That's Portugal and love in April!
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine,
But it was just the spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
The lyrics of Stanley Black's song April In Portugal describe a nostalgic and bittersweet moment of romance and disillusionment. The singer recalls finding his dream of a passionate relationship in the romantic setting of Portugal with his lover. The discovery of such love made his head go crazy, and he expressed his love intensely, madly telling his partner that he loved them. However, this romantic dream was shattered too quickly; the lover reveals that the dream was only meant to last a day. The line "That's Portugal and love in April," provides a cynical outlook on the fleeting nature of love and its transience, epitomized further by the recurring theme of spring- a season that is often associated with change and impermanence.
The lyrics also reveal a sense of heartbreak and despair when the singer realizes that the relationship was not meant to last. The rainy weather symbolizes the melancholy and despair that follows his broken heart. The singer believed that the music and wine convinced him that she was his, but it was the spring that was merely fooling him. Regardless of this sad outcome, the singer's heart still loves his partner, even though the dream they spent together has ended. Overall, the lyrics describe a nostalgic and bittersweet moment of romance and disillusionment, captured in an ephemeral way, where we can't help but believe that true love can last for a lifetime.
Line by Line Meaning
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
I discovered a beautiful dreamy experience with you during the month of April in Portugal.
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
During this time, we both experienced romance in a new and exciting way.
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too, And madly I said: "I love you."
I was so smitten with you that I was not thinking clearly and I expressed my love for you passionately.
Too soon I heard you say: "This dream is for a day"
Unfortunately, our beautiful dream began to crumble when you told me that our time together was only temporary.
That's Portugal and love in April!
This statement suggests that beautiful experiences in love, like the one we had, are fleeting and transitory, much like the beautiful but short-lived time we shared in Portugal in the month of April.
And when the showers fell, Those tears I know so well, They told me it was spring fooling me.
This line refers to bright, sunny showers that would often occur during the spring in Portugal. The tears evoke human emotions and suggest that these showers and beautiful moments were deceiving me and would not last forever.
Then morning brought the rain, And now my dream is through
This sorrowful line implies that the beautiful dream we shared ended abruptly, and reality set in like a stormy morning.
But still my heart says "I love you."
Despite our short-lived romance, my feelings for you remain strong.
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be, That's Portugal and love in April!
This highlights the fact that the beautiful moments we share when we are in love often do not last and they can become a sad reality just like our time together in Portugal in April.
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine, But it was just the spring fooling me.
The beautiful ambiance created by the music and wine made me believe that we would be together forever, but it was only the beautiful and fleeting moments of spring that had deceived me.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JIMMY KENNEDY, RAUL FERRAO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind