Back in the day almost every TV show had a theme song. It set the tone. When you heard it even if you were in the other room you know what show was coming on.
I think the most iconic and in fact just about the best is the Hawaii Five O theme by the Ventures. It is surf music at its finest. When I hear it I intermediately think of Hawaii. I think the new show that is a reprise is popular just because of the song. It just makes a lot of us think back to the old show. Shit. The new one has been on for almost seven years already. When you hear it you think about the beach. Diamond Head. Fat Polynesian guys rowing a canoe. Shaved ice. Iz. You know Hawaii.
It is just one of the many theme songs that we all know and love. Mission Impossible. The Twilight Zone. Baretta. Cannon. Kojack. One Day at A Time. All in the Family. Mary Tyler Moore. Friends. All iconic songs. They just don't make them anymore. Mostly because they are not in style. But in the good old days they were the best.
I do have to amend my statement though. Hawaii Five O is my second favorite. My favorite could never be used today. Just not politically correct. But it was the greatest.
9 comments:
One reason is you don't have the composers - Dimitri Tiomkin, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Jerome Moross. Those guys had a way with a melody line.
PS Not just themes, but songs, some of them became hits.
Several were uncredited pieces by movie composers - Elmer Bernstein wrote the first theme for "Have Gun, Will Travel", as well as "Riverboat", but the songs were what people remembered most.
Warners, in its TV heyday, had a song to go with every show it did.
Returning to the train station in Richmond from a class trip Yorktown and Williamsburg, we whiled away the bus ride singing all the themes.
The good old days really were.
Indeed.
Everyday when I am taking a shower I put on Pandora on my phone. I set up a station called "Peter Gunn Theme." It just plays theme songs from various tv shows. And other themes like James Bond. It's awesome.
James MacArthur could never shake being Helen Hayes' son, poor guy.
My shower doesn't drain well no matter how many times I pour liquid plumber down it so I shower fast. An exciting or nerve wracking way to start the day, depending on how you look at it.
My shower doesn't drain well no matter how many times I pour liquid plumber down it so I shower fast. An exciting or nerve wracking way to start the day, depending on how you look at it.
Have you taken a plunger to it? (drain must be filled with water).
Thanks for the suggestion, chick. I'll try it.
My favorites are Earl Hagen's "Harlem Nocturne" used for Mike Hammer and the theme song for Angel. I love the heavy cello. I dug up some other music by Darling Violetta, the band who co-wrote and performed the theme, but found it all awful. Also memorable for me was the theme for The Avengers, the Emma Peel years.
House of Cards intro is the best part of the show. In fact, it's the only good part of that show. Justified's intro song is excellent. Sopranos, too. There's still a lot of good intro tunes out there.
The Batman (tv show) song.
Post a Comment