old pop culture (music)

[bloke]

During our short Thanksgiving visit, my son-in-law played some amazing recordings that he's done with the Pittsburgh Symphony (including Tchaik 4...nice L-O-N-G-yet-separated notes in the opening austere fanfare, and with unprecedented power)...

...but seemed just as fascinated (as I was with his amazing recordings) when I showed him several really cool movie and (mostly) TV themes from long ago.

Here are a couple that I showed him that he had never heard...and his eyebrows went up...

This thread is about MUSIC - great TV show opening themes and movie main titles from the past...

The tuning (here) is not great, but the music IS great...


' always liked this one MORE than I liked the shows...


OK...one more: (' love the horns lick...)


NOW...
In subsequent posts, link some past themes/main titles that impressed you...

[martyneilan]

Barney Miller


Sanford and Son

[Yorkboy]

https://youtu.be/liPQwuTbR3o

One of my all-time favorite actors, and I had the pleasure of meeting him twice....he was very gracious, especially to musicians.

https://youtu.be/OsP-dLguOMk

One of my favorites, written by Henry Mancini, I think.

[DBF]

Hawaii Five-O - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w

Mission Impossible - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7alss3sDJdg

Dallas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKloBLFeYOs

Ironside - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys5cZ2fzjwM

Bonanza - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQjb_QiFbJE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCU0lkWX7S4

Gunsmoke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcEbkM5Z3yA

The Big Valley - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3HcxYcbog

Rawhide - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m9BG_LBP1k

The Lone Ranger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9lf76xOA5k

[bloke]

I like the "The Big Valley" theme...

It's an obvious ripoff of "The Magnificent Seven", but so what...(??)

There was also a "tamer" version that didn't feature horns and timpani...(more strings)

[jtm]

My middle school band had Mannix, Mission Impossible, and Hawaii 5-O for football stand tunes. Seems like they were some of the favorites.

The high school might also have had things like that, but the director was recently with the Longhorn Band, so he brought a bunch of Randy Bass arrangements instead, and LHB somehow hadn't commissioned Randy to do many TV show themes.

[DandyZ629]

One of my favorites, featuring Tommy Johnson in all his glory...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ENZ7AIL8I

[bloke]

With not auto-tune (and - frankly - with a slightly low standard of tuning - at the top level), some of those old themes really "grab" they ears, do they not?

[Ace]

This is from a 1948 film in which eight French horns are used in the 20th Century Fox studio orchestra. (One of the eight horns was Evan Vail, a brass instructor and stage band director at Riverside College CA where I studied for two years before finishing at UC Berkeley.)

https://youtu.be/d5Qu1QYDjtI

Ace

[Three Valves]

My middle school band had Mannix, Mission Impossible, and Hawaii 5-O...

...Hogans Heroes...

[bloke]

...Hogans Heroes...

one of THE VERY BEST...in PARTICULAR, with the video clips with which it was paired...

...even though bari' sax, instead of tuba.

[edfirth]

Red Callender played tuba(and probably bass) on those Hogan's episodes. His cousin Marcus was my Commanding officer at Ft lee in the early 70's and he told me about it as well as turning me onto Red's two solo albums. Red also appeared in the movie New Orleans with Louis Armstrong on bass fiddle.I don't hear any bari sax on that TV show. Ed

[bloke]

Red Callender played tuba(and probably bass) on those Hogan's episodes. His cousin Marcus was my Commanding officer at Ft lee in the early 70's and he told me about it as well as turning me onto Red's two solo albums. Red also appeared in the movie New Orleans with Louis Armstrong on bass fiddle.I don't hear any bari sax on that TV show. Ed

I guess you're right...

The OPENING sounds like a bass guitar (played with a hard pick) doubled by a slap-tongue bari' sax.

The CLOSER, though... sounds more like a tuba...



I'm sure control-room knobs can accomplish nearly anything, and my ears have been deceived quite a few more times than once before...

[DBF]

Combat! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVVcAnFWag

Riverboat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSXPjBZ23Qg

The Comancheros - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlpqjxy-LSQ

The Sons of Katie Elder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyrjh0EDlss

How the West Was Won - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwPI80EALPU

The Hallelujah Trail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD2WcMGEPp8

The Big Country - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQTH3a0mjR8

The Cowboys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okWQHGZFMCg

The Fall of the Roman Empire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2T66agyR00

[MN_TimTuba]

It's a cartoon but the music from Jonny Quest had some fun trombone work -https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7gNBFmlNUfM

[Kirley]

Red Callender played tuba(and probably bass) on those Hogan's episodes. His cousin Marcus was my Commanding officer at Ft lee in the early 70's and he told me about it as well as turning me onto Red's two solo albums. Red also appeared in the movie New Orleans with Louis Armstrong on bass fiddle.I don't hear any bari sax on that TV show. Ed

I guess you're right...

The OPENING sounds like a bass guitar (played with a hard pick) doubled by a slap-tongue bari' sax.

The CLOSER, though... sounds more like a tuba...

Pretty sure the first 8 bars (not counting the drum intro) is a bass as you describe. Tuba enters in bar 9.

This is a fun thread! I've really been enjoying listening to these. Thanks!

[bloke]

What's interesting is that in so many of those old shows, the intro's and outro's were VERY similar YET different.
(It makes me wonder if it had SOMETHING to do with how musicians/composers/arrangers were PAID.)

bloke "who puts apostrophes after weird words, when they are a combination of weird and plural...and the same with proper names...Even though this may not be 'correct', it is that to which people are accustomed."

[Doc]

Mannix was one of my favorites.

Barnaby Jones
The horn line sounds like a direct ripoff of the horn line at the end of the finale of Mahler 5.

Get Smart
Simple, catchy and recognizable.

Bewitched
Always a favorite.

Dick Van Dyke Show

I Dream of Jeannie

Wild, Wild West

Gomer Pyle

Welcome Back Kotter

MASH

[DBF]

Route 66 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug84cGzyMA0

Peter Gunn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz3WMFEC9Gs

The Mod Squad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZiPijyoDGs

Lost in Space - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZ-WgW7bUs

[ProAm]

As a trumpeter, I especially liked the Dudley Do-Right theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npfi0UZL2ow