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BILLBOARD'S TOP 10 TV THEME SONGS 1980-2011

gregg75

gregg75

Got an email from BB today and it contains their top 10 song written for TV and ranked
by how high they peaked (1980-2011). This goes with the post last month about TV theme songs.
Maybe they saw it on here??? Anyway, can't say as I agree with them, but here they are.......


1. How Do You Talk To An Angel from THE HEIGHTS (1992 #1 two weeks)
2. Miami Vice Theme (#1 one week 1985)
3. Theme From Greatest American Hero (1981 peaked at #2)
4. Hill Street Blues (1981 peaked at #10)
5. I'll Be There For You from FRIENDS (1995 peaked at #17)
6. Theme From The Dukes Of Hazzard (1980 peaked at #21)
7. Moonlighting Theme (1987 peaked at #23)
8. Theme From Magnum P.I. (1982 peaked at #25)
9. Theme From Dynasty (1982 peaked at #52)
10. WKRP In Cincinnati (1981 peaked at #65)

I think this topic was actually on the Classic TV board.......don't dog me for putting it there
also.
 
Speaking of Billboard, is there any way to access classic Billboard charts (like the Hot 100) online? For instance, December 1979, with songs like The Rainbow Connection and The Pina Colada Song....
 
I don't think Billboard has such a database available - and if they do, I can imagine that it would be a premium/subscription service.

By the way: I have played songs 1 and 7 on the list on my "Cellar" show. Maybe I'll do a segment based on this list on a future show. Which, btw, you can find at http://www.facebook.com/cellarshow.

One more thing: With the exception of No. 7, I had no idea the bottom half of that top ten list even charted!
 
1069_KIFR said:
Snubbed by Billboard....
The 'A' Team?
NYPD Blue?
Charles In Charge?
M*A*S*H?
Cheers?

Oh the humanity!!!!
Click to expand...

Funny, KIFR. But not that many TV themes were even released as Top 40 hits. I remember that Greatest American Hero was on the play list for a short time on KFRC, and the full version of the Hill Street Blues theme song may have briefly charted - but most TV themes were never played on Top 40 stations,

I recall that there were a couple of exceptions to this: the Route 66 theme, which charted briefly in the early 60s, and Theme from a Summer Place (movie) which was a fairly big hit in the mid 60s.
 
Consider that not all of the TV Themes were released commercially on singles. Or saw very limited issue as singles. So, they won't be on the charts. I didn't know that the Chips theme song ever saw 45 single release until I saw a copy in the wild. And it didn't come out on 45 until 1979 and by a band named Corniche. I am aware of no 45 single releases of "the A-Team", "Charles In Charge" or "NYPD Blue". The Cheers theme didn't get a 45 release until it was on Collectables. The "Cops" theme music barely made it out as a 45.
 
DToTheJ said:
I don't think Billboard has such a database available - and if they do, I can imagine that it would be a premium/subscription service.
Click to expand...

Maybe this info is available. Michael Hagerty posted this recently at reelradio.com in regard to another subject:

Google Books now has thousands of back issues of Billlboard from 2008 back to at least the early 40s scanned and accessible online. It's incomplete and I suspect they may still be adding issues as they find them, because, a year and a half in, I'm discovering stuff I haven't seen before.

They make it easy...once in, you search for a word or phrase, much like anything on Google. In this case, I was trying to track down when KHJ-FM went from "Hitparade" to "Solid Gold". I didn't find that, but there was a synopsis with "KHJ-FM", "ARB" and "18-24".

While I love that this exists, Billboard often limited its radio coverage to two or three articles and the Vox Jox column...meaning a lot of stuff never saw print. I'm really hoping R&R will get the same treatment, since it covered radio much more intensively and ended its run under the same ownership as Billboard.
 
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