Television's Greatest Hits - performers?

Cafe Society
1

I just got oneo f those Television’s Greatest Hits albums – Volume 6, in fact. Oh, the nostalgia! However, it’s annoying to me that the notes don’t actually list the performers/recording artists for each track. Is this information available anywhere? I mean, I can figure them out for a few of them – e.g., Waylon Jennings sings the “Dukes of Hazzard” theme and Lee Majors himself sings “The Unknown Stuntman.” But most of them are by not very well known singers or house orchestras. Why aren’t they credited?

2

Can you hunt them down on IMDB.com? I can’t say that the info would be there for every show, but for instance I went to the listing for The Jeffersons and clicked on “soundtrack listing” in the left-hand menu and got to a page where it showed the theme song and the writer and performer.

3

All Music Guide has some entries for the songs that IMDB doesn’t have…and vice versa (IMDB has Diff’rent Strokes, for example, while AMG doesn’t. Weird.)

4

Thanks, Zip. I’ll try those

5

Well, I’m not having much luck with those. This is the list I’m working with, by the way –

I’ve noted the ones for which I’ve managed to track down artists. Many of the rest are instrumentals, which would in most cases be performed by studio house orchestras that aren’t properly credited. But there are a few left that do have singers, which I haven’t been able to identify.

1 Fish (1977-1978)
2 Night Court (1994-1992)
3 What’s Happening (1976-1979) - Henry Mancini
4 Diff’rent Strokes (1979-1986) - Al Burton and Gloria Loring
5 Mr. Belvedere (1985-1990)
6 Growing Pains (1985-1992) - B. J. Thomas and Jennifer Warnes
7 Charles In Charge (1984-1985) - Shandi Sinnamon
8 Silver Spoons (1982-1987)
9 Webster (1983-1988)
10 Too Close For Comfort (1980-1986)
11 Who’s The Boss (1984-1992) - Steve Wariner
12 Perfect Strangers (1986-1993) - David Pomeranz
13 Alice (1976-1985) - Linda Lavin
14 It’s A Living (1980-1982) - Leslie Bricusse
15 Angie (1979-1980) - Maureen McGovern
16 227 (1985-1990) - Marla Gibbs
17 The Golden Girls (1985-1992) - Cynthia Fee
18 Alf (1986-1990)
19 Mork & Mindy (1978-1982)
20 Police Squad (1982)
21 Family Ties (1982-1989) - Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams
22 Moonlighting (1985-1989) - Al Jarreau
23 Soap (1977-1981)
24 Benson (1979-1986)
25 The Benny Hill Show (1969-1989) - Boots Randolph
26 The Young Ones (1982-1984)
27 The People’s Court (1981-1993)
28 Family Feud (1976-1985, 1988-date)
29 The Price Is Right (1956-1965, 1972-date)
30 Siskel And Ebert (1977-date)
31 Monday Night Football (1970-date)
32 Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous (1984-date) - Bill Conti
33 Fame (1982-1987) - Erica Gimpel
34 Paper Chase (1978-1979) - Seals and Crofts
35 Fantasy Island (1978-1984)
36 Falcon Crest (1981-1990)
37 The Colbys (1985-1987)
38 Highway To Heaven (1984-1989)
39 The Dukes Of Hazzard (1979-1985) - Waylon Jennings
40 B.J. And The Bear (1979-1981) - Greg Evigan
41 Movin’ On (1974-1976) - Merle Haggard
42 The Fall Guy (1981-1986) - Lee Majors
43 James At 15 (1977-1978) - England Dan and John Ford Coley
44 Eight Is Enough (1977-1981) - Grant Goodeve
45 Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976-1978)
46 Trapper John, M.D. (1979-1986)
47 Chips (1977-1983)
48 Vegas (1978-1981)
49 Matt Houston (1992-1985)
50 Cagney & Lacey (1982-1988)
51 T.J. Hooker (1982-1986)
52 Hardcastle And McCormick (1983-1986) - David Morgan
53 Hunter (1984-1991)
54 Macgyver (1985-1992)
55 Knight Rider (1982-1986)
56 Airwolf (1984-1987)
57 The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982)
58 V-The Series (1984-1985)
59 The New Twilight Zone (1985-1988) - The Grateful Dead (with Merl Saunders)
60 Doctor Who (1963-date) - Delia Derbyshire
61 Mystery! (1980-date)
62 The Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-1979)
63 Roots (1977) - Quincy Jones
64 Vietnam-A Television History (1983) - Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann (with Vic French, Zakir Hussain, Airto Moreira, Merl Saunders, and Bobby Vega)
65 Cosmos (1980) - Vangelis

6

In some cases, those albums of television theme songs use a later studio recording, not the recording used on the television show.

7

Yeah that’s true. When looking through AMG for acsenray’s album I looked at the blurbs for the other volumes in the set, and I think it was volume 1 or 2 where the editor mentioned the Three Stooges theme song was obviously and horribly re-done in a studio.