I kinda figured this one would be found quickly, and—thanks to José Teixera/José Muñoz—it was! I was also right that I'd heard this song—"Pacemaker"—before. It sounded like a '90s tune, though, so I didn't go back to those early MusicHouse albums. Anyway… Pacemaker was composed by production-music legend Alan Hawkshaw, so it turns out he does have an NFL Primetime track other than Neck and Neck.
Here's the revised link, or I guess you could just scroll down a little…
Showing posts with label Alan Hawkshaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Hawkshaw. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Friday, September 14, 2018
Unknown Song #37 (Oddball Week, Part 7) - Pacemaker
Primetime Usage - 1997
Contained on - MusicHouse E1 (Hi-Band)
Featured Highlight - Chiefs @ Broncos, 1997Contained on - MusicHouse E1 (Hi-Band)
*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 9/17/18
The Oddball Week finale is thankfully here. Unknown Song #37 is a song I swear I've heard before when browsing production-music albums a few years ago. When I went back through some stuff after first seeing this NFL Primetime episode, however, I couldn't find it. Hopefully one of you readers (or youtube viewers) will recognize it and can identify it. Anyway… US #37's accompanying clip has the Chiefs heading to Marty Schottenheimer's "House of Horrors," Mile High Stadium. Kansas City would lose this one, but they would at least get the second laugh by winning the division anyway. Denver, of course, would get the third & final laugh by upsetting KC in the Divisionals and winning their first Super Bowl title a few weeks later.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Close Games Between Bad Teams
Song - Neck and Neck
Artist(s) - Alan Hawkshaw
Released - 1989
Primetime Usage - 1990-96
Contained on - MusicHouse MHE13 (Live Action)
Featured Highlight - Saints @ Falcons, 1996
When two awful football teams get together, the result—however lacking in polish—can be quite entertaining. "Neck and Neck" is a song that symbolizes that ambivalence perfectly. It's up tempo and electronic, but it also gives off much more anguish and unhappiness than most NFL Primetime tracks. If your team was struggling, you wouldn't be surprised to hear Neck and Neck playing in the background. This seemed especially true if your team played on astroturf and/or in a dome such as historically mediocre franchises like the Lions, Saints, or Falcons. The song provided a kind of therapy for football sadness.
Neck and Neck was composed by production music legend Alan "The Hawk" Hawkshaw, who has been active in composition & pop music for more than 50 years. I won't go through all his awards, group memberships, & accomplishments here, mainly because it would take forever, but you can check them out on his website (linked above) or on his wikipedia page. Outside of production music, he might be best known for putting together the disco group Love De-Luxe that produced the #1 disco hit, "Here Comes that Sound Again," in 1979. Hawkshaw's daughter, Kirsty, is also a prolific electronic composer/artist and was the lead singer for Opus III in the '90s.
Neck and Neck is streamable on EMI's production music site, which is linked above. Unfortunately, it appears to be the only Primetime song that was composed by Alan Hawkshaw.
A fitting clip for this song (and the post title) is this "epic" 1996 matchup in the Georgia Dome between doomed June Jones's 1-9 Falcons and interim coach Rick Venturi's Saints. Enjoy!
When two awful football teams get together, the result—however lacking in polish—can be quite entertaining. "Neck and Neck" is a song that symbolizes that ambivalence perfectly. It's up tempo and electronic, but it also gives off much more anguish and unhappiness than most NFL Primetime tracks. If your team was struggling, you wouldn't be surprised to hear Neck and Neck playing in the background. This seemed especially true if your team played on astroturf and/or in a dome such as historically mediocre franchises like the Lions, Saints, or Falcons. The song provided a kind of therapy for football sadness.
Neck and Neck was composed by production music legend Alan "The Hawk" Hawkshaw, who has been active in composition & pop music for more than 50 years. I won't go through all his awards, group memberships, & accomplishments here, mainly because it would take forever, but you can check them out on his website (linked above) or on his wikipedia page. Outside of production music, he might be best known for putting together the disco group Love De-Luxe that produced the #1 disco hit, "Here Comes that Sound Again," in 1979. Hawkshaw's daughter, Kirsty, is also a prolific electronic composer/artist and was the lead singer for Opus III in the '90s.
Neck and Neck is streamable on EMI's production music site, which is linked above. Unfortunately, it appears to be the only Primetime song that was composed by Alan Hawkshaw.
A fitting clip for this song (and the post title) is this "epic" 1996 matchup in the Georgia Dome between doomed June Jones's 1-9 Falcons and interim coach Rick Venturi's Saints. Enjoy!
Monday, August 10, 2015
NFL Primetime Music - Introduction
NFL Primetime, which aired in its weekly, classic form on ESPN from 1987-2005, put a unique imprint on the memories of NFL fans. Chris Berman's wit and eventual use of corny nicknames cemented him as one of the stars of the network, while Tom Jackson's concise, accurate, & often blunt analysis made him the most refreshing football commentator on TV. The first 11 years of NFL Primetime also featured an all-star team of co-hosts including John Saunders, Robin Roberts, Bill Pidto, & the late Stuart Scott. Even legendary sports wordsmith Pete Axthelm, who died in early 1991, provided entertaining editorials and betting analysis in the show's early years. All of these factors helped make NFL Primetime one of the best highlight shows ever made and vastly superior to anything that's come since the 2006 change to the NFL TV arrangement, but—come on—the #1 reason people loved the show was its awesome soundtrack.
NFL Primetime music has been highly sought on the internet for more than a decade now. I'm sure, if you found this blog anyway, that you've seen a set of 16+ NFL Primetime songs either posted on youtube or for download elsewhere. I don't quite know how all of these songs were obtained, though I believe some were ripped from the now forgotten NFL Primetime PS2 game that came out in 2002, but I have found actual documentation on some of them. Also—in providing a more unique flavor to this blog—I have found a lot of songs not contained in this set, including most of the tracks utilized in the early days of the show. The vast majority of what I've discovered can be located on the various production music label networks that populate the web. Well known figures in the production music world created some of these compositions, such as Trevor Bastow, Zack Laurence, John Devereaux, & Alan Hawkshaw, and their quality stands far above the average you'd expect for library stuff. I've still got a long way to go to find everything, though, given the mind-numbing amount of production music that's available to stream online.
Over the coming weeks and months, I will post information about the NFL Primetime music I have definitively identified. After that, I will start detailing the songs that are less than fleshed out. This will start with songs I've discovered without credits and then finish with the tracks I have yet to find at all. Hopefully this blog will be popular enough by that point that you readers can then help me out with this process. No song will be available for download on this blog. However, links to production libraries where these songs can be legally streamed/obtained will be provided whenever possible. I will also include one game highlight from NFL Primetime as an example of each song's use on the show. I hope that, one day, this site can put together a complete list of every song used for highlights over the entire run of the show. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
NFL Primetime music has been highly sought on the internet for more than a decade now. I'm sure, if you found this blog anyway, that you've seen a set of 16+ NFL Primetime songs either posted on youtube or for download elsewhere. I don't quite know how all of these songs were obtained, though I believe some were ripped from the now forgotten NFL Primetime PS2 game that came out in 2002, but I have found actual documentation on some of them. Also—in providing a more unique flavor to this blog—I have found a lot of songs not contained in this set, including most of the tracks utilized in the early days of the show. The vast majority of what I've discovered can be located on the various production music label networks that populate the web. Well known figures in the production music world created some of these compositions, such as Trevor Bastow, Zack Laurence, John Devereaux, & Alan Hawkshaw, and their quality stands far above the average you'd expect for library stuff. I've still got a long way to go to find everything, though, given the mind-numbing amount of production music that's available to stream online.
Over the coming weeks and months, I will post information about the NFL Primetime music I have definitively identified. After that, I will start detailing the songs that are less than fleshed out. This will start with songs I've discovered without credits and then finish with the tracks I have yet to find at all. Hopefully this blog will be popular enough by that point that you readers can then help me out with this process. No song will be available for download on this blog. However, links to production libraries where these songs can be legally streamed/obtained will be provided whenever possible. I will also include one game highlight from NFL Primetime as an example of each song's use on the show. I hope that, one day, this site can put together a complete list of every song used for highlights over the entire run of the show. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
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