- Best known for his "James Bond Theme" from Dr. No (1962), which is used in every James Bond Movie as part of the opening credits.
- Interviewed on television by Jonathan Ross in his 70s, he revealed that the James Bond theme, his most famous work, was in fact the tune for a song he had written for a never-produced stage musical based on V.S. Naipaul's novel, "A House For Mr. Biswas". It was his idea that the music for "Dr. No", the first Bond film, would largely consist of West Indian folk-tunes and calypsos. Whilst this is actually true of most of the music in the film, the idea was not viewed favorably by Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, which might explain why Norman did not work on any subsequent Bond movies.
- Was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award: in 1961 for the English book and lyrics, along with David Heneker and Julian More, as part of a Best Musical nomination for "Irma la Douce;" and, twenty years later, in 1981, again nominated with collaborator More as Best Book (Musical) for "The Moony Shapiro Songbook."
- He also sang in various variety shows, sharing top billing with other singers and comedy stars such as Benny Hill, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Worth, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy James, Tony Hancock, Jimmy Edwards, and Max Miller. One of his songs, "False Hearted Lover", was successful internationally.
- As a young man he did national service in the RAF, where he became interested in pursuing a career in singing. At the same time he also worked as a barber.
- Norman collected around £485,000 in royalties between 1976 and 1999 for the use of the theme since Dr. No.
- Norman worked for several years on his unpublished autobiography, titled A Walking Stick Full of Bagels.
- In the 1950s and early 1960s, Norman was a singer for big bands such as those of Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black, Ted Heath, and Nat Temple.
- He was a worshipper at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue.
- He was of Jewish descent, was the only child of Annie (née Berlin) and Abraham Noserovitch, on the night before Passover in 1928.
- Norman's later musicals include Songbook (aka The Moony Shapiro Songbook in New York), which was also nominated for a Broadway Tony and won an Ivor Novello Award; and Poppy (1982), which was also nominated for the Ivor Novello Award, and won the SWET award (renamed "the Laurence Olivier Awards" in 1984) for "Best Musical".
- In the made-for-DVD documentary Inside Dr. No, Norman performs a music piece that he wrote for an unproduced stage musical based on A House for Mr Biswas several years earlier, entitled "Bad Sign, Good Sign", that he claimed resembles the melody of the "James.
- From the late 1950s, he moved from singing to composing, including songs for performers such as Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele, Count Basie, and Bob Hope, and lyrics for musicals and (subsequently) films.
- Norman is best known for writing the "James Bond Theme", the signature theme of the James Bond franchise, and the score to the first James Bond film, Dr. No. Norman received royalty payments for the theme from 1962 on. However, as the producers were dissatisfied with Norman's arrangement, John Barry re-arranged the theme. Barry later claimed that it was actually he who wrote the theme, but Norman won two different libel actions for claiming that Barry was the composer, the last against The Sunday Times in 2001.
- As a child during World War II, Norman was evacuated to St Albans from London but later returned during the Blitz.
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