So far, all of the TV themes that reached #1 have come courtesy of one-hit wonders. Our final example comes from a one-song wonder.
Fictional band The Heights appeared on a TV show of the same name, a musical drama that had a four-month run on Fox in 1992. ‘How Do You Talk to an Angel,’ performed by cast member Jamie Walters, became the show’s theme song and landed in Billboard’s top spot for a couple of weeks in November of that year.
Nearly a decade passed before another TV theme song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was 1985, when my 13 year-old self was living in South Florida and basking in the coolness of Miami Vice.
Composer/producer Jan Hammer’s electronic theme epitomizes the sizzling style of the Michael Mann-produced cop show. I can’t hear this song without picturing the terrific opening credits sequence, with its flock of flamingoes, fast cars and boats, and the bikini-clad windsurfer dipping her head in the ocean.
The mid-70s were a rich time for TV theme songs, with 1976 giving us our third straight year with such a tune reaching #1.
John Sebastian’s ‘Welcome Back’ was the first non-instrumental theme to accomplish the feat. Sebastian, former leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, wrote the song for the sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, which starred Gabe Kaplan as the titular Gabe Kotter, who returns to his Brroklyn high school as a teacher.
A year after the Soul Train theme became the first TV theme song to reach #1, another instrumental track repeated the feat. Funk group Rhythm Heritage’s ‘Theme from S.W.A.T.‘ peaked at #1 for a single week in February of 1976.
Though Rhythm Heritage’s version of this track enjoyed the sales success, the cop show used a different recording for its opening titles, one performed by an orchestra led by Barry De Vorzon, who wrote the song. That version sounds more like a TV theme and less like a funk jam, to its detriment.
A week or so ago, I featured the theme song from Soul Train and noted that it was one of five television theme songs to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This week I’ll cover the other four.
Before I get to those, I’ll throw a bone to the only TV theme to reach #2. That was Joey Scarbury’s ‘Believe It or Not (Theme from “Greatest American Hero”),’ which was kept from the top spot in 1981 by the eight-week chart-topping run of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross’ ‘Endless Love.’
Meet Me In Montauk 