Eye Level

Last updated
"Eye Level"
Single by Simon Park Orchestra
from the album Eye Level [1]
B-side "Distant Hills"
Released3 November 1972
Genre Orchestral
Length2:20
Label Columbia Gramophone Company
Songwriter(s) Jack Trombey
Producer(s) Simon Park

"Eye Level" is a 1972 single by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was produced originally for the De Wolfe Music Library and selected by Thames Television to be the theme tune for their Netherlands-based detective series Van der Valk .

Contents

Overview

The work was originally intended as library music, [2] and was loosely based on a German/Dutch nursery rhyme called Jan Hinnerk (in German) [3] or Catootje (in Dutch), which in its turn took the opening bars of Non più andrai from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro . Dutch composer Jan Stoeckart adapted the original tune and wrote a new top line under the name of Jack Trombey, while Simon Park arranged it for his own orchestra and conducted the recording. The track was fully entitled "Eye Level (Theme from the TV series 'Van Der Valk'). [4] A song based on the music with lyrics added was called "And You Smiled", performed by Matt Monro.

The tune became popular with audiences and Columbia Gramophone Company issued it as a single (catalogue number DB 8946) with the theme to Granada Television's drama series Crown Court , entitled "Distant Hills", on the B-side. The record entered the UK chart for just two weeks in late 1972. Almost a year later, the record was re-issued and in September 1973 it became a hit, with four weeks at No.1 and a further 20 weeks in the top 50. [5] Total sales were 1,005,500, gaining the award of a platinum disc and becoming one of the 12 best-selling singles of the 1970s. [6] In Ireland, the song was also a hit, reaching No. 3 in the charts there. [7] In 1974, Stoeckart released his own version under the name Jack Trombey's Brass. [8]

In the US, it was used as theme music in 1970s TV and radio commercials for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It was also used for TV advertisements for Alton Towers, in its pre-Luna Park mode of gardens, fronted by Frank Muir and in the 1980s for Oranjeboom lager using "tulips" for "your lips" as "wrap tulips around a pint today". "Eye Level" was issued as a single in the United States on Vanguard Records (catalogue #35175). Though it failed to chart on the Hot 100, it did make No. 29 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in January 1974. [9] In South Africa, the tune was used as the theme music for the 1974 feature film Boland! with added Afrikaans lyrics and is generally known there as "Die Lied Van Die Boland" (The Highland Song).

Track listing

  1. "Eye Level (Theme from the TV series Van Der Valk)" (Trombey) 2:20
  2. "Distant Hills (Theme from the TV series Crown Court)" (Reno / Haseley) 3:02

Chart performance

Weekly Charts

Chart (1973-74)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [10] 13
Ireland (IRMA) [11] 3
UK Singles Chart 1
US Billboard Adult Contemporary 29

Year-end charts

Chart (1974)Rank
Australia (Kent Music Report) [12] 61

Sales and certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [13] Platinum1,010,000 [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fame (Irene Cara song)</span> 1980 single by Irene Cara

"Fame" is a song written by Michael Gore (music) and Dean Pitchford (lyrics) and released in 1980, that achieved chart success as the theme song to the Fame film and TV series. The song was performed by Irene Cara, who played the role of Coco Hernandez in the original film. It was also her debut single as a recording artist. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980, and the Golden Globe Award the same year. In 2004, it finished at number 51 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music Box Dancer</span> 1979 single by Frank Mills

"Music Box Dancer" is an instrumental piece by Canadian musician Frank Mills that was an international hit in the late 1970s. It features an arpeggiated piano theme in C-sharp major designed to resemble a music box, accompanied by other instruments playing a counterpoint melody as well as a wordless chorus.

Simon May is a British composer. He has composed many British television theme tunes, including EastEnders and Howards' Way, and the music for the 1988 film The Dawning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)</span> 1974 single by MFSB featuring The Three Degrees

"TSOP " is a 1974 hit recording by MFSB featuring vocals by The Three Degrees. A classic example of the Philadelphia soul genre, it was written by Gamble and Huff as the theme for the American musical television program Soul Train, which specialized in African American musical performers. The single was released on the Philadelphia International Records label. It was the first television theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and it is arguably the first disco song to reach that position.

"Mambo No. 5" is an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949 and released the next year.

<i>Van der Valk</i> British TV crime drama set in Amsterdam

Van der Valk is a British television crime drama series produced for the ITV network. The original series was created by Nicolas Freeling based on his novels about a detective in Amsterdam, starring Barry Foster in the role of titular character Simon "Piet" van der Valk. It ran from 1972 to 1992. The updated version, premiering in 2020, was created and written by Chris Murray, with Marc Warren reviving the van der Valk role.

John Valmore Pearson was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.

The Simon Park Orchestra is a group which is most notable for producing the instrumental "Eye Level", the theme tune for the television series Van der Valk composed by Jan Stoeckart which spent four weeks at the number one position in the UK Singles Chart in September 1973. The song also peaked at number 13 in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L'amour est bleu</span>

"L'amour est bleu" is a song whose music was composed by André Popp, and whose lyrics were written by Pierre Cour, in 1967. Bryan Blackburn later wrote English-language lyrics for it. First performed in French by Greek singer Vicky Leandros as the Luxembourgish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, it has since been recorded by many other musicians, most notably French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat, whose familiar instrumental version became the first number-one hit by a French lead artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A View to a Kill (song)</span> 1985 single by Duran Duran

"A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by the English new wave and synth-pop band Duran Duran, released on 6 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the James Bond film of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart while stuck behind Paul Hardcastle's "19". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001 and was also performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hold On Tight (Electric Light Orchestra song)</span> 1981 single by Electric Light Orchestra

"Hold On Tight" is a song written and performed by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). The song is track twelve on the band's 1981 album Time and was the first song released as a single. The song went top ten in most countries, hitting the top spot in Spain and Switzerland, number two in Germany, number four in the UK, and number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's seventh and last top 10 hit, as well as number two on the US Billboard Top Tracks chart the week of 12 September 1981. A verse sung in French, which is a reprise of the first verse, translates as "Hold on to your dream, Hold on to your dream, When you see your ship leaving, When you feel your heart breaking, Hold on to your dream".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love's Theme</span> 1973 single by The Love Unlimited Orchestra

"Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece written by Barry White in around 1965. Recorded and released as a single by White's The Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973, it was one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, which it did in early 1974. Billboard ranked it as the #3 song for 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crockett's Theme</span> 1986 single by Jan Hammer

"Crockett's Theme" is an instrumental song written for the hit NBC series Miami Vice. The surname Crockett refers to Don Johnson's character, James "Sonny" Crockett. The initial version of the theme first appeared in the episode "Calderone's Return: Part 1 – The Hit List", which aired on October 19, 1984. The song was composed by Jan Hammer and appears on the album Miami Vice II, the second volume of music from the television show. It also appeared on Jan Hammer's 1987 album Escape from Television.

De Wolfe Limited is a British music production company, recognised as the originator of what has become known as library music. De Wolfe Music was established by Meyer de Wolfe in 1909 and began its recorded library in 1927 with the advent of 'Talkies'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teletubbies say "Eh-oh!"</span> Chart-topping childrens song

"Teletubbies say 'Eh-oh!'" is a hit single recorded by the Teletubbies. It is mostly a remix of the theme song from the hit BBC children's television series Teletubbies. The song contains two nursery rhymes: the Teletubbies hum along to "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and the flowers from Teletubbyland sing "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary".

Theme from <i>Mission: Impossible</i> American television theme music

"Theme from Mission: Impossible" is the theme tune of the TV series Mission: Impossible (1966–1973). The theme was written and composed by Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin and has since gone on to appear in several other works of the Mission: Impossible franchise, including the 1988 TV series, the film series, and the video game series.

Jan Stoeckart was a Dutch composer, conductor, trombonist and former radio producer, who often worked under various pseudonyms such as Willy Faust, Peter Milray, Julius Steffaro and Jack Trombey. In the UK he is best known for his composition Eye Level, the theme tune to the ITV series Van der Valk, which was a number one on the UK singles chart in 1973. He also composed "Homeward Bound", a theme from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), under the pseudonym Jack Trombey.

"Meet the Flintstones", also worded as "(Meet) The Flintstones", is the theme song of the 1960s animated television series The Flintstones. Composed in 1961 by Hoyt Curtin, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, it is one of the most popular and best known of all theme songs, with its catchy lyrics "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern Stone Age family".

"No, Honestly" is a song written, performed and produced by Lynsey de Paul, that was the theme for London Weekend Television's comedy series of the same name, although the single release was a slightly different version from that used for the TV theme.

References

  1. Discogs - Eye Level album
  2. "One-Hit Wonders at the BBC". 17 April 2015. BBC Four.{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
  3. YouTube clip of 'Jan Hinnerk' (in English)
  4. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 417. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  5. Official Singles Chart - Simon Park Orchestra
  6. Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p.  333. ISBN   0-214-20512-6.
  7. Irish Charts database Archived 2009-06-02 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Jack Trombey's Brass - "Eye Level"
  9. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-1993. Record Research. p. 184
  10. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
  11. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Eye Level". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  12. "National Top 100 Singles for 1974". Kent Music Report. 30 December 1974. Retrieved 15 January 2022 via Imgur.
  13. "British single certifications – Simon Park Orchestra – Eye Level". British Phonographic Industry.
  14. Lane, Daniel (27 June 2013). "Daft Punk's Get Lucky becomes one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all-time!". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 6 May 2014.