Thursday, September 8, 2016

Sammy Davis Jr. and TV theme songs

In 1976, Sammy Davis Jr. released the LP "Song and Dance Man," featuring discofied takes on the themes from hit TV shows.  Here's a few from that album, and elsewhere....


Probably his best: The theme from Baretta, written by Dave Grusin.  This was a huge hit in Europe.  The show wasn't bad, either: it actually grew out of Tony Musante leaving "Toma" after one season.  When he signed-on, Musante told producers he only wanted to do one season, but they thought it was a bluff: "no actor would ever leave a show once it's a hit," they reasoned.  But Musante stuck to his guns, and Roy Huggins was left to quickly re-purpose that show's production team around a new actor.  The two possibilities -- James Garner and Robert Blake -- both ended up being viable, and we lucky audiences ended up with both "Baretta" and "The Rockford Files" (where Musante actually guest-starred in 1975).


Kojak (labeled on Sammy's LP as "We'll Make It This Time"; incidentally, Kojak star Telly Savalas also enjoyed singing):


The Jeffersons (which doesn't have the same soul of the original, sung by Ja'net Dubois aka Willona on "Good Times"; also, Davis actually appeared on The Jeffersons in 1984):


Here's Sammy's take on the theme from "Maude" (originally sung by Donny Hathaway).  And here's Family Guy's take, just for fun.



Chico and the Man (where he also appeared):


Hawaii Five-O (aka "You Can Count On Me); Morton Stevens released an LP of the show's theme music in 1969, from which CBS made their spell-binding "CBS Special" logo.


Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (so bizarre); here's a parody for some reason, titled "Mary Hartski," with a much more pleasant (but brief) easy listening/disco version. The lead in the sketch looks like Rachel Dratch:

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