A&M Music Used as TV or Radio production music.( 60s to the 80s)

Bobberman

Well-Known Member
This may have been covered in some degree in the past but other than the game shows of the 60s I remember some A&M artists being used in local TV Productions in commercials or even short public service program themes etc so for those who were growing up in the aforementioned decades what A&M artists and songs do you remember being used in your local Radio and TV stations as themes or background music.
 
Nothing A&M that I can recall, but a local station for a while was using the last 20-30 seconds of Henry Mancini's "Symphonic Soul" as the intro to their news program, and the intro to Ronnie Laws' "Always There" as a bumper to the commercials.

I've heard that some ABC affiliates around the country were using a highly edited version of "Tar Sequence" from the soundtrack to Cool Hand Luke. Ours used it for many years as their "Action News" theme, and in more recent years, they had it re-recorded in an arrangement based on the edited version.
 
The radio station I worked for in the 80s used to use a section of Herb Alpert's "The Continental" from BEYOND as the top of hour ID bed for our "Million Dollar Weekend". The first 12 seconds or so to the drumbeat was terminated with the final flourish of the record.



Embarrassingly, the whole time that we used that (it was probably a couple of years), I didn't know it was from a Herb Alpert record. There was a phase where I had kind of stopped paying attention to Herb after Coney Island and the Hugh Masekela records. I think I bought RISE but wasn't initially all that enamored of it. It wasn't the Tijuana Brass sound that I loved, so I just dismissed it and filed it away.

It wasn't until "Route 101" on FANDANGO that I once again connected with Herb Alpert. The PD at the radio station gave me a copy of the 12" 4-song EP from FANDANGO that contained "Route 101" which satisfied me for awhile. Then, I remember one afternoon in 1984 at lunchtime, I hopped from record store to record store on the Main Line of the Philly suburbs, scouting out all of the Herb Alpert solo records I could find to complete my collection and find out what I'd been missing. I picked up BEYOND and MAGIC MAN and FANDANGO, and BLOW YOUR OWN HORN and BULLISH. With that many albums new to listen to, it took awhile to give each their day in the sun with a proper listen.

What a surprise when "The Continental" came on - and instantly I was taken back to "It's another Million Dollar Weekend on MAGIC 103, WMGK, Philadelphia".
 
The radio station I worked for in the 80s used to use a section of Herb Alpert's "The Continental" from BEYOND as the top of hour ID bed for our "Million Dollar Weekend". The first 12 seconds or so to the drumbeat was terminated with the final flourish of the record.



Embarrassingly, the whole time that we used that (it was probably a couple of years), I didn't know it was from a Herb Alpert record. There was a phase where I had kind of stopped paying attention to Herb after Coney Island and the Hugh Masekela records. I think I bought RISE but wasn't initially all that enamored of it. It wasn't the Tijuana Brass sound that I loved, so I just dismissed it and filed it away.

It wasn't until "Route 101" on FANDANGO that I once again connected with Herb Alpert. The PD at the radio station gave me a copy of the 12" 4-song EP from FANDANGO that contained "Route 101" which satisfied me for awhile. Then, I remember one afternoon in 1984 at lunchtime, I hopped from record store to record store on the Main Line of the Philly suburbs, scouting out all of the Herb Alpert solo records I could find to complete my collection and find out what I'd been missing. I picked up BEYOND and MAGIC MAN and FANDANGO, and BLOW YOUR OWN HORN and BULLISH. With that many albums new to listen to, it took awhile to give each their day in the sun with a proper listen.

What a surprise when "The Continental" came on - and instantly I was taken back to "It's another Million Dollar Weekend on MAGIC 103, WMGK, Philadelphia".

Wow Harry I used to make my own music cue tape and I made my own edit of the continental with just the opening and closing fanfares in a couple variations I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw some value in it
 
And to all who read this We don't have to limit this post to just A&M ARTISTS Any Kind of music is Fair game here as there are Many many commercially available recordings that were used as media production music long before custom library music became the thing to do nevertheless I should have been more broader in my title of this post my apologies now Back to regular posting.
 
Last edited:
Bert Kaempfert records saw a lot of duty at TV and radio stations.
Very true I remember "a Swinging Safari" getting a lot of duty first on the 60s version of Match game and later being used as Test pattern music as was tons of music up until the late 80s or when copyright laws began changing and other factors
 
"That Happy Feeling" was used as the legal ID/bumper music when the Kaiser Broadcasting station began broadcasting in Philly.
 
Burt Bacharach's "Nikki" was used for one of the ABC Movies of the week intro and wrap-arounds in the early 70s.

Julius Wechter did the theme song for Viva Valdez, an ABC sitcom from around 1975. The show was about a Mexican family settling in Los Angeles. While not specifically an A&M recording (or even an official BMB recording) Julius clearly recorded it with the BMB team, or at least wrecking crew members who had the "BMB sound" down.

--Mr Bill
 
Burt Bacharach's "Nikki" was used for one of the ABC Movies of the week intro and wrap-arounds in the early 70s.

Julius Wechter did the theme song for Viva Valdez, an ABC sitcom from around 1975. The show was about a Mexican family settling in Los Angeles. While not specifically an A&M recording (or even an official BMB recording) Julius clearly recorded it with the BMB team, or at least wrecking crew members who had the "BMB sound" down.

--Mr Bill
I remember Butt Bacharach's Nikki very fondly ( the song of course) being used on ABC s movie of the week I sadly didn't know about the Viva Valdez theme too bad it never got released It would have been a great addition to his overall great legacy of musical activities BMB And otherwise
 
The late Vincent Bell did his "watery" guitar of the David & Bacharach song "Nikki" (from 1970 "Airport Love Theme" album). That album is NOT on itunes but the other 2 albums that he did for Decca from the late 60's are available.
 
The ABC Movie of the Week is Bacharach's "Nikki" but doesn't sound like the typical impeccable Bacharach recording. ("Nikki" was first released on one of his Kapp albums, the A&M re-recording sounding nearly the same, and neither version sounds close to this one.)



On the other hand, here's the NBC Mystery Movie Theme that was written and performed by Henry Mancini:



How could anyone ever forget "The Streetbeater" by Quincy Jones? Better known as the theme to "Sanford & Son." You big dummy! :laugh: The show's theme is an edit of the full version as it appears on the A&M album You've Got It Bad, Girl.

 
Thankfully these three have been released in different versions on numerous compilations as well as the aforementioned artists included them on their respective discographies I say thankfully because I have them
 
And we should list "1980" from Herb's RISE. It was commissioned as a theme for NBC's Olympic coverage but we boycotted those in 1980. It was used later in the 80s for NBC's World Cup Soccer coverage.
 
OK gang, Intrigued by the VIVA VALDEZ theme mentioned above, I copied the audio from that YouTube video. Unfortunately, it was cut off before the final flourish. But there was enough of a clue to what should be there, so I lifted a similar flourish from the track "I'll Marimba You" and tacked it on to the end of the VIVA VALDEZ theme. It seems to be in the right key.

I also added a touch of reverb to the right channel of the whole thing to give it a little pseudo-stereo width, and uploaded it back to YouTube.

 
Burt Bacharach's "Nikki" was used for one of the ABC Movies of the week intro and wrap-arounds in the early 70s.

Julius Wechter did the theme song for Viva Valdez, an ABC sitcom from around 1975. The show was about a Mexican family settling in Los Angeles. While not specifically an A&M recording (or even an official BMB recording) Julius clearly recorded it with the BMB team, or at least wrecking crew members who had the "BMB sound" down.

--Mr Bill

And of course in Los Angeles Mr. Bill will remember the Ben Hunter afternoon movie theme, The Baja Marimba Band's "Big Red"..right? Channel 11?
 
Top 40 stations tended to treat any instrumental as possible production music. There's an aircheck from KYNO, Fresno in 1968 where TJB music ("Our Day Will Come") is used for a locally-voiced Taco Bell spot (this was only six years into Taco Bell, and apparently, franchisees were still buying their own ads).

And---forgive me if this is too obvious---where would The Dating Game have been without a copy of WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS?
 
Last edited:
I'm also thinking that there were a lot of local uses of A&M music (or other instrumental music we are familiar with) over the years that we will never know about. I remember our local CBS or NBC affiliate used to use the sequencer intro to The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" to open their newscasts at one point.
 
I remember a syndicated show called Car Care Central with Peter Brown, Kelly Garrett(she was HOT) and Steve Evans back in the early '80s that used Herb's Beyond as it's theme music.
 
Top 40 stations tended to treat any instrumental as possible production music.

And---forgive me if this is too obvious---where would The Dating Game have been without a copy of WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS?
Very good point It Was partly Herb's Music ( the other part was from Monty hall moving Lets make a Deal from NBC To ABC in Late 1968 early 1969 ) both situations Helped The Dating Game achieve its unique pop culture status.
 
OK gang, Intrigued by the VIVA VALDEZ theme mentioned above, I copied the audio from that YouTube video. Unfortunately, it was cut off before the final flourish. But there was enough of a clue to what should be there, so I lifted a similar flourish from the track "I'll Marimba You" and tacked it on to the end of the VIVA VALDEZ theme. It seems to be in the right key.

I also added a touch of reverb to the right channel of the whole thing to give it a little pseudo-stereo width, and uploaded it back to YouTube.


"VIVA HARRY' very well done I love it
 
Back
Top Bottom