Bob’s Band – Score
Charles Fox (2nd from left) with co-writer Norman Gimbel,
Lily Tomlin, Roberta Flack and Isaac Hayes
Listen/Download Bob’s Band – Score
Greetings all
Here’s a very groovy one for you to start the week.
Groovy, and somewhat sonically deceptive, if you have your ears attuned to the library.
If memory serves I grabbed this 45 while digging through the interwebs for Hammond sounds.
When I first heard a clip of the song, the first thing that went through my head was ‘UK Library’.
‘Score’ has all the hallmarks of late 60s/early 70’s UK library composers like Alan Hawkshaw and Alan Moorhouse, with it’s groovy, fast moving organ and drums action.
Once I got my hands on the 45, the first thing I noticed was that the song was composed by Charles Fox.
If you don’t know, Fox, who got his start arranging for Latin bandleaders in New York, was a major hitmaking composer of the 70s, writing/co-writing songs like Robert Flack’s ‘Killing Me Softly’, ‘I Got a Name’ by Jim Croce and the themes to tons of sitcoms and game shows.
Fox was also writing incidental music for the NFL and ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which is where ‘Score’ comes in.
Composed as the theme music for ‘Monday Night Football’* in 1972, ‘Score’ was produced by Bob Israel (the ‘Bob’ in ‘Bob’s Band’ no doubt…) the man in charge of the company Score Productions, which was an American ‘library’ music house.
Formed in 1963 to compose TV themes and background music, Score (where Fox had worked) created original music for new programs, game shows, TV movies and sitcoms, and is still active today.
The funky ‘Score’ was used as the theme to ‘Monday Night Football’ from 1972 to 1975.
It is very groovy indeed, and one of my favorite recent finds.
I hope you dig it too.
Keep the faith
Larry
*Coincidentally, one of the best known pieces of Monday Night Football music – Johnny Pearson’s ‘HeavyAction’ was from the KPM Library in the UK.
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Themocracy
Nice. Wish I could track down the piece of TV theme music used by one of the networks as a season promo sometime in the late ’60s. I’ve had it in my head forever because I learned how to play a bit of it on the piano. I’ve searched YouTube, but no luck. I want to say ABC because its programming skewed younger back then.
Well I can’t even. I love it when stuff we remember but have forgotten that we remember continues to exist somewhere in the world.
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charles fox got this monday night football job based on the wide world of sports theme he wrote which eventually ran for 38 yrs. MNF was the first of 40+ tv themes that he got full credit for (after ghost writing iconic themes like “whats my line” and “wide world of sports” for Score). he also wrote the Happy Days, love boat and wonder woman themes.