During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet.

He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves (1990) and Out of Africa (1985), as well as the scores of The Scarlet Letter (1995), Chaplin (1992), The Cotton Club (1984), Game of Death (1972), The Tamarind Seed (1974), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) and the theme for the television series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years.

Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year.

His mother, a classical pianist, was English; his Irish father, John Xavier "Jack" Prendergast from Cork, was a projectionist during the silent film era and later owned a chain of cinemas across northern England.

[5][6][7] As a result of his father's work, Barry was raised in and around cinemas in northern England[5] and he later stated that this childhood background influenced his musical tastes and interests.

[6] Barry spent his national service in the British Army playing the trumpet, working from a correspondence course with jazz composer Bill Russo.

[9] After national service he worked as an arranger for the orchestras of Jack Parnell and Ted Heath,[10] forming his own band, the John Barry Seven,[11] in 1957.

The John Barry Seven recorded hit records on EMI's Columbia label including "Hit and Miss", the theme tune he composed for the BBC's Juke Box Jury programme; a cover of the Johnny Smith song "Walk Don't Run"; and a cover of the theme for the United Artists western The Magnificent Seven.

[15] These achievements caught the attention of the producers of a new film called Dr. No (1962) who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman.

[citation needed] He was one of the first to employ synthesizers in a film score (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, also 1969),[18] and to make wide use of pop artists and songs in Midnight Cowboy.

[19] Because Barry provided not just the main title theme but the complete soundtrack score, his music often enhanced the critical reception of a film, notably in Midnight Cowboy, The Tamarind Seed, the first remake of King Kong (1976), Out of Africa (1985), and Dances with Wolves (1990).

The theme was a hit single in many European countries (including France, Germany, and the Benelux states), contributing to the cult status of the series in Europe, and the record featured Barry's The Girl with the Sun in Her Hair on the B side, an instrumental piece featured in a long running TV advert for Sunsilk shampoo.

Barry also wrote the scores to a number of musicals, including the 1965 Passion Flower Hotel (lyrics by Trevor Peacock), the successful 1974 West End show Billy (lyrics by Don Black),[21] and two intended Broadway musicals that never opened on Broadway, Lolita, My Love (1971), with Alan Jay Lerner as lyricist, and The Little Prince and the Aviator (1981), again with lyricist Don Black.

Barry also contributed indirectly to the soundtrack of the spoof version of Casino Royale (1967): his Born Free theme appears briefly in the opening sequence.

Barry's love for the Russian romantic composers is often reflected in his music; in his Bond scores he unites this with brass-heavy jazz writing.

His use of strings, lyricism, half-diminished chords and complex key shifting provides melancholy contrast; in his scores this is often heard in variations of the title songs that are used to underscore plot development.

Both A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights theme by A-ha blended the pop music style of the bands with Barry's orchestration.

In 2006, A-ha's Pal Waaktaar complimented Barry's contributions: "I loved the stuff he added to the track, I mean it gave it this really cool string arrangement.

Almost all of the tracks were Barry compositions, and the revision of his work met with his approval – he contacted Barbara Broccoli, producer of the then upcoming Tomorrow Never Dies, to recommend Arnold as the film's composer.

[30] Arnold also went on to score four subsequent Bond films: The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

[50] Also wrote the theme for raise the titanic much under rated too Barry worked on the soundtracks for the following James Bond films (title song collaborators in brackets): In addition, a brief excerpt from the song "Born Free" is heard during a sequence in the non-EON Productions Bond film, Casino Royale (1967).