More sitcom theme songs our readers can’t get out of their heads
Henry Mancini wrote the Peter Gunn theme using a single chord. The whole thing sits on a single bass note for two minutes and four seconds without moving harmonically. He said in his autobiography it was more rock and roll than jazz. Most people who have spent thirty years thinking of it as jazz are probably not going to revise that opinion based on what the composer said about it, but there it is.
Remember you can send questions through the Ask MediaFeed option at the bottom of every article.
“Peter Gunn Theme” — Peter Gunn (1958)
The single didn’t chart. The album won the first Grammy ever given for Album of the Year and spent ten weeks at number one. Duane Eddy took a version to number 6 in the UK in 1959. The show had never aired there. Twenty years later, the B-52s built “Planet Claire” around the bass line. Mancini had nothing to do with that and was apparently fine with it, which makes sense because what were his options?
“Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow” — Baretta (1975)
Dave Grusin and Morgan Ames wrote it and Sammy Davis Jr. sang the version on the show. Then Merry Clayton released her own recording and hit number 45 on the Hot 100. Then the Rhythm Heritage version hit number 20. Same year. Same theme. Two chart runs under different artists, which is not a sentence that gets written very often. Robert Blake starred as Tony Baretta for four seasons, won a Golden Globe in 1976, was charged with murdering his wife in 2002, acquitted in 2005, and died in 2023. The timeline of what happened to Robert Blake is long and the theme song is the least complicated part of it.
“Believe It or Not” — The Greatest American Hero (1981)
The premise: a schoolteacher gets a superhero suit from aliens, loses the instruction manual, spends three seasons trying to use powers he doesn’t understand and crashing into things. Joey Scarbury’s theme for this reached number two on the Hot 100 in 1981. He sang it with complete conviction. William Katt wore the red suit. Later, George Costanza used the song as his Seinfeld answering machine greeting. When it played, the studio audience recognized it instantly. This is a song from a show about a man who cannot figure out how to fly, and it sounds like something you would hear at a graduation ceremony.
“Shaft” — Shaft (1971)
Isaac Hayes won Best Original Song at the 1972 Oscars for this, becoming the first Black composer to win in that category. The wah-wah guitar has turned up in R&B, hip-hop, funk and advertising across five decades. There is a generation of people who know exactly who Shaft is and what his relationship with his woman is, and have never sat through the film. The song handled the distribution of that information on its own.
“The Rockford Files” — The Rockford Files (1974)
Every episode opens with an answering machine message from Jim Rockford’s father, a different one each week, before Mike Post’s guitar starts. The theme hit number ten on the Hot 100 in 1975. Post spent the next two and a half decades writing Hill Street Blues, Magnum P.I., Law and Order, NYPD Blue and The A-Team. All of them are recognizable in three seconds. People hum them without knowing they came from the same person, which is either a testament to how distinctive each show’s sound was or a sign that nobody pays enough attention to composer credits. Probably the second one.
The bottom line
Five theme songs. Four shows nobody is watching. The music is still in circulation. At some point, that stops being a coincidence and becomes the whole story, though it has taken this long to say it plainly.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Related:
- 12 iconic rock songs that wouldn’t fly today
- The most controversial songs of the ’60s: Do you agree?
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.co.
