Worst Music?

[mparrish11]

TTD ‘90, TJW ‘90, and FF ‘99 (from start through when they went back to the original theme during the O’Hurley days.)

[jage]

I hated the FF 94 theme in 94, but listening back to it now, it has some good cues. Also, the $OTC reel that came from TVPMM was missing some of the better cues that I still wish were out there.

First place to TJW 90. Out of themes not mentioned yet, I always found the Whammy! theme to be such a huge letdown from the original. TJW, the first rendition without all of the brass also seems like it's just missing several parts.

[Otm Shank]

I was watching All New LMAD. They had a small combo including horns but the music just sounded cheesy.

On that version, they played a fanfare to close out a dealing segment. After the last horn, there is this weird warbling sound. It sounds exactly like the sound of my washing machine in the '80s when it cycled down from a spin cycle. And I still hear it in that music today. Every. Damn. Time.

[PYLdude]

I'm not the biggest fan of the Password Plus theme. It sounds like someone chopped about thirty seconds of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid and paired it with someone playing a synth with his toes.

[The Ol' Guy]

Fun thread. Osmond Pyramid and 1990 Tic Tac Dough certainly on the list. I'm a fan of Hidey's Strike It Rich. One theme that fits in the Mancini Dough underwhelm category is Merv Griffin's Crosswords. The show, in its own bad way, tried to be as tension filled as Jeopardy with rapid play and a hyper host, then you bring on this theme on quaaludes that pulls everything right down. Pleasant melody, bad fit.

[Offshored2007]

The Better Sex. Both the theme and the concept of the show... all bad. Never was a fan of it.

Horrid - the lyrics too.

[aaron sica]

I'm not the biggest fan of the Password Plus theme. It sounds like someone chopped about thirty seconds of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid and paired it with someone playing a synth with his toes.

That said, however, as demonstrated at GSC7 some 20+ years ago, you can dance the Macarena to it.

[urbanpreppie05]

While we're on the subject of Music, can I throw in Every second Counts for one of the most...bizarre music packages out there?

[Clay Zambo]

I'm not the biggest fan of the Password Plus theme. It sounds like someone chopped about thirty seconds of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid and paired it with someone playing a synth with his toes.

Which is interesting since to my ear there is no synth in that arrangement.

I will grant the slightly Caribbean vibe, though it predates “Under the Sea” by many years. Also, are you disparaging one of the most charming musical theatre songs ever written? Thom’s fightin’ words!

[JMFabiano]

It isn't BAD, but Las Vegas Gambit's theme reminds me of something from one of the early Care Bears TV specials.  (whereas the music where the logo forms is much more memorable/dramatic.  Almost like how the music that plays over "And now a game of high stakes..."/"It's 1978..." > the main High Rollers theme.  Mind you I like the HR theme more than LVG) 

Agreed on Donnymid, current Wheel.  Can probably fit LOTS from the 2000s and up here. 

[aaron sica]

It isn't BAD, but Las Vegas Gambit's theme reminds me of something from one of the early Care Bears TV specials. 

While we're on that subject..........the piece playing just as you hear "From the Tropicana Hotel..." always sounded like it belonged in one of those little films that you'd see on Sesame Street (kid taking the llama to a dentist, kids at the doctor's office, etc.).

[SamJ93]

One more note, from an admitted music theory geek...

If anything, Bob Cobert may have been the one who composed the Blockbusters theme at the last minute, since it's just a basic three-chord blues progression. Playing off what Tim said about the last part being "cacophonous"...I wouldn't be surprised if they just told the studio horn players to go ham after playing the melody and sax solo backgrounds, since the arranger didn't have a full chart ready for them. Obligatory "idle speculation" disclaimer, of course.

Strike It Rich, though still sounding cheaply-made, at least has that iii-vi-IV-bvi twist toward the end of the main melody that's more interesting to my ears musically.

[tyshaun1]

One more note, from an admitted music theory geek...

If anything, Bob Cobert may have been the one who composed the Blockbusters theme at the last minute, since it's just a basic three-chord blues progression. Playing off what Tim said about the last part being "cacophonous"...I wouldn't be surprised if they just told the studio horn players to go ham after playing the melody and sax solo backgrounds, since the arranger didn't have a full chart ready for them. Obligatory "idle speculation" disclaimer, of course.

Strike It Rich, though still sounding cheaply-made, at least has that iii-vi-IV-bvi twist toward the end of the main melody that's more interesting to my ears musically.

I'm under the impression that most themes back in the day were composed within a couple weeks of the show airing. IIRC, the $ale music package was put together around December 3 and 4, 1982, just a couple weeks before the show began taping.

[BrandonFG]

It isn't BAD, but Las Vegas Gambit's theme reminds me of something from one of the early Care Bears TV specials. 

While we're on that subject..........the piece playing just as you hear "From the Tropicana Hotel..." always sounded like it belonged in one of those little films that you'd see on Sesame Street (kid taking the llama to a dentist, kids at the doctor's office, etc.).

And then they threw in a random kazoo.

The one thing that kinda bugged me about the Heatter-Quigley themes - and this may be more of a Stan Worth thing - was that, while the themes were catchy, there was never really any flow to them. Some felt like Stan took a few different compositions and stitched them into a three-minute piece. The Split Second theme definitely feels this way, and I saw this as someone who loves that theme song.

I always loved the Blockbusters theme, but the eighth notes that ended the first and second verses always felt so....dry. When the soloists do their thing towards the end of the theme, the horn player does turn them into jazzier 16th notes.

[bossjock967]

Hot Potato.  There's no melody to the main theme, and the end theme is something completely different.