Who wrote/sings Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show theme song?

[Limbo_Donni]

I was certain they said who sang or wrote the song on the first night, but I taped over it and now the credits don’t say.

The New LLS Theme Song
It’s hard to stay up
It’s been a long, long day and you got the sandman at the door
But hang on, leave the TV on and let’s do it anyway
It’s ok, you can sleep through work tomorrow, ok?
Hey Hey
Tomorrow’s just a future yesterday.

The New LLS Theme Song is located here

[ISiddiqui]

I don’t know who wrote it, but I believe Craig said that it is his voice on the theme song. Damn catchy tune, though!

[bienville]

Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!

I can be helpful here!!! A friend of mine, a keyboard player that I’ve worked with before, played on that recording!

I’ll e-mail him and see what he knows!*

*It’s 1:52 AM here. I don’t know when he’ll check his e-mail next but when I hear from him I’ll let you know.

[TheMadHun]

Last night Craig Ferguson told Regis that he sings the intro and “added a few of the words”.

[Snooooopy]

It’s a good theme song, but that moody guitar hook from the previous theme was a real killer.

The visuals of the opening theme don’t really jibe with the bounciness of the theme song (or Ferguson’s genial persona), I don’t think. Next time you watch the show, turn the sound down during the opening and ask yourself if the visuals wouldn’t work better on some kind of science-fiction show, particularly the last shot where the sky’s kind of purple or something.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, I can see that on the purple sky shot :D. But the rest of it just seems like rushing to the studio, so I can see it go with the bounciness of the theme and Ferguson’s persona.

So hard to decide… Ferguson is on “I love the 90’s: Part Deux” on VH1 when he show is on. I guess the I love the 90s stuff will be on 1500 times between now and… tomorrow ;).

[bienville]

O.K. I e-mailed the friend of mine who played on it and here’s what he had to say:

Mike Mangan, piano/B3/keyboards

Why yes, I know the boys very well. Stoker is actually
the producer for one of my bands and works out of my friend’s studio in
Chatsworth. He actually pushed me into doing some soundtrack composing
recently.
Stoker (who used to be the drummer for a band called ‘General Public’
and is now a world class pro tools engineer) and his partner Tim wrote
it. They actually first wrote it a few months ago for the Americanized
version of the British sitcom “The Office”, but the network had some
problem with it, plus I don’t think the show came to fruition anyways.

So then they were up for the late late show gig right before the
holidays, and they threw this tune in the pile and the network loved
it. Originally Tim sang on it and Stoker got me down to do the melody
on the piano because the needed different versions for the bumpers.
And then, the week before the show’s premiere, Craig Ferguson decided
he wanted to do the singing, so Stoker actually rolled into Hollywood a
few days before the premiere and tracked Ferguson on the tune. So
Ferguson is doing the singing. Then Stoker went and made 37 different
bumpers (piano doing the melody, horns doing the melody, guitar doing
the melody, etc etc etc) and those are all the bumpers going to
commercial that you hear.
So, such is the odyssey of the late late show theme song! Alright,
hope all is well and let me know when you’re gigging. And thanks so
much again for coming down the other night! Talk to you soon.

Mike

Would’ve been nice if he gave full names!
If you really need me to find out the full names and then bump the Thread to tell you, I’ll see what I can do.

[bienville]

@bienville

Would’ve been nice if he gave full names!

A little creative Googling reveals that “Stoker” is Stoker’s full name (his full porfessional name, anyway). I can’t tell you anything about “Tim” (try googling “Tim”!), but these ska folks give a pretty concise history of our friend, Stoker.

Yet another person the band met who would be extremely helpful to PS! was a record producer by the name of Andrew Growcott. Growcott was also known to those familiar with him in the music business as the legendary, “Stoker”, who was based in Philly at the time. Stoker had played drums for the seminal English bands, Dexy’s Midnite Runners, The Bureau and was most widely known for his drumming and collaboration with Ranking Roger, David Wakeling, Sir Horace Panter, Mickey Billingham, Saxa and Mick Jones in the band, General Public.

In the late fall of 1989, PS! received a phone call from Stoker. Stoker’s voice mail message said he had heard the single, “Bad Thing”, from the Taste of Philly compilation - and thought that they might have something in common! An elated Manos - realizing that the drummer of one of his favorite artists had called - quickly got back to Stoker. After a short meeting, the two decided to begin pre-production for the first PS! release. Stoker has since gone on to become a top flight record producer in LA and now lives in Southern California with his family. Stoker has produced albums for major artists such as Ice Cube, two-tone ska legends The Specials, and third wave ska favorites, Hep Cat. Stoker has also remixed hits for artists such as Sting, and has produced musical tracks for movies, such as the film, “Demolition Man”.

[Limbo_Donni]

bienville -
Thanks for all that digging! I’d never have guessed someone knew the artists involved.

Now I’ll try to find some more Stoker music and hope it hits me the same way.

[GuanoLad]

It always amazes me when someone can ask a seemingly obscure question, and not only do experts in that field contribute, but people who know those, or who actually were those, involved in the specific events are posting here too!

It’s very very cool.