1. The Black Museum - There are so many cool parts to the theme, I don't even know where to begin. The next time you listen to the show, try blocking out everything but the music - it's a wild ride.
2. Lives of Harry Lime/The Third Man - Explored and over-explored many times on this blog.
3. Have Gun Will Travel - This and the tune below were both written and composed by Bernard Herrmann, perhaps the most prolific and talented composer for dramatic art in history.
4. Suspense - The theme is built for the show - this you cannot deny.
5. Dragnet - It's great, what else is there to say? Except have you heard this?
6. FBI in Peace and War - I just love this march as the horns are blowin' that sound. I seem to hear this song in my sleep often (not kidding!)
7. Halls of Ivy - Written long before the show was ever conceived but the music goes well with the often slow pace of Ivy College.
A nice rendition exists here.
8. The Life of Riley - Not nice or pretty but perfect for the show. And that's the object, isn't it?
9. The Shadow - The only all-organ theme to make my list, the melody is more haunting than that of say, The Whistler, Inner Sanctum or other eerie, moody pieces.
10. The Six Shooter - There are two main themes but the slower one reminds me of the slow lope of a man on horseback - this is what I think of when I hear this fantastic piece of music.
Honorable mentions - Escape! - I couldn't leave this off the list, neither could I leave off Nightbeat with it's timpani drums and loud brass.
©Jimbo 2010/2011
Good choices. I would also consider Gunsmoke, Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, and Ozzie and Harriet.
ReplyDeleteAt times, Phil Harris uses a song he wrote in the late 1930's as his theme song (it's the one usually heard in the Rexall years) and there is a song Ozzie Nelson wrote that is often played as part of the incidental music in the Ozzie/Harriet Show, although I don't think it was ever the theme.
ReplyDeleteI've never been crazy about Flight of the Bumblebee, so I'd pass on The Green Hornet :)
I can't really say anything bad about the WT Overture, so I won't :)