John Barry (composer) Minster. Serving in the British Army, Barry spent his national service playing the trumpet. During his army service, he took a correspondence course (with jazz composer Bill Russo); he also worked as an arranger for the Jack Parnell and Ted Heath's Orchestra, and formed his own band in 1957, the John Barry Seven, with whom he had some hit records on EMI's Columbia label. These included "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
EastEnders theme tune is about." He offered an attempt that conveyed everything about the East End that the producers wanted; "bells, whistles, hand-claps, sitars, steel drums and an underlying feel of being on a merry-go-round." May actually began writing the music that was used for the theme tune when he was seven years old, around 34 years before "EastEnders" first aired, and based it on the scales that his music teacher had taught him. The drum beats at the start of the theme tune were played by May's drummer, Graham Broad. May had originally composed a longer theme that featured a section in