Search - Richard Gleason :: Hit TV Themes: 50's

The "Perry Mason Theme" leads this album off--and rightly so

07/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've been familiar with that piece since I was a little boy, but you know TV themes--they're not considered music so much as a mixture of ID card for the show (you hear it from another room and you head for the tube) and the soundtrack for the opening credits. But I listened to this piece once a week for most of my childhood through a 3" TV speaker and never thought of it as music. Until about ten years ago, when my kid brother, driven by the First CD Revolution--Post-Audiophile phase, upgraded his copy of jazz violinist Jerry Goodman's live album to CD, and instead of dropping his vinyl off in the used bin, laid it on me. I listened to Goodman's straightforward treatment of the piece (now through a decent Dual turntable, Pioneer amp and Kenwood speakers) and realized that I'd been ignoring a really good composition for several years. Now I wish that Goodman disc was still available. Lesson number one--don't automatically trivialize TV theme music just because it's TV theme music. Sometimes the person who does it is a worthwhile composer. This album's going into my shopping cart before I log off."