Worst Music?

[chris319]

For pilots, they sometimes use any old piece of existing recorded music before going to the expense of composing, orchestrating and recording the real music, in case the pilot is rejected. cf Bullseye.

The late Bob Cobert did a nifty job of redoing "Tuning Up" for the CBS version of Pyramid.

[JasonA1]

And I'm a little amused at Goodson's recycling when they did commission a full package for a pilot. TKO got reused on Body Talk within the year, and then moved on to lottery shows. They got lucky in a sense when MG90 sold, and all that new music could go to good use. But in the case of Oddball, they gave that think music a second life, first on the MG90 pilot, and then Price is Right (still to this day!). The end of an Oddball loss cue became the big ol' "you lost" horn for the endgame on Classic Concentration.

-Jason

[chris319]

For Password Plus, Bob Israel proposed that we use the TPIR cue used for "Most Expensive", but it was turned down.

[Neumms]

The late Bob Cobert did a nifty job of redoing "Tuning Up" for the CBS version of Pyramid.

I thought so, too. To me, the original sounded robotic.

I didn't mind the Better Sex scatting or the game. I thought they should bring in a live band to do Cullen's Blockbusters.

I hated the Joker's Wild whistling. The original was one of the best game themes ever. How is whistling appropriate to jokers, slot machines or a game where knowledge is king? Las Vegas Gambit stunk, too.

[vtown7]

Las Vegas Gambit stunk, too.

I feel like this is an enjoyable alternative to the the LVG theme...



Ryan.

[SuperSweeper]

For Password Plus, Bob Israel proposed that we use the TPIR cue used for "Most Expensive", but it was turned down.

Second Thoughts?

[chris319]

For Password Plus, Bob Israel proposed that we use the TPIR cue used for "Most Expensive", but it was turned down.

Second Thoughts?

Yes.

I don't know how they came up with the music we ultimately used in such a short time.

[whewfan]

Just played Second Thoughts to refresh my memory of how it sounds. It's definitely better as a prize cue and not a main theme. The second part of the cue sounds like the inspiration for the Password Plus commercial cue actually used.

[chargeradiocom]

As a music geek, I’m finding this thread fascinating.

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.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have probably made the connection between “Working Girl March” and the BL/CC themes, but I see your point. Though the Body Language theme—the bass line at least—has almost always reminded me of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

Also... I wasn’t familiar with “Flash” except from the Ludia PYL video game. And here I was ready to declare it as one of the worst themes (if we can count video game-only themes for the purposes of this thread) because of how closely it ripped off the PYL TV theme. Apparently the TV theme was the actual ripoff. 

Though that leaves a question in my mind... Why would they have decided to license an actual song for the PYL video game? I assumed they didn’t use the TV theme because of some rights issue (though I was surprised Fremantle seemingly didn’t own it free & clear for that purpose), but I’d expect it would cost them even more to license a “real” song.

[Neumms]

I feel like this is an enjoyable alternative to the the LVG theme...



Ryan.

Yes! They should also have worked the deer into the game.

[snowpeck]

As a music geek, I’m finding this thread fascinating.

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.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have probably made the connection between “Working Girl March” and the BL/CC themes, but I see your point. Though the Body Language theme—the bass line at least—has almost always reminded me of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

Also... I wasn’t familiar with “Flash” except from the Ludia PYL video game. And here I was ready to declare it as one of the worst themes (if we can count video game-only themes for the purposes of this thread) because of how closely it ripped off the PYL TV theme. Apparently the TV theme was the actual ripoff. 

Though that leaves a question in my mind... Why would they have decided to license an actual song for the PYL video game? I assumed they didn’t use the TV theme because of some rights issue (though I was surprised Fremantle seemingly didn’t own it free & clear for that purpose), but I’d expect it would cost them even more to license a “real” song.

I wouldn't quite call it a "real" song. It's a production library piece from KPM. It's possible that KPM's licensing fee was cheaper than Score Productions' was.

[chris319]

"Second Thoughts" may have been composed by Walt Levinsky. Lots of brass and no MOOG.

[daveromanjr]

And I'm a little amused at Goodson's recycling when they did commission a full package for a pilot. TKO got reused on Body Talk within the year, and then moved on to lottery shows. They got lucky in a sense when MG90 sold, and all that new music could go to good use. But in the case of Oddball, they gave that think music a second life, first on the MG90 pilot, and then Price is Right (still to this day!). The end of an Oddball loss cue became the big ol' "you lost" horn for the endgame on Classic Concentration.

-Jason

I haven't heard the loss cue to Oddball - I have only seen the pilot that is on YouTube.  Is the Oddball package anywhere (there's a joke in there somewhere)?  I love the main theme and would love to hear a clear version if it's out there somewhere.

[tyshaun1]

As a music geek, I’m finding this thread fascinating.

Also... I wasn’t familiar with “Flash” except from the Ludia PYL video game. And here I was ready to declare it as one of the worst themes (if we can count video game-only themes for the purposes of this thread) because of how closely it ripped off the PYL TV theme. Apparently the TV theme was the actual ripoff. 

Though that leaves a question in my mind... Why would they have decided to license an actual song for the PYL video game? I assumed they didn’t use the TV theme because of some rights issue (though I was surprised Fremantle seemingly didn’t own it free & clear for that purpose), but I’d expect it would cost them even more to license a “real” song.

From what I understand, the PYL package was found to be unusable several years ago, and Terry Wilkie from TVPMM mentioned that the Carruthers family does have their own reel, but they have declined to release it.

[Unrealtor]

Press Your Luck theme = "Flash" by Keith Mansfield

That was so close to the actual series theme that I had always assumed that the pilot used an early draft or alternate version of the package that was, in reality, written to sound like the pilot theme.