The theme to Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini appeared on my YouTube rotation this morning. I’ve never seen an episode of Peter Gunn, it ended fifteen years before I was born and I don’t recall anyone running reruns like they did with The Addams Family, I Love Lucy, or even F Troop, but I certainly know the song. It was used in the 1983 arcade game Spy Hunter, Art of Noise had their own version in 1986, and I’m sure I’ve heard it many times from other sources. It occurs to me that the song remains very well known even if most people alive today never saw Peter Gunn or even know it was a television show.
Every time I hear “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship I can’t help but think the song has remarkable longevity seeing as it’s from a stupid movie from 1987 about a mannequin in a department store that comes to life at night. If only I could remember what that movie was called… The song certainly has popularity beyond its association to the movie (whatever it was called).
Any other musical numbers you can think of that have outlived what they were associated with originally?
Your piece is timely, because I was thinking of posting the following item.
As a big fan of Beethoven’s orchestral music, I love the nine symphonies. If you look for more, you might try the (probably spurious and over-hyped) 10th symphony, but a better bet is to listen to the Overtures written for theatrical works:
Egmont
Fidelio
The Ruins of Athens
The Creatures of Prometheus
Leonore
King Stephen
Coriolan
and a couple of others.
What I couldn’t help wonder was – My God – you got Beethoven himself to write the musical introduction to your work. Aren’t you afraid that, after they hear it, they won’t all get up and go home? After all, the music by Beethoven has to be the best part, right?
Actually, The Creatures of Prometheus is a full ballet by Beethoven, and Fidelio was his only opera (later renamed Leonore), so I could see those patrons staying. Egmont was a play by Goethe, so maybe they would, too. For King Stephen Beethoven wrote some incidental music, too.
But Coriolan is based on a play by someone named van Collin, not on the Shakespeare play.
Does anyone put on Coriolan anymore? Or even Egmont? I get the impression that the overtures are the pieces mostly performed.
Baby Elephant Walk. The only reason I can remember the movie (Hatari!) is because I like it, and watch it every so often. The song barely has anything to do with the film.
Pink Panther theme. Made for one movie, (about a rock), turned into a theme for a character, became a song for a cartoon about an actual cat (panthera pinkus), and now used for insulation.
Both also by Mancini. The guy could write a catchy tune.
I believe you are referring to Mannequin with Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall from 1987. I don’t associate the song with it, but I remember the movie.
Written in 1902 anf thought to be an ephemeral song that would be forgotten by the fall, it was selected by soon-to-be-superstar Blanche Ring, who urged that it be added to her new musical The Defender. Th audience loved it, and sang along with the chorus (as Blanche thought it would be). It sold lots of sheet music, and it was recorded multiple times, and helped make Blanche a huge star (sadly forgotten today, but her husband’s story was pretty sad, too, when she walked away to become a big name on her own. Kinda like a real life A Star is Born. I wrote their story in my book Lost Wonderland).
The song long outlasted The Defender and Blanche Star. It was used in numerous films, including the 1949 Judy Garland film of the same name. I suspect most people probably haven’t heard the various stanzas, but have heard only the chorus.
The 1812 Overture. People with some knowledge of it know that Tchaikovsky wrote it to celebrate Russia’s defeat of Napoleon. Everyone else hears the Marseillaise and canons and thinks “French.”
Another oldie, from 1909. It was soon incorporated into the Broadway musical Miss Innocence. It was also incorporated into the Wonderland Park production of Cinderella in the same year, and the sort became a standard. It was frequently played in the soundtrack for westerns and cartoons set in the west. But it continued to have a life – Bing Crosby recorded a version in 1962, and Bruce Springsteen put it on his 1992 album The Human Touch.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (for the not-a-Christmas-film Meet Me In St Louis)
We Need A Little Christmas (from the not-a-Christmas-play Mame)
I can’t say whether they were written specifically to become oft-covered Christmas standards, or just part of the film/play to be forgotten next year, but they are now.
Mussorgsky’s “Night On Bald Mountain” was written in the 1800s and was meant to be about a witches’ sabbath on a very real mountain near Kiev. Many decades later it was used as part of Disney’s “Fantasia”, with the orchestra conducted by the brilliant Leopold Stokowski.
But Fantasia uses it to accompany a cartoon about a witches sabbath on a mountain, so I’m not sure it works for this thread - it’s still got its original association.
We’ve all heard the song ‘Mack the Knife’, covered by various musicians over the years, the most popular of which was Bobby Darin’s 1959 version. Growing up I just thought Darin was the original writer / singer of the swinging murder ballad, but I’d wonder what was up with the names that get called out:
Now Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Sukey Tawdry Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown Oh, the line forms on the right, babe Now that Macky’s back in town
It seemed like there was something more there. So I eventually looked it up, and the song has an interesting history: It was adapted from a 1928 German musical called The Three-Penny Opera, which in turn had adapted the story from a 1727 play called The Beggar’s Opera. Those names are a combo of the character names in the plays, and in the case of ‘Lotte Lenya’, the actual name of one of the actresses from the 1928 play.
