What Does It Take To Write A Hit TV Theme Song?
The opening theme music from a TV show can become an earworm — just think of Mission: Impossible or Peter Gunn. For composers, coming up with something catchy is like trying to write a Top 40 hit.
A popular TV show can inject its music into the pop culture bloodstream. Just think of The Twilight Zone.
As instantly recognizable as that theme is, though, it was actually something composer Marius Constant had already written — a piece of library music just sitting on a shelf. By contrast, Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme was specifically composed as the main title for its show. That theme won two Grammys and broke into the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959.
That theme is by Richard Markowitz.
