Mike Post | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Leland Michael Postil |
Born | Berkeley, California, U.S. | September 29, 1944
Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Genres | Rock, pop, soul, theme music |
Occupation(s) | Producer, songwriter, musician, composer, arranger |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards |
Years active | 1964–present |
Website | https://mike-post.com/ |
Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil, September 29, 1944) is an American composer, best known for his television theme music for various shows, including The White Shadow ; Law & Order ; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ; The A-Team ; The Byrds of Paradise ; NYPD Blue ; Renegade; The Rockford Files ; L.A. Law ; Quantum Leap ; Magnum, P.I. ; and Hill Street Blues . [1] [2] [3] He was also the producer of the Van Halen III album by the band Van Halen.
Post's first credited work in music was cutting demos using two singing sisters, Terry and Carol Fischer. With Sally Gordon, they went on to become The Murmaids. Their first single, "Popsicles and Icicles" (written by David Gates), was a number 3 hit song in January 1964.[ citation needed ]
Post also provided early guidance for the garage rock band The Outcasts while in recruit training in San Antonio, Texas. He was the songwriter and producer for both songs on the band's first single, released in 1965, and also arranged a local concert where they served as the back-up band. [4]
He won his first (of five) Grammy Awards at age 23 for Best Instrumental Arrangement on Mason Williams' "Classical Gas", [5] a number 2 hit song in 1968. He is also credited as the record producer for Williams' LP that included that song, The Mason Williams Phonograph Record.
Billed as the Mike Post Coalition, their track "Afternoon of the Rhino" became a sought-after Northern soul track. [6] The single peaked at number 47 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1975. [7]
Post also worked with Kenny Rogers [1] and produced the first three albums he recorded with his country/rock group Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (between 1967 and 1969). Post also produced Dolly Parton's hit album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs in 1981. In 1997, he produced Van Halen's Van Halen III album.
One of his first jobs in television started when he was 24, as the musical director on The Andy Williams Show . [2] [1] Another early job was writing the theme music for the short-lived detective series Toma in 1973, but his big breakthrough (together with co-composer Pete Carpenter) came in the following year with his theme song for The Rockford Files , another series by producer Stephen J. Cannell. The theme also got cross-over Top 40 radio airplay and earned a second Grammy for Post. [5] [8]
The Rockford Files theme became a Top 10 hit in both the U.S. (number 10) and Canada (number 8). [9] It ranks as the 85th biggest U.S. hit of 1975, [10] and the 84th biggest Canadian hit of 1975. [11]
Post subsequently won Grammys for Best Instrumental Composition for the themes of the television shows Hill Street Blues in 1981 and L.A. Law in 1988 as well as another Grammy in 1981 for Best Instrumental Performance for the Hill Street Blues theme, which also reached number 10 in the U.S. [5] [8]
Post won an Emmy for his Murder One theme music, and had previously been nominated for NYPD Blue , among others. He has won Broadcast Music, Inc. Awards for the music for L.A. Law, Hunter , and the various Law & Order series. The theme for The Greatest American Hero (co-written with Stephen Geyer) is one of the few television themes to reach as high as number 2 as a single record on the Billboard Hot 100. [8] The "dun, dun" sound effect he created for the Law & Order franchise has entered popular culture [12] and he has written variations on it for each new series. [13]
At the peak of his career, Post was the go-to composer for all of the series created by Donald P. Bellisario, Steven Bochco, Stephen J. Cannell and Dick Wolf. Due to the considerable amount of music to be created, Post operated an office with multiple staff composers, among them Walter Murphy, Velton Ray Bunch, Frank Denson, Jerry Grant and Greg Edmonson, all composing side by side in cubicles. Each would write music cues to complement specific scenes from each show in Post's signature style.[ citation needed ]
Other TV music works include The A-Team ; Baa Baa Black Sheep ; Blossom ; The Commish ; Doogie Howser, M.D. ; The Greatest American Hero ; Hardcastle and McCormick ; Hooperman ; Hunter; Magnum, P.I. ; NewsRadio ; Profit ; Quantum Leap ; Renegade ; Riptide ; Silk Stalkings ; Stingray ; Tales of the Gold Monkey ; Tenspeed and Brown Shoe ; The White Shadow ; Wiseguy ; the BBC series Roughnecks ; and Philly .
In 1994, Post scored the Diagnosis: Murder episode "How To Murder Your Lawyer", designed as a backdoor pilot for a lawyer series.[ citation needed ]
In 2014, Post composed the score for the fake TV pilot Caged Heat in the All Hail the King short film for Marvel Studios. [14]
In 2024, Post composed the theme music for BBC2 sitcom Mammoth [15]
In 1994, Post released a CD, called Inventions from the Blue Line. The CD contained several of his well-known themes, featuring NYPD Blue and also including Law & Order, Silk Stalkings and Renegade. In the liner notes, he discussed his late father, Sam Postil, and the admiration for law enforcement officers that Sam instilled in Mike. He also referred to police in the traditional nickname of "blues", as in The Thin Blue Line (referring to the police in general and to police camaraderie). One of the tracks is called "The Blue Line", which Post calls "the comradery theme".
The Pete Townshend song "Mike Post Theme", which alludes to the ubiquity of Post's work in television theme music, appears on The Who's 2006 album, Endless Wire .
In 1989, Broadcast Music, Inc. Foundation and Mike Post established The Pete Carpenter Fellowship in memory of the late Pete Carpenter, who was Post’s co-composer of television scores and themes including The Rockford Files (for which they won a Grammy), Hunter, Riptide, Hardcastle and McCormick , Magnum, P.I. and The A-Team . The Pete Carpenter Fellowship is an annual, competitive residency for aspiring television, film and video game composers. [16]
The following singles credited to Mike Post charted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart [18] and/or on the Adult Contemporary chart:
Charles Frank Mangione is an American flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer.
The 18th Annual Grammy Awards were held February 28, 1976, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1975.
Magnum, P.I. is an American crime drama television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from December 11, 1980, to May 1, 1988, during its first-run broadcast on the American television network CBS. Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top 20 U.S. television programs in the Nielsen ratings during the first five years of its original run, finishing as high as number three for the 1982–83 season. The series entered syndication in 1986 under the title Magnum in order to differentiate reruns from new episodes still airing under the original title on CBS.
The Rockford Files is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974, to January 10, 1980. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator Jim Rockford, with Noah Beery Jr. in the supporting role of his father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, a retired truck driver. The show was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell. Huggins had created the American western TV show Maverick (1957–1962), which Garner also starred, and he wanted to create a similar show in a modern-day detective setting. In 2002, The Rockford Files was ranked No. 39 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, including "Strangers in the Night", “Danke Schoen” and "Moon Over Naples".
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. Sanborn worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician, and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry and the Rolling Stones. He released more than 20 albums and won six Grammy awards.
David Justin Hayward is an English musician. He was the guitarist and frontman of the rock band the Moody Blues from 1966 until that group's dissolution in 2018. He became the group's principal vocalist and its most prolific songwriter over the 1967–1974 period, and composed several international hit singles for the band.
Randy Edelman is an American musician, producer, and composer for film and television. He began his career as a member of Broadway's pit orchestras; he later produced solo albums for songs that were picked up by leading music performers including The Carpenters, Barry Manilow, and Dionne Warwick. He is known for his work in comedy films. He has been awarded many prestigious awards along with two nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and twelve BMI Awards. Edelman was given an honorary doctorate in fine arts by the University of Cincinnati in 2004.
Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which topped the charts in 1976 and was featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977. Further classical-disco fusions followed, such as "Flight '76", "Toccata and Funk in 'D' Minor" "Bolero", and "Mostly Mozart", but were not as successful.
The Best of Dolly Parton is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on November 9, 1970, by RCA Victor. The album was produced by Bob Ferguson. It includes some of Parton's early hits, a few non-single album tracks, and two previously unreleased tracks. The album peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The single, "Mule Skinner Blues " peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and earned Parton a nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on June 12, 1978, for sales of 500,000 copies.
Ronald Neal Jones is an American composer. He has composed music for various TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, DuckTales, American Dad!, and Family Guy. Along with the creator of The Fairly OddParents, Butch Hartman, he composed the show's theme song and music for its episodes. He currently resides in Stanwood, Washington, where he owns Sky Muse studios, a recording facility designed for music recording and post-production.
The First Edition is the debut studio album by the group the First Edition. Kenny Rogers sang the lead vocals on two tracks "Just Dropped In " and "Dream On". "Just Dropped In " became the only hit single from the album and marked the start of things to come, with Rogers soon becoming the lead singer of the group and the group being renamed "Kenny Rogers & the First Edition".
Velton Ray Bunch is a film and television composer. Sometimes credited as Ray Bunch. Bunch has been nominated for an Emmy three times for his work, and won the fourth time for his score to the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Similitude".
"Bless the Beasts and Children" is the theme song to the 1971 eponymous film and was performed by the Carpenters. It was featured on the B-side to their hit, "Superstar". The song received enough of its own airplay that Billboard listed the single as "Superstar"/"Bless the Beasts and Children" on the Hot 100, charting first at number 16 for the week of 11/20/71, and then number 21 for the week of 11/27/71. Then "Bless The Beasts and Children" had its own run as an A-side charting on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually topping out at number 67. In order to promote it, the Carpenters performed it on their television series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, as "F" for "Film Music". It was nominated for a 1972 Academy Award for Best Song, but it lost to Isaac Hayes's "Theme from Shaft".
Clarence Edward "Pete" Carpenter was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and veteran of television theme music sheet music. After a long career playing the trombone in bands and as a studio musician, Carpenter started working with composer Earle Hagen and writing music for television on shows like Bewitched (1964), Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964), and The Andy Griffith Show (1966–1967).
"Peter Gunn" is the theme music composed by Henry Mancini for the television show of the same name. The song was the opening track on the original soundtrack album, The Music from Peter Gunn, released by RCA Victor in 1959. Mancini won an Emmy Award and two Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Arrangement. In 2005, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Richie Brockelman, Private Eye is an American detective drama that was broadcast on NBC for five episodes in March and April 1978, with Dennis Dugan in the starring role. The Rockford Files was used to launch the series via character crossover in a 2-hour episode at the end of the 1977-78 season.
Television's Greatest Hits: 70s & '80s, prefaced with "TeeVee Toons Presents", is a 1987 compilation album of television theme songs released by TVT Records as the third volume of the Television's Greatest Hits series. It was recorded at Studio 900 and mastered at Bernie Grundman Studio.
All-Time Top 100 TV Themes, prefaced on the cover with "Tee-Vee Toons Presents", is a two-disc compilation album of television theme songs released by TVT Records in 2005 as a spinoff of the Television's Greatest Hits series. It included 100 themes taken from the seven volumes of the series plus newer themes from television programs that debuted after the last volume was released in 1996. Notably excluded was any Western themed television series.
"The Rockford Files" is a 1975 instrumental by Mike Post and co-composer Pete Carpenter. The song is the theme from the American detective drama TV series The Rockford Files, starring James Garner. It appears at the opening and ending of each episode with different arrangements. Throughout the show's tenure, the theme song went through numerous evolutions, with later versions containing a distinct electric guitar bridge section played by session guitarist Dan Ferguson.
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