"TV Theme Music Appropriated" Topic

Third of our four categories for TV show music, broken down by Bill's request. All you people with three volume rules sets, please actually read the entire question before answering.

This poll is for instrumental music which already existed, but which was used for a television program. Examples: Garryowen, used by the short-lived Custer, and the Magnificent Seven theme used by--oh, you guessed? Also Rondeau, AKA the Masterpiece Theater theme, and the NBC White Paper theme, Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. (The last time I asked for that one in a record shop, the clerk wanted to know if it was the name of a group. Fortunately, now I can order on line.)

All Credit to Hafen.

Burns and Allen (Cohan's "Just A Small Room")
I Love Lucy (Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite")

Quite a few of the early television series, especially syndicated series, used "borrowed" (liberated?) theme music. Here are a few that I recall:

"Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion" (1955-57)used "Le Boudin," the actual official march of the French Foreign Legion.

Two, at least, used operatic overtures. "The Lone Ranger" (1949-57) had Rossini's "William Tell Overture." Emil von Reznicek's overture to "Donna Diana" was the theme for "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" (1955-58), a Mountie.

Another source was traditional music. "The Gray Ghost" (1957-58), about legendary Confederate cavalry officer John S. Mosby, used "The Yellow Rose of Texas," (but without the lyrics, to the best of my recollection). "Glencannon" (1957-58) was about a slightly roguish engineer of a tramp steamer; it's theme was the tune of the traditional Irish air "The Rising o' the Moon," but with new lyrics written for the show.

Note that some of the syndicated shows may have aired years later in some viewing areas than their original release.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents – Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette

And Sergeant Preston's theme segued into The Maple Leaf Forever.

Another class is shows with non-original theme music that is, however, already closely associated with the star/host, such as:

Lawrence Welk – Bubbles in the Wine

Jack Benny – Love in Bloom

You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx) – Hooray for Captain Spalding.

And then there is Disneyland/Wonderful World of Disney – When You Wish Upon a Star, which has become the de facto Disney Studios them song.

My favorite example of this was "The FBI in Peace and War", which used the March from Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges. This, in turn, was appropriated many decades later by a mayonnaise commercial.

Rick

I can't take credit here--mine of last October was limited to theme SONGS (with lyrics--like half of yours*). If predecessors are to be celebrated,they should be 20thmaine:

TMP link

And Flat Beer and Cold Pizza:

TMP link

My question is, who should get credit for losing the "Theme Music Original" thread?

*Or,at the moment, two thirds.

CBS Reports used the part of Copland's "Appalachian Spring" taken from the old Shaker song "Simple Gifts". "Captain Video" used Richard Wagner's overture from "The Flying Dutchman" "The Four Seasons" series,like the movie,used Antonio Vivaldi's "Spring" segment from his "The Four Seasons",to name a few more.

It just struck me that Pink Panther qualifies!

youtu.be/wy0ZoiJVmQk

And going way back,Captain Video used "The Flying Dutchman".

Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974) – "The Liberty Bell" by John Philip Sousa

Top Gear (British series, 2002 – present) – "Jessica" by the Allman Brothers

Benny Hill – I think it was Yakkety Sax?

The Apprentice – Montagues and Capulets by Sergei Prokofiev