Really strangely groovy and excellent.
Its all here! Grandstand, Match of the Day, The Big Match, Horse of the Year (no really!). Ever wondered what the funky groovy next part of The News at Ten sounds like? Find out here. Sit back, turn off the TV and turn on the soundtrack to your childhood - or your Mum and Dad's if you're a bit younger. (Or your children if conversely you're a bit older of course).
One of Britain’s best-known orchestra leaders of the 1940s and ’50s shows that he was more than capable of getting in a funk groove, ’70s-style. Composer of ’50s light music classics as Marching Strings and Blue Violins, here Ray Martin displays a very different side to his musical persona. Both volumes of Favourite TV Themes were recorded for Decca, and for each album Martin assembled a studio orchestra built around a very tight and very funky rhythm section. Indeed, the funk is particularly apparent on Martin’s skilful, hip arrangements of the themes for International Golf, Kojak, Hawaii Five-0 and Ironside (from Favourite TV Themes Vol.2), as well as the themes for Wheelbase and General Hospital (from Favourite TV Themes Vol.1). This compilation features a host of other classic TV themes from the 1960s and ’70s including Eye Level (from ‘Van der Valk’), News at Ten, Grandstand, Midweek, Nationwide and Mission Impossible, all in immaculate new arrangements and brilliantly performed by Ray Martin and His Orchestra. This release features an exciting bonus in that it contains three previously unissued Ray Martin recordings from the ’70s – namely the themes for Anglia TV game show Sale of the Century, BBC TV’s long-running film review series Film ’74 (or whichever year it’s shown in) and cult sci-fi series Star Trek.
Now, time for bed.