The Great Joey Bishop Show Theme

HI Y'all,
Here I am again after somewhat of an absence, to blog about an old tv
theme...
The theme in question is for the "JOey Bishop Show"(sitcom)

This show ran from 1961 to about 1965...all but the last season was in
color.
NBC, at that time was owned by RCA, and they were pushing color tv sets, and featured The Bishop Show in color.

When NBC cancelled the show, CBS picked it up for one more season, and decided to relegate it to BLack and White. CBS didn't have that many color shows at the time, and for whatever reason, decided to feature this show in glorious Black and White.
The musical theme is a lost gem, in my humble opinion. Not many people
remember this show, probably because it was not available on rerun, as other classic shows of it's time were.
The show was produced by the legendary Danny Thomas, who was quite an
enrtrepanuer. Danny had his fingers silently in many shows, and was somewhat of a tv
mogul.
Since Joey was a member of the rat pack, his fellow members often sang or requested songs from friend Jimmy Van Heusen, who ran with Sinatra and company...So it was that Van Heusen wrote the theme for Joey's Show..probably at the behest of Bishop.
The music and the arrangements for the show were done by the late Herb Spencer, one of Hollywood's greatest orchestrators..a true legend in the industry. Herb, previous to this, was doing tv scoring for many Desilu Shows with his then partner Earle Hagen...they had a music scoring company called "MSI"(Music Scoring, Inc.)
But it was at this point in time that Herb went solo from Hagen to do the
Bishop show..So, in essence, Herb wrote the arrangment for the theme,
as well as the underscore. Herb gives this theme a similar treatment that he gave The Dick Van Dyke Show theme...
Kind a a jazzy mid tempo beat with a nice drum beat, slightly delayed,
or layed back...I think Herb did the chart for the Van Dyke ahow, although
its composer was Earle Hagen...
We dont hear scoring like this today...with big band and strings so
expertly arranged...
On the bridge of the Bishop show Theme, the strings take over and after a bar and a half the unison violins shift into a "singing" high register..
Another expertly arranged element in this chart are the saxes that
blend so efforlessly with the brass...
This chart also kind of mirrors the similar arranging that Spencer-Hagen
did on The Danny Thomas Show theme.

WEll, when I hear this music I am overjoyed, for 2 reasons..one, it
takes me back to another era...
and two, its just arranged so damn good! Jimmy Van Heusen did an
excellent job at providing a wonderful theme for JOey.
Of course, as Earle once told me back in the day, after the show
music was recorded, the production companies "threw out the physical
scores.." The studios didn't feel that they had any value - The nostalgia
era had yet to occur, and without a thought, these musical cues, including
the theme to That Girl, another excellent theme, were thrown out to
make space at the studio. Sad.
The show is now available on DVD(finally) and is available on Amazon.com.


Here is a link to the main and end credit themes as heard and seen on
youtube.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7DOEsToAM


Steveo