FEATURES - SCTV THEME MUSIC

Courtesy David Gross. Special thanks to Ira Newborn.

SCTV Theme Music

SCTV's themes through the years.

Series 1: Dance of the Hours/Emilia's

Series 2 - 3: Freestyle

Series 4 - 6: Ira Newborn

Syndication

Thanks to David Gross; special thanks to Ira Newborn.

Series 1: Spike Jones - Dance of the Hours

For the inaugural series, SCTV used a portion of a seminal comedy recording by Spike Jones. Dance of the Hours was a followup to his successful reinterpretation of the William Tell Overture.

Spike Jones at Wikipedia

For the closing credits and incidental music in some episodes (notably 1-3 Ethnic Humour), they used the first part of the polka medley 'Emilia's/Always In the Way/Helena' by The Stanislawsky Polka Band.

Series 2 - 3: Freestyle

Series 2 and 3 (and Cycle 1 of series 4) used the 'Freestyle' song from an album of library music produced by DeWolfe Music. 'Freestyle' would also pop up during series 4 as the backing track for Lola and Lorna's number at the People's Global Golden Choice Awards.

Listen: low (256mps) | high

Below are the front and back of the Freestyle library music LP (click thumbnails for higher res version).

Series 4 - 6: Ira Newborn

For the start of the 1981-82 season (production cycle 2), NBC commissioned a new theme song by Ira Newborn.

Ira Newborn at Wikipedia

Listen: low (256mps) | high

Below is the original, one of a kind, lead sheet by Ira Newborn himself (click thumbnails for higher res version).

(Theme song and lead sheets are copyright Ira Newborn)

Syndication

In syndication, SCTV adopted another theme, albeit similar in style, by Russ Little.

Russ Little at the Canadian Encyclopedia

Russ Little at the Canadian Jazz Archive

Bonus Content

An genuine SCTV crew sweatshirt, only a little worse for wear.