DC Games 2014: That Theme, and the Composer You Never Heard Of

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

For me as much a huge music fan as the Olympics and having enjoyed the Grammys and Bruno Mars at the Super Bowl (see my music posts on here) earlier this month, it's pretty cool that they've been playing hit tracks at the venues (I.e. Kesha & Pitbull during slope style), and during the opening ceremony (DJ mashups of hit Russian songs during the parade of nations, and "Not Gonna Get Us" by TATU when Russia entered the stadium). And as someone who also has a good enough knowledge of sports television and watching two decades' worth of it spanning the entire spectrum, there's a lot of theme music from all the networks that everyone remembers. From the melody of Augusta ringing up the springtime golf tradition of The Masters to "Heavy Action" signaling 40+ years of Monday Night Football; from "The Hockey Theme" heralding in Hockey Night in Canada, to its NFL theme becoming the signature of Fox Sports, the list of recognizable sports themes is endless.

   For 17 days every two years, and for fifty years now, it becomes the one television theme song that we just seem to can't get out of our heads. Its heritage has spanned two networks, two icons of sports television, two Emmy-winning hosts and a mountain's worth of memories that generations of Americans have experienced since 1964. And when you hear it, it simply says Olympics to those of us here in the U.S. But the story behind the iconic theme music of Olympic television coverage in the U.S. is also the story binding one of the industry's best-known movie composers and a composer that, like a great majority of the athletes competing, most of us haven't even heard about.

Leo Arnaud was a French musician who immigrated to the United States in the '30s, and worked in Hollywood as an arranger for popular musician Fred Waring before joining MGM for a 30-year career as an arranger, composer and orchestrator until the mid-'60s. He worked more than 60 films helping with the musical side of the movies - including on The Wizard of Oz, but his magnum opus is one that didn't make it to the silver screen but eventually to the small screen and the world's greatest sporting event.

   In 1958, Arnaud was asked by conductor Felix Slatkin to create a piece for his album Charge!, and his contribution was "The Charge Suite." Included in it was "Bugler's Dream," based on David Buhl's "Salut aux etendrds," a typical cavalry trumpet's call that was composed during Napoleon's Consulat. Ten years after it was composed and after some wheeling & dealing with the composer & publisher by ABC Sports executive producer Roone Arledge, his network began to use that composition as theme for its coverage of the 1968 Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble, France. And it would be used in all of its coverage of future Games - eight in total - until 1988.

With 49 Academy Award nominations, five Oscars, 21 Grammys and a whole slew of honors too many for us to mention here, John Williams is simply in a league of his own in the film composing field. Over six decades, he has conducted the music to some of the most recognizable film scores ever: Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and a life-long friendship with Steven Spielberg as composer to all but one of his films. And he was principal conductor of the prestigious Boston Pops for 13 years.

   In 1984, Williams was brought on by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to commission the theme for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. Entitled "Olympic Fanfare and Theme," it was heard everywhere from the Opening Ceremony and at venues to television coverage, and started his long relationship with sports' grandest event which has now spanned 30 years.

   A year later, NBC News approached him to compose new theme music for its programming. Nearly 30 years later, "The Mission", containing four themes (three of which still in use, and with occasional tweaks), remains the theme to NBC Nightly News, Meet The Press and The Today Show. In 1988, they approached Williams to compose the theme for coverage that fall of what would be its first installment of what would eventually become the crown jewel of its sports stable: the Olympic Games, and Williams' theme for Seoul was entitled "The Olympic Spirit."

   And in 1992, NBC Sports, which had been taken over by Arledge protege Dick Ebersol, asked him to re-record "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" for their coverage of the Barcelona Olympics, but also to include "Bugler's Dream" in the opening. The rest, of course, is history. And since then, it has become as much a part of the winning formula as Bob Costas in the primetime anchor chair; a stable team of talent, production and executives who've been together since those Games in Spain, and them delivering the great stories & memorable moments they have brought us over the last two decades.

   Williams would later compose the themes for the two later Games held in the U.S. - "Summon the Heroes" for Atlanta 1996 and "Call to the Champions" for Salt Lake 2002; and all four of his themes have been used by NBC during their coverage either primarily or at one time or another. He also had a hand in composing the original theme used for Sunday Night Football, which has also been updated two times since then. And for a network that has not only broadcasting's most iconic 3-note signature but also, and to be honest - for a '90s guy who has memories of his childhood & adolescence watching the NBA on NBC and John Tesh's "Roundball Rock" ringing in his head when he thinks of his favorite sport during that decade, the Olympics music is also part of my iPod playlist as well.

Elsewhere, there are some other back stories surrounding music used on Olympic television coverage.

- The theme that promotes upcoming events during NBC's coverage is actually a reused TV theme. After being used for a short-lived 1990's Fox western series "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.," composer Randy Edelman's theme was resurrected in Atlanta, and has been used in every Olympics since, even being used during postseason baseball. Edelman also penned NBC's NFL theme during the last years it held the AFC package, while the Gettysburg soundtrack was also used by the peacock in sports coverage during the '90s.

- The very final segment in NBC's Olympic coverage following the Closing Ceremony is Bob Costas' final thoughts, followed by the closing credits set to the most-memorable moments of the Games. And since 2002 in Salt Lake City, the dramatic epilogue music that has been used is "Titan Spirit", the last track from the soundtrack of the Disney movie "Remember the Titans", and composed by former Yes member Trevor Rabin. This isn't Rabin's only contribution to sports television, he's also the man behind the theme to the NBA on TNT since 2002.

- In Canada, two stories: First, with CBC back as Olympic broadcaster in Sochi, it dusted off its signature nine-note theme it began using in 1988 in Seoul, composed by Majoma Music, and later re-energized in 2004 by Dazmo Music. And when CTV held the rights to Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, it utilized composer Stephan Moccio, headlined by a vocal theme "I Believe" by Nikki Yanofsky that topped the charts in Canada during the Vancouver Games.

- And during its run as Winter Olympics network in the '90s, CBS didn't use John Williams' music. But the Tamara Kline-composed theme they used was arranged by Bob Christianson, who has composed a number of themes for them and ESPN/ABC, including his most well-known work that conjures up many things to hoop fans: CBS' theme to NCAA basketball and its coverage of March Madness, now going on 20 years & counting.

All in all, those are some of the stories behind the music of the Olympics on television. And for the biggest story in this article, this also brings a composer movie fans and some television people, and those at 30 Rock, will no doubt recognize, and a composer who, like most athletes who compete at an Olympics, isn't as well known. So give Mr. Arnaud some credit for creating one of the most iconic themes in all of television, and we can than an icon of the classical music world thanks in that as well.

Stay here on DCBLOG for more Games 2014 posts during Sochi 2014 as we cover various aspects of the Olympics, the sports and events from Olympic world, taking the SocialPulse of key moments and so much more as the action unfolds from Russia. And Twitter @DC408dxtr will offer live tweeting (Pacific time) of TV coverage including tonight's primetime show and live streaming & cable coverage, time permitting.

   We're also covering MTV's Real World Ex-Plosion and Are You The One? here & on twitter, including a Fan's View of the RW After Shows and live tweeting of all new episodes later this week. For now, until I join you on twitter at 8pm PT and then here on the blog later, thanks for reading and see you then. Go USA!

- DC