Question about writing theme music

[Jay Temple]

Okay, I admit it.  I enjoy playing the theme from The $10,000 Pyramid ("Tuning Up") from the CD, just as a piece of music on its own merits.  Obviously, I don't remember ever hearing the whole thing at once.  So, which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Did the producers listen to a two- to three-minute offering and choose the part they liked, or did the composers, having recorded the piece for the show, go in and make a longer recording of it?

[Game Show Man]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Sep 30 2004, 09:52 PM\']Okay, I admit it.  I enjoy playing the theme from The $10,000 Pyramid ("Tuning Up") from the CD, just as a piece of music on its own merits.  Obviously, I don't remember ever hearing the whole thing at once.  So, which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Did the producers listen to a two- to three-minute offering and choose the part they liked, or did the composers, having recorded the piece for the show, go in and make a longer recording of it?

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IIRC, the CD lists the copyright date of "Tuning Up" as 1971.  Since $10K Pyramid didn't premiere until 1973, that obviously dictates that the song came first.

[Ian Wallis]

IIRC, the CD lists the copyright date of "Tuning Up" as 1971. Since $10K Pyramid didn't premiere until 1973, that obviously dictates that the song came first.

Another that comes to mind is the theme from "Now You See It".  Although "Chump Change" fit the show perfectly, it was released about two years earlier on a Quincy Jones album.  It was also severly edited for broadcast - a good chunk of the theme right about the middle was never heard on air.

[tyshaun1]

I wonder about shows who had different theme songs on their pilots than on their series. Bullseye used a recording off an album (can't remember the exact name of the song currently, something about "Santa Esmerelda"), Press Your Luck used a more "spacey" sounding theme for its pilot, and Wipeout used a different (and much worse) theme altogether. Me thinks the theme song is often one of the last pieces put in for the show. Any insight out there?

Tyshaun

[Jimmy Owen]

I'd say Bob Stewart had an almost 100% success rate in choosing ready-made themes for his shows.  I would still like to know the name of the library music used for "Winning Streak."

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Oct 1 2004, 09:09 AM\']I wonder about shows who had different theme songs on their pilots than on their series. Bullseye used a recording off an album (can't remember the exact name of the song currently, something about "Santa Esmerelda"),

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"Santa Esmerelda" was the name of the group--it was a Latin-disco take on the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (hit the top-40 in 1978).

Doug -- <<Casey Kasem>>and the countdown continues<<end/Casey Kasem>>

[Chief-O]

>> I would still like to know the name of the library music used for "Winning Streak."

I've only seen the intro from Klauss' site, but it sounded to me like it could have been an original Bob Cobert composition.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Chief-O\' date=\'Oct 1 2004, 11:05 AM\']>> I would still like to know the name of the library music used for "Winning Streak."

I've only seen the intro from Klauss' site, but it sounded to me like it could have been an original Bob Cobert composition.

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I'm pretty sure it was stock--Stewart almost always credited Cobert if he used his stuff and I've heard the music in commercials over the years.  It always sounded to me (especially in the bridge) that it was recorded in the same sessions or had the same composer as "Jet Set," or the "Jackpot/This Week in Baseball" theme.

[chris319]

I wonder about shows who had different theme songs on their pilots than on their series.

A pilot may or may not see air. It costs a producer thousands to have a music package composed, arranged, recorded and edited. Why not save that money and have Bob Israel send you an obscure TPIR cue or perhaps your music supe can scrounge something out of a production library? This holds especially true in syndication where there isn't a network putting up the pilot money. If the show goes to series, then spend the money for music.

If you really needed a fresh composition I suppose you could have a melody composed and have the composer come in and tinkle it out live on a Rhodes piano or synth, just like the days of Paul Taubman/Ivan Ditmars/Milton Kaye/Dick Hyman and their mighty Wurlitzers.

[Chief-O]

>> It always sounded to me (especially in the bridge) that it was recorded in the same sessions or had the same composer as "Jet Set," or the "Jackpot/This Week in Baseball" theme.
If so, it's probably somewhere deep in the KPM Music Library. I'm suspecting someone such as Keith Mansfield or Johnny Pearson [both KPM staff composers] may have done the theme in question. [as some of us know, Mike Vickers wrote "Jet Set"]

Then again, I've never heard the theme beyond the intro, so I have very little to work from.

[johnnyd1788]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Oct 1 2004, 10:59 AM\'][quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Oct 1 2004, 09:09 AM\']I wonder about shows who had different theme songs on their pilots than on their series. Bullseye used a recording off an album (can't remember the exact name of the song currently, something about "Santa Esmerelda"),

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"Santa Esmerelda" was the name of the group--it was a Latin-disco take on the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (hit the top-40 in 1978).

Doug -- <<Casey Kasem>>and the countdown continues<<end/Casey Kasem>>

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Wasn't the Bullseye pilot theme not really the actual song, but a theme based on the hand claps?

[The Ol' Guy]

I think that's correct. Dan once sent me a reel tape with the Bullseye theme and may have accidentally grabbed the pilot tape. It sounded like 98% of it was a well edited version of the "Misunderstood" tune..that long bridge in the middle. Might have had a sting or two added. It heavily inspired the original Hidey theme.
I remember sitting in a nicer restaurant years ago and earning my then-date's annoyance when I stopped her in mid-conversation after I heard "Tuning Up"  playing in the ambience music. It was part of the Muzak library at one point. Whether it was an original for the company or what, I don't know, but it was interesting hearing it in it's entirity.
Another outfit that has had plenty of it's music work into game shows is Ole Georg Music (OMG). Some of his stuff was licensed to Capitol Records for radio station production use back in the 70s, and a couple of those tunes wound up as ticket plugs and cutaways on the CBS Joker's Wild and the theme for Blyden's The Movie Game.

[uncamark]

And I remember a couple of "TJW" cues pop up in the Muzak at the discount store I worked at before I went to college in the mid-70s.  Probably recreations, since Muzak by then had been recording all of its music custom (this was not today's Muzak, which on most of its services is just playing the original recordings, as there's no great interest any more for a lush orchestral version of Usher's latest hit), but still recognizable as prize cues from the show.

[mystery7]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Oct 4 2004, 04:52 PM\']And I remember a couple of "TJW" cues pop up in the Muzak at the discount store I worked at before I went to college in the mid-70s.  Probably recreations, since Muzak by then had been recording all of its music custom (this was not today's Muzak, which on most of its services is just playing the original recordings, as there's no great interest any more for a lush orchestral version of Usher's latest hit), but still recognizable as prize cues from the show.

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Are those the brassy '72-era prize cues I've also heard on the E! True Hollywood Stories of Feud and Price? They do still pop up on occasion in places like that.