Saturday, June 30, 2018

Unknown Song #32 (Oddball Week, Part 2) - Neo Dream (b)

Song - Neo Dream (b)
Artist(s) - Christian Poulet
Released - 1997
Primetime Usage - 1997
Contained on - KOS 34 (Virtual Nature) (Benjamin Lane Song Post)
Featured Highlight - Falcons @ Lions, 1997


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 3/20/19

It doesn't quite fit, but the second Oddball Week track is the best one.  I mean, I guess it does fit if you associate football with the oboe, but that proclivity probably isn't common.  This song would fit well in a JRPG, though.  It sounds especially like some of Noriyuki Iwadare's stuff from the Lunar & Growlanser series. I really doubt Iwadare wrote this particular piece, however, since all the Primetime tracks I've ID'd to this point have been by American or European composers.

US #32's highlight is quite appropriate for Oddball Week.  A full minute is spent showing the same punt over & over again.



Saturday, June 16, 2018

Unknown Song #31 (Oddball Week, Part 1) - Go For It

Song - Go For It
Artist(s) - Ray Russell
Released - 1988
Primetime Usage - 1997
Contained on - MusicHouse MHE7 - Jingles, Bumpers and Donuts (KPM search link)
Featured Highlight -
Cardinals @ Bengals, 1997


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 12/17/21

1997 was the last year where the NFL Primetime producers attempted to do a large-scale overhaul of the show's music.  I say "attempted," though, because most of these new tracks didn't stick.  Week 1 of '97 was particularly bizarre.  There were 13 highlights that week (not counting the SNF recap on the non-live broadcasts); more than half of them used songs that were, to my knowledge, never used any other time on the show.  Most of these tracks just didn't work, so kudos to the producers for both realizing that early and for replacing them with better new songs later (like Total News).

The very first Primetime highlight of 1997, featuring two teams that would not end up winning a lot of games, sadly includes one of the better oddball songs of Week 1.  I apologize for the video quality of these Oddball Week clips in advance.  Fortunately, the audio quality does not suffer nearly as much.



Sunday, June 3, 2018

Unknown Song #30 (The Big Game?)

Song - Unknown Song #30
Primetime Usage - 1991-05
Featured Highlight - Vikings @ Lions, 1991


*EDIT* - This song was actually used once in 1996.  Thanks to Robert Enriquez on youtube for confirming this.

I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that Unknown Song #30 is one of the most recognizable tunes from NFL Primetime.  If you watched the show with any regularity in the '90s or 2000s (aside from 1996, where it was either not used or maybe used rarely), you surely heard this piece numerous times.  It's a pretty good song, even if it does sound a bit like Eric D.—I often get the two confused in my head.  This track has been roaming around the net (in the Polinsky set, among others) for a while, and it's called "The Big Game" on Dave Volsky's channel on youtube.  I have yet to see an artist or album/library credit attached to it, however.  It's similarity to Eric D. suggests John Colby could've composed it, but who knows?  If any of you readers has an idea, don't hesitate to comment or contact me.

Given the huge volume of Primetime highlights that feature US #30, I had a tough decision for this blog entry's video.  One of the top contenders was the Jets/Patriots game from 2001 where Drew Bledsoe got hurt, paving the way for Tom Brady—forgotten is that the game was probably best known at the time for its pregame honoring of Joe Andruzzi's firefighting family members that were involved with rescues on 9/11 (that game was from the first week after 9/11).  I ultimately rejected this highlight, though, because the game itself wasn't that interesting (Brady didn't get a chance to do much) and because the Bledsoe injury is likely a prime target for the NFL's copyright bots.  Instead, you get to see a veritable highlight reel for a different NFL great as his team came back from a 20-3 fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Vikings.