# Help! Where have I heard Joe Chambers' jazz song "Circles"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 23, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304 "2025-01-23T21:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/1 "2025-01-23T21:06:37Z")
Jazz drummer/vibes played Joe Chambers composed a song “Circles.” It was first recorded by Max Roach’s band M/Boom in 1984, then by Chambers himself in 2021, in the version linked below. I KNOW I have heard this melody before, but not in a jazz context. Maybe played on a synthesizer? Same tempo as the version below. It might have even been a video game. It’s really bugging me! I’ve googled quite a bit – no luck. Shazam couldn’t find it, either. Anyone? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5MrWm5mHXw0/maxresdefault.jpg "Joe Chambers - Circles") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MrWm5mHXw0) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/2 "2025-01-23T21:43:12Z")
Is that the…noooo…it couldn’t be? The Theme from “_Love Boat_” ? Surely not. Other than that it reminds of a Android ringtone, if you pushed “jazzy tone”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/3 "2025-01-23T22:10:01Z")
I think I know what you mean but it’s horns doing the melody. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/4 "2025-01-23T22:20:46Z")
Good guess with Love Boat (similar melody), but no. Is there a way I could hear the Android ring tone? It could be (synthesized) horns I’m thinking of. I only have an iPhone now, but my first smartphone was an Android, circa 2010. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/5 "2025-01-24T01:18:24Z")
Blinded Me with Science? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/6 "2025-01-24T02:49:24Z")
That’s it!!! Thank you! How odd that I seem to be the first in the interwebs to notice this. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/7 "2025-01-24T03:29:13Z")
It seems Dolby came up with it first (1982). He recreates the moment of invention at 6:20 in this video (he calls it an “oriental” bit). I’m thinking it got into Joe Chambers’ head (and a million others), and came out subconsciously in his tune soon thereafter. There is a ringtone connection — supposedly, Dolby developed the software to allow cell phones to have multiple ringtones (according to a YouTube comment — easy enough to verify or refute, but I gotta go.) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MHbciVrgcGA/maxresdefault.jpg "Thomas Dolby - The Making of "She Blinded Me With Science" | MikesGigTV") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHbciVrgcGA) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/8 "2025-01-24T12:51:35Z")
Speaking of ringtones, and melodies appearing in unexpected places…check out the second half of the second phrase of this 1860s Spanish tune. It’s the default Nokia ringtone we heard all over the place, about ten to twenty years ago! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9sZQ0m5oKLc/maxresdefault.jpg "Tarrega's "Gran Vals" played by George Sakellariou on an 1862 Antonio de Torres") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sZQ0m5oKLc) (Okay, now I’ll ask a mod to close this thread). ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/9 "2025-01-24T17:40:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > That’s it!!! Thank you! Hearing things inside other things (or nothing) is usually a curse and I’m glad it was useful for once. I recognized the pattern immediately but couldn’t place it beyond the ‘Science!’ interjection. I looked up science song and found a zillion wrong tunes and it wasn’t until a few minutes later that I remembered the ‘Poetry in Motion’ line and was able to find the name of the song. I’d never heard the jazz ones. I know the song from listening Classic Rock Radio, I didn’t know the name Thomas Dolby until yesterday. The Roland award presentation video is great (I play keyboards myself), he seems very, very cool. I also didn’t know that the Science! guy was actually a celebrity presenter already and he looks every bit as wacky as I hoped. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/10 "2025-01-24T20:05:15Z")
Nice. I was twelve in 1982, so the video was familiar. I, too, was happy to just find out that the old man in it was sort of the '70s UK equivalent of Bill Nye or Neil Degrasse Tyson, in our time and place. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/11 "2025-01-25T12:01:39Z")
It’s interesting that Dolby sketched out the video _before_ he composed the song. Talk about peak MTV! ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-where-have-i-heard-joe-chambers-jazz-song-circles/1013304/12 "2025-01-25T14:37:20Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I know the song from listening Classic Rock Radio, **I didn’t know the name Thomas Dolby until yesterday**. The Roland award presentation video is great ( **I play keyboards myself** ), he seems very, very cool You may appreciate this as fresh info, then: “She Blinded Me With Science” was a huge US hit, of course, and made Dolby a household name with the MTV generation. Where most Americans first _heard_ Dolby’s keyboard work was on Foreigner’s longtime #2 hit “**[Waiting For a Girl Like You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIdfPBmUAXc)**” (US Hot 100, #2,10 weeks, 1981). Dolby appeared on stage with Foreigner for some shows in 1981-82. I’m curious whether this could Dolby on this video (**[Oct 3, 1981, Foreigner “4” Tour, Dallas, TX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jhocSCSZzk)**) to singer Lou Gramm’s right. I don’t think it much resembles Dolby, but the video is just fuzzy enough to be uncertain. Skip to about 0:24 and 1:53 for the best shots of the keyboard player.