Worst Music?

[geno57]

Which game show had the worst music?

The syrupy string music used on the Cullen version of TPIR was horribly dated, but it's up there...

I have to chuckle. The long-running Cullen Price went off the air in 1965. Considering that the games and soaps back then were demographically aimed at women aged from the mid 20s to around 60, and not at adolescent, or pre-pubescent, or teenage boys … what kind of music would you expect them to use? The target demo's preferred tunes, at that time, tended toward stringy, easy listening, “beautiful music”. The most toe-tapping one could expect of them, might be something along the lines of “Mairzy Doats and Doazy Doats”.

And btw, the theme from the Cullen TPIR is still among this old rocker's favorite GS themes to listen to.

[PYLdude]

Ditto on Las Vegas Gambit. That big bombastic open is fitting to me, considering the setting. Then...sounds like a generic talk show theme. I feel like I'm gonna watch Wink talk to the couples about marital troubles than play cards and trivia.

[mystery7]

Some felt like Stan took a few different compositions and stitched them into a three-minute piece.

1974 High Rollers had enough in it that it could pass for his demo reel.

[BrandonFG]

Some felt like Stan took a few different compositions and stitched them into a three-minute piece.

1974 High Rollers had enough in it that it could pass for his demo reel.

Absolutely. That's another one of my favorites, but it's goes all over the place at times.

[DjohnsonCB]

The Neighbors. Bad theme music for an equally bad game show.  And I'm quite nostalgic for the Three On A Match theme.  I wish I could have seen the remainder of its run after May 1972.

[Hastin]

Donnymid soundtrack/package was really bad. Like a early 90s techno song released a decade late.

[Clay Zambo]

And I'm quite nostalgic for the Three On A Match theme.

As am I - and for its prize music. Does that exist in the clear somewhere I've missed?

[Jeremy Nelson]

Some felt like Stan took a few different compositions and stitched them into a three-minute piece.

1974 High Rollers had enough in it that it could pass for his demo reel.

Absolutely. That's another one of my favorites, but it's goes all over the place at times.

At least High Rollers had a musical theme running through the entire piece, even if it went off in different ways.

[knagl]

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.

You had a weird sounding washing machine.

I've always thought that extra sound was a whistle, like a referee's whistle with a ball bearing in it.

[chris319]

Though I did a little work for Blockbusters, I've no idea how long Bob Cobert had to compose, arrange and record a music package. My fading memory says it went into production in earnest (having been green lit) about six weeks before it debuted. That means construction was started on the set and I assume the music dealt with.

What I don't know is how long it would take to produce a music package under ideal circumstances, and whether some of the music companies had tunes already composed and arranged in the event of a rush job. I'm under the impression that the Password Plus music was done on rather short notice. I remember Howard Felsher saying he "hadn't done a thing" about music, after I was hired on December 11, 1978, about 2 weeks before the first rehearsals.

[geno57]

And I'm quite nostalgic for the Three On A Match theme.

As am I - and for its prize music. Does that exist in the clear somewhere I've missed?

Would absolutely love to hear it someday, before I become too decrepit to recognize it.

[Ian Wallis]

What I don't know is how long it would take to produce a music package under ideal circumstances, and whether some of the music companies had tunes already composed and arranged in the event of a rush job. I'm under the impression that the Password Plus music was done on rather short notice. I remember Howard Felsher saying he "hadn't done a thing" about music, after I was hired on December 11, 1978, about 2 weeks before the first rehearsals.

I've always wondered if companies like Score, with several different composers working for them, would always have an existing library of ideas they were working on, partial demos recorded, etc. which hadn't been "claimed" yet, that producers could choose from if they needed something in a rush?  With all the shows they worked on over the years, it would be surprising for me if every time a show needed music from them that they'd start from scratch.  Aren't composers always working on stuff?

[tyshaun1]

I've always wondered if companies like Score, with several different composers working for them, would always have an existing library of ideas they were working on, partial demos recorded, etc. which hadn't been "claimed" yet, that producers could choose from if they needed something in a rush?  With all the shows they worked on over the years, it would be surprising for me if every time a show needed music from them that they'd start from scratch.  Aren't composers always working on stuff?

Thing is,  especially by the 80's, most game show themes were taken from existing music.

Hit Man theme = "Worlds Away" by Pablo Cruise
Press Your Luck theme = "Flash" by Keith Mansfield
Blockbusters 87 theme = "Run, Don't Walk" by Richard Myhill
Hot Potato open and close =  "Stop, Look and Listen" by Donna Summer, "You Make Me Feel" by Sylvester
Body Language theme = "Working Girl March" (though I would argue the Classic Concentration theme sounds more like it)

Whew!, Go, Wordplay, and Dream House are other examples shows that used existing music for their pilots and simply borrowed elements of them for the series music.

[chris319]

Edd Kalehoff has a library of music already performed by him on synthesizer. He offers to customize any of the tunes if needed.

What existing music was Whew! taken from? I thought Alan Thicke did a good job with that show.

[TimK2003]

Edd Kalehoff has a library of music already performed by him on synthesizer. He offers to customize any of the tunes if needed.

What existing music was Whew! taken from? I thought Alan Thicke did a good job with that show.

Unless he was talking about the Whew pilot, I don't remember any song that came close to Thicke's theme.

/TANLMAD theme seems to be loosely based on "Let's Hear It For The Boy", by Deniece Williams.