Once
again, we move further up our top 100 moments when music and television came
together. You already know the drill by this time so let’s dive right in.
#59:
Theme
The
Addams Family
The
delightfully named Vic Mizzy came up with this finger-snapping classic. Who
doesn’t treasure the close-up of Carolyn Jones slightly breaking her deadpan
expression during this memorable opening-credits sequence?
#58
“Three Is a Magic Number”
Schoolhouse
Rock
This
was the very first attempt at a new way to teach lessons through music and
animation on Saturday mornings. And what a great start it was. Multiplication
tables were never easier to memorize as when they were set to the gentle
strains of this Bob Dorough composition.
#57
“Movin’ On Up”
The
Jeffersons
I
didn’t know until I started compiling this list that Sammy Davis Jr. recorded a
cover version of The Jeffersons
theme. How has this escaped me all these years?
#56
“The Most Wonderful Day Of the Year”
Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The
entire score of this annual holiday special is among the best ever composed for
television. This song received an unlikely but wonderful revival a few years
ago in an episode of Glee.
#55
“It’s Not That Easy Bein’ Green”
Sesame
Street
How
many songs are introduced by Kermit the Frog and later covered by Frank
Sinatra? Here’s the really strange part – Kermit’s is better. Joe Raposo wrote
this and many other amazing songs for Sesame
Street, including “Sing,” later a hit for The Carpenters.
#54
“Crazy World”
The
Krofft Supershow
This
song only hints at the greatness that was Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, but it’s
the only one most people remember.
#53
“Jingle Jangle”
The
Archie Show
This
song went to #10 on the Billboard pop
charts. On the current Riverdale
series, “Jingle-Jangle” was a name given to a potent recreational drug. Yet
another reason why I prefer older shows to new ones.
#52
“The Twizzle”
The
Dick Van Dyke Show
I
don’t know why this episode isn’t more popular: Sally discovers a new dance
craze launched from a Connecticut bowling alley, and tries to get its creator
to perform on The Alan Brady Show.
The dance sequence is a lot of fun, and while singer Jerry Lanning never became
a household name, he enjoyed an impressive under-the-radar career on the
musical stage.
#51
“Believe It Or Not”
The
Greatest American Hero
The Joey Scarbury hit is
one of those songs that are kind of awesome and kind of terrible at the same
time. But who didn’t love the pop culture boost it received from George
Costanza’s answering machine on Seinfeld?
#50
“I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together”
The Carol Burnett Show
This was the musical
sign-off that set the standard for such moments in variety shows for the next
20 years.
#49
“The Ballad of Jed Clampett”
The Beverly Hillbillies
It’s hard to imagine a
better way to introduce the premise of this long-running sitcom. Next time you
hear it, try not to focus on the lyric with its famous “swimmin’ pools, movie
stars” references, and instead savor the first class bluegrass picking of
Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
#48
“Where Everybody Knows Your Name”
Cheers
The 1980s doesn’t seem like
that long ago – to me, anyway – yet think about how times have changed. Back
then an ode to a bar as heartening as “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” was
actually commended, and not condemned for encouraging alcoholism.
#47
“The Tra La La Song”
The Banana Splits
Saturday mornings in the
late ‘60s and early 1970s were a time of cartoons and frenetic, psychedelic
live-action shows created for kids already hyped up on sugarcoated cereals. The
energetic “Tra la las” of the Banana Splits theme were the perfect fix
for our habit. Liz Phair did a great cover of it as well.
#46
Theme
Rawhide
Not too many western songs
on our list, sadly, but this one was a no-brainer. It was recorded by Frankie
Laine, and revived for a new generation by the Blues Brothers in 1980.
#45
“Snow Miser/Heat Miser”
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Ba
Dump-Bump-Bump….Baaaaaaaaa-Dump… this may be the most powerful earworm
unleashed by any Christmas show ever. I’m slightly partial to the slower tempo
of Heat Miser’s version, but whether you prefer it hot or cold, it’s...too
much.
#44
“Hey Mr. Cool”
Fame
Long before High School Musical, this bouncy track
brought Broadway and basketball together.
#43
"The Menu Song"
The Electric Company
After becoming America’s coolest
college professor, Tom Lehrer brought his songwriting genius to the Children’s
Television Workshop. This is my favorite of his Electric Company contributions, for the escalating insanity of the
menu selections, and for the performances by Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno.
#42
“It’s Late"
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet
And now, as we near our top
40, we finally get into the heavy hitters. Ricky Nelson was the archetype for
how to launch a successful music career through television. He’s in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame now, for a string of pop and rockabilly classics like
this one.
#41
“The Girl That I Knew Somewhere”
The Monkees
And after Ricky came The
Monkees, who are not in the Hall of Fame but certainly should be. This was the
first song they wrote and recorded as a “real” group.
#40
“I’ll Meet You Halfway”
The Partridge Family
It was Ricky Nelson in the
1950s, The Monkees in the 1960s, and The Partridges, a.k.a David Cassidy with
first-rate studio backing, continuing the tradition of introducing
chart-topping hits in a situation comedy. There’s a surprising sophistication
to “I’ll Meet You Halfway,” with an almost classical quality to the strings and
piano arpeggio that set the mood before the singing starts. Wes Farrell wrote
it with Carole King’s songwriting partner Gerry Goffin.
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