Any other great TV sports music? For some reason I think I liked the ESPN CLassic boxing music, but I forget how it goes. I also remember SportsChannel used to show British soccer highlights in the mid 90s, and the music to that was awesome as well.
Please, no wrestling. I’m a big wrestling fan, but that’s a completely different thread!
The “This Week in Baseball” theme song (although I haven’t seen the show in years) was always the best. Combine that with the dramatic, slow-motion footage they showed while the song was playing, and you just can’t beat it.
Here’s another voice ringing in for “Hockey Night in Canada.” It SHOULD be the national anthem. That would be really cool because it doesn’t have any words, so you’d have to sing it by singing “Da-da-da-da-da-DAAAAAAAAA” and such.
In fact, it would make a great gag for a commercial:
INT. A SIXTH GRADE CLASS - MORNING
Thirty bored eleven-year-olds are sitting at their desks. The PA system comes on and a tinny voice says…
PA SYSTEM
Please rise for the national anthem.
Thirty kids grudgingly arise. The HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA THEME SONG strikes up, tinny, on the PA system. Instantly, the kids begin singing as two group, with the left side and right sides singing different parts.
LEFT SIDE
Da-da-da-da-da-DAAAAAAAAAH!
RIGHT SIDE
Bum-pa-dum-bump!
LEFT SIDE
Dad-da-da-da-da-DA-DAAAAAAAAAH!
RIGHT SIDE
Bum-pa-dum-bump!
EVERYONE IN UNISON
Da-da-da-da-da-DAAAAAH-da-dadah! DAAAAAH-da-da-da, DAAAAAAAAAAH!
I’m going to have to try and download some of this stuff. Is the Hockey Night theme available on Napster still?
Here’s some more, some of which I have downloaded:
NFL Films music (from the John Fisenda- “Frozen Tundra of Green Bay” era films)
NBC used to play “Go” from Yaz for some of it’s sports events
Only Philadelphians will get this one, but Comcast plays this incredible music that sends chills down my spine for it’s “Classics” series.
DOOOO_dododoDOOOOOO . . dodododDOOOOOOOOO.dumdudmdumda-da-dum
DOOOO_dododoDOOOOOO . . dodododDOOOOOOOOO.dumdudmdumda-da-dum
I also used to get chills at the beginning of MNF with the Cosell stuff.
One theme I HATE by the way, and it’s really not a TV theme so it’s not the TV networks fault, is the Olympic Anthem.
There’s a .wav file is available here, but it’s only about 15 seconds long. I’d imagine you could find it in full on Napster or Limewire.
A Toronto jazz group called the Shuffle Demons also do a somewhat free-form version of the HNiC theme, which also worth seeking out.
Since the John Tesh thing was already revealed, here’s my TV Sports Theme Useless Fact™.
The theme to Monday Night Football (the big, bombastic “Da da dahhhh” stuff as Snooooopy put it) is not an original composition. It is just a piece of production music. It’s still a good song, though, I’ll give it that.
