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.
Lullaby of Birdland
Stanley Black Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Always hear when you sigh
Never in my wordland
Could there be ways to reveal
In a phrase how I feel
Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Bill and coo when they love?
Music we make with our lips when we kiss
And there's a weepy old willow
He really knows how to cry
That's how I'd cry in my pillow
If you should tell me farewell and goodbye
Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
Kiss me sweet and we'll go
Flyin' high in Birdland
High in the sky up above
All because we're in love
The song "Lullaby of Birdland" by George Shearing and George David Weiss is a romantic and sweet song that beautifully describes the feeling of being in love with someone. The song stars with “Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I always hear when you sigh”. The singer is saying that the sound of the other person’s sigh is always soothing, like a lullaby. They are so in love that it feels like they are living in their own world "Never in my wordland Could there be ways to reveal In a phrase how I feel.” The singer continues to describe the magic of their love by comparing it to the tender sound of two turtle doves in love, "That's the kind of magic Music we make with our lips when we kiss".
The next metaphor used in the song is the “weepy old willow,” who knows how to cry. The singer reflects that they could cry the same way if their lover said farewell, which is heart-breaking when you hear this confession of how true their love is. The song is a plea whispered low to the lover to kiss them and they will fly “high in Birdland high in the sky up above all because we're in love.” The lyrics beautifully convey the emotions of being in love.
Line by Line Meaning
Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I
The melody of Birdland is always on my mind
Always hear when you sigh
I think of it whenever you sigh
Never in my wordland
In my world,
Could there be ways to reveal
No expression is sufficient
In a phrase how I feel
To describe how I feel
Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Have you ever heard the sounds
Bill and coo when they love?
Turtle doves make when they are in love?
That's the kind of magic
That's the kind of enchantment
Music we make with our lips when we kiss
The music we create by kissing
And there's a weepy old willow
There's a sad old willow tree
He really knows how to cry
It knows how to express sadness
That's how I'd cry in my pillow
How my heart would ache
If you should tell me farewell and goodbye
If you were to say goodbye
Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
Birdland's melody, whispered softly
Kiss me sweet and we'll go
Kiss me and we'll leave
Flyin' high in Birdland
Flying high in the skies of Birdland
High in the sky up above
Up above in the sky
All because we're in love
All due to our love
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tratore, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: George Shearing, George David Weiss
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind