Thursday, May 23, 2013

If It's Thursday, It Must Be One of Steve's Crackpot Theories!!!

Food for thought: The greatest short -- under five minutes -- piece of orchestral music written in the second half of the 20th Century is either Albert Glasser's theme for The Cisco Kid...





...or Fred Steiner's theme for Perry Mason (originally titled "Park Avenue Beat").



Discuss.

And yes, I've probably done this before, but it behooves repeating at regular intervals.
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11 comments:

  1. buzzbabyjesus5/23/2013 9:44 AM

    Hands down it's "Park Ave Beat". Not even close.

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  2. steve simels5/23/2013 1:19 PM

    Oh, I dunno -- I think that Cisco Kid theme is pretty damned gorgeous.

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  3. buzzbabyjesus5/23/2013 2:07 PM

    It's swell, all right, but "Park Ave" is iconic.

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  4. steve simels5/23/2013 2:37 PM

    No argument there.

    Did you know that Steiner also wrote theme for both of the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows?

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  5. Brooklyn Girl5/23/2013 3:54 PM

    "Park Ave" all the way.

    And I still think a remake with James Spader as Perry, Jon Hamm as Paul, Virginia Madsen as Della, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Ham Burger, and Paul Giamatti as Lt. Tragg should be done asap. :-)

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  6. steve simels5/23/2013 4:27 PM

    And done period.

    Can you imagine Jon Hamm in those cool William Hopper 50s clothes?

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  7. Ken J Xenozar5/23/2013 5:02 PM

    unanimous... Park ave

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  8. Celeste5/23/2013 6:23 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Unknown5/23/2013 6:26 PM

    Nitpicking Time: Can "Park Avenue Beat" be considered an orchestral piece of music? Sitting underneath the strings and brass are an electric bass guitar and a drum kit. Does that negate the "orchestral" part of "orchestral music", or does it not matter at all because "Park Avenue Beat" has such a great tune?

    PS: My captcha was "insublic Weftminfter". I feel like I've just been given directions to the centre of town by Christopher Marlowe.

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  10. steve simels5/23/2013 6:28 PM

    Peter -- I think it could be performed, easily, by a symphony orchestra at a pops concert.

    So yes -- I think it qualifies as orchestral.

    Incidentally, I heartily agree with your Facebook comment about Bernstein's "Candide" overture.

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  11. FD13NYC5/24/2013 1:18 PM

    Perry Mason, one of my favorite theme songs of all time! And the show was very good too.

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