It just clicked, and Don has the skills and the ability to just go anywhere with the lyrics and I love that, because you never know where it’s gonna take you. He always thought that was very romantic.” Jones concurred, explaining “We just followed our instincts and we wrote this – I thought it was a lovely song – for Matt Monro.” He said of the song’s creation that “It just clicked. He was very proud of that song, and he sang it beautifully and he particularly loved those lines: ‘While your eyes played games with mine’. Monro, according to Black, “loved the song he used to sing it all the time in his acts – sang it whenever he could. Black explains that “the brief was to write a song that made the Italian Riviera look irresistable – one of those gorgeous sunny-tinted songs that you hear and think ‘Oh my God, I’d love to be in Italy now!’” In the “making of” documentary for the film, both Jones and Black offered some reflection on the song.

The sequence stars a Lamborghini Miura, the then-cutting-edge supercar’s V12 engine being the first sound heard in the film before the music begins, and again as the opening credits reach their conclusion moments before the car’s demise. It was written in 1969 for the British film The Italian Job, where it is played prominently in the opening credits, uninterrupted by background sound. On Days Like These is a song sung by Matt Monro, with music by the illustrious Quincy Jones and lyrics by Don Black.

Matt monro on days like these