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TV Theme Songs: Simon & Simon

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale" of a time when television shows began with awesome TV Theme Songs. "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" and sometimes you want to go back to when TV Theme songs were special. "Here's a story... of a lovely" time when TV Theme Songs served to identify, distinguish and set the stage for the television program that followed. "You take the good, take the bad, take them both and there you have" what unfortunately has become a lost artform. "Believe it or not", sadly it seems no effort or pride is taken in the TV Theme Song ever since Seinfeld proved a short synth-bass riff could be used instead. “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” This regular feature may not "make all our dreams come true", but it will remember some of the best TV Theme Songs from years past (with a focus on the '80s decade). "Come aboard, we're expecting you."


This time we will cover the theme song for Simon & Simon. The series debuted in November of 1981 running eight seasons and 156 episodes. It stars Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as brothers who run a detective agency in San Diego. The show was almost cancelled in 1982, but it was moved to Thursday nights following Magnum, P.I. and became a hit for several seasons.


For the first season of Simon & Simon, the song "Best of Friends", composed by Linda Creed and Barry De Vorzon and performed by the Thrasher Brothers, served as the theme song. More specifically, the instrumental version of "Best of Friends" appeared at the beginning of each episode while the lyrical version was used at the conclusion of each episode. At the beginning of the second season, the second and more recognizable instrumental theme song, composed by Barry De Vorzon and Michael Towers, was introduced. The theme consists primarily of an electric bottle-slide guitar lead with a saxophone interlude and was used for the remainder of the show's run.


Barry De Vorzon is a Grammy and Emmy award-winning songwriter and producer. He wrote the "Theme from S.W.A.T." for that series which debuted in 1975. De Vorzon composed the soundtrack to the 1979 film The Warriors which included co-writing the Eagles hit "In the City". He also did work on The Young and the Restless, the 1980 film Xanadu, the Private Benjamin television series, the 1985 Twilight Zone series and the V: The Final Battle mini-series among much more. Linda Creed co-wrote many '70s hits for The Stylistics and The Spinners, but she is probably best known for writing the lyrics for "The Greatest Love of All" in 1977 which really gained notice after Whitney Houston recorded her version in 1985. The only other credit Michael Towers has other than co-writing this theme song is for co-writing the song "Nobody's Fool" with Kenny Loggins for the film Caddyshack II.


Here is the opening (after season 1) for Simon & Simon featuring the more recognized theme song...




In case you are interested in hearing the "Best of Friends" theme song that was only used in season 1, here you go...




Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!

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