Damn You, Garfield Ridge!

Spent most of the morning immersed in my childhood and young adult life, thanks to Garfield Ridge's link to RetroCrush's 100 Greatest TV Themes. Sadly, Retrocrush has only has 100 through 20 posted; there's a lot of themes I could squeeze into that final 19. Of course, Hawaii Five-O had better be Number 1. They post lots of links to MP3 and WAV files, many of them here. Naturally, I had to scarf a couple dozen for my library.

Besides ranking them, Retrocrush posts some background on the production and folks who created the themes:

Simpsons

...A month later we were recording the now-famous Simpsons theme on the 20th Century Fox lot with a huge orchestra. I think all the producers were a little nervous and fidgety about the untrendy audacity of the music. But then-executive producer James L. Brooks came in, listened a bit, then said, "My God! This is great! This is lemmings-marching-to-their-death music!"

Rawhide

"Rain and wind and weather...hell-bent for leather!" seems like it'd be in the lyrics of a Village People song, but it's the mighty theme to Rawhide where it became famous. Anyway with that wonderful cracking whip, sounds of cows mooing, and those tough guy vocals from Frankie Laine, it certainly sets the tone for the show. It may be the best song with cow sounds in it since the debut album from Wilson Phillips.

Heh.

Oh, and a damn and a hat tip to Ace.