I remember when I was growing up in England how incredibly popular the movie Born Free became.
To the point that, English singer Matt Monro’s ‘Born Free‘ theme song was played on British radio for years after its release. Although, oddly, the Monro’s original release of the song never did chart on the UK charts.
Matt Monro’s ‘Born Free‘ did show up on the soundtrack of the new episode of In The Dark last night though — In The Dark, Season 4, Episode 4, “Hard Pill to Swallow” — and it brought back memories for me as my grandad, who had a gorgeous singing voice, used to sing it at local men’s clubs in the UK.
The song was played on the In The Dark episode as Paula is attacking the guard, as Lesley and Paula leave and as we see Felix and Max sleeping.
Matt Monro’s ‘Born Free‘ was released in 1966, and was specifically written as the theme song for the Born Free movie.
The producers who, like movie producers everywhere often seem to have little idea of what the general public like, had the song removed from the film for its premiere showing as they didn’t believe it was popular.
Monroe and the song’s composers lobbied them to add the song back to the film’s soundtrack, and it was added back in a shorter version for the movie’s end credits.
Soon afterwards, Matt Monro’s ‘Born Free‘ won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Take that, you idiot producers.
Listen to Matt Monro’s ‘Born Free‘ from last night’s In The Dark in the video, and on the album The Very Best of Matt Monro.
Monro, who also recorded other hit themes like the theme song for the From Russia With Love film, died of liver cancer in 1985 at the age of just 54 after a 30-year long hugely successful international music career.