Stanley Black (14 June 1913 – 27 November 2002) was an English bandleader, … Read Full Bio ↴Stanley Black (14 June 1913 – 27 November 2002) was an English bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label (including London and Phase 4). Beginning with jazz collaborations with American musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter during the 1930s, he moved into arranging and recording in the Latin American music style and also won awards for his classical conducting.

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.

My Foolish Heart
Stanley Black Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The night is like a lovely tune
Beware my foolish heart
How white the ever constant moon
Take care my foolish heart

There's a line between love and fascination
That's hard to see, how many names such as this
For they both have the very same sensation

When you're locked in the magic of a kiss

Her lips are much too close to mine
Beware my foolish heart
But should our eager lips combine
Then let the fire start

For this time it isn't fascination
Or a dream that will fade and fall apart

It's love, this time it's love
My foolish heart

Overall Meaning

These lyrics in Stanley Black's song, "My Foolish Heart," depict the fear and uncertainty that often accompanies love. The night is described as a "lovely tune," while the ever-present moon is "constant." However, the listener is warned to beware of their "foolish heart" and to "take care" in matters of love.

The second verse goes on to explore the fine line between love and fascination, and how the two can often be confused. The sensation of being in love and being fascinated by someone can feel very similar, especially when one is "locked in the magic of a kiss." The singer expresses concern about the closeness of their love interest's lips, but at the same time, acknowledges the potential for a "fire" to be ignited should they "combine."

By the end of the song, the singer admits that what they are feeling is, in fact, love rather than mere fascination. They declare that "this time it's love," but the repeated reminders to "beware" and "take care" illustrate the cautious nature of falling in love and how such vulnerability can leave an individual feeling foolish.

Line by Line Meaning

The night is like a lovely tune
The night feels like a beautiful melody

Beware my foolish heart
Be aware that my heart might lead me astray

How white the ever constant moon
The moon shines bright and steady

Take care my foolish heart
Be careful not to be deceived by my own heart's desires

There's a line between love and fascination
It's hard to distinguish between the feelings of love and infatuation

That's hard to see, how many names such as this
There are many names for these types of feelings

For they both have the very same sensation
Both feelings create a similar sensation

When you're locked in the magic of a kiss
When you're under the spell of a kiss

Her lips are much too close to mine
Her lips are dangerously close to mine

But should our eager lips combine
But if we give in to our desires and kiss

Then let the fire start
Then let the passion begin