Forerunner

Song - Forerunner

Artist(s) - Craig Palmer

Released - 1986

Primetime Usage - 1987

Contained on - Network Music NM051 (Corporate Technology (Industrial))
Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Steelers, 1987

The recent acquisition of most every NFL Primetime highlight from the late '80s has unearthed a few interesting one-off songs.  One of these, "Forerunner," is actually pretty good.  It has nice aggressive energy and definitely works well with action highlights.  It would probably work better if some of the excessive bridge sections were edited out, but I'm still surprised it wasn't used more than once on the show.  Even the underscore is good!  Most underscores could be accurately described as "lamer version of main track," but Forerunner's underscore emphasizes the sweet rhythm-guitar part that isn't as audible on the main track.  Forerunner was composed by Craig Palmer.  According to the archive.org snapshot of his now defunct website (linked on the Discogs page that's linked above), Palmer somehow became the music director for The Regis Philbin Show in San Diego when he was only 18.  In later years, he composed many library pieces that were used for movies & TV.  Special thanks to GodzFire for ID'ing this song soon after we acquired the Primetime clip.

NFL Primetime's only use of Forerunner was during Week 6 of 1987 (or Week 7 if you count the canceled week), which was the first week back after the strike ended.  In this highlight, Mark Malone actually leads the Steelers to a close home win over division rival Cincinnati.  You might remember Mark Malone as an ESPN reporter, a professional Tom Selleck lookalike, and the most hated man in the history of Pittsburgh, PA.

Non-Highlight Track (New Primetime) - Tracking Heat

Song - Tracking Heat
Artist(s) - Daniel Holter, Rex Carroll
Released - 2001
Primetime Usage - 2021
Contained on - Velocity VL017Q (Metal v2)
Featured Highlight - "Largest Conf Champ Comeback Wins" Segment, 2021

Here, as promised last week, is the last unique non-highlight track from the 2021 Conference Championship episode of NFL Primetime.  It accompanies a graphic showing the largest deficits overcome in conference-championship history (the 2021 Bengals tied the 18-point record set by the 2006 Colts), as well as a couple clips from the Cincinnati bar celebrations that occurred when the AFC Championship ended.  The song is "Tracking Heat," by Daniel Holter & Rex Carroll.  Holter is a producer who has composed/co-composed many songs that have shown up on TV, while Carroll is a songwriter who got his start as the lead guitar player & co-founder of the Christian metal group Whitecross in the 1980s.  Tracking Heat is found on the Velocity production-music album Metal v2.

Again, special thanks to Godzfire for ID'ing this one.

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.

Unknown Song #18 - Team Purpose

Song - Team Purpose

Artist(s) - John Fiddy & "Sammy Burdson" (Gerhard Narholz)

Released - 1986

Primetime Usage - 1989

Contained on - SON 246 (Industrial Themes & Underscores, Vol. 5), Sonoton SCD 42 (Corporate Classics) 

Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Bears, 1989

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 9/22/21

OK, I am finally through 1988 on this unknown-song run.  That means I can actually post some highlights with decent video & audio quality.  Unknown Song #18 is a piece that may have only been used once on NFL Primetime.  The only highlight I have with it is from Week 1 of 1989, and Week 1s seem to be popular receptacles for single-use Primetime tracks.  It's a pretty good song, too, assuming you're looking for accompaniment that is laid back and not real dramatic.  Tagging along with US #18 is a comeback win for Chicago in a battle between the previous season's #1-seeds.  This high-profile result wouldn't amount to much, however, as both the Bengals & Bears would miss the playoffs in '89.

Unknown Song #10 - Break Away

Song - Break Away

Artist(s) - William Soden (likely)

Released - No later than 1988

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Musikos MS1 (Sports 1)
Featured Highlight - Bills @ Bengals, 1988

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/3/23

Yet another unidentified song from 1988 that's pretty repetitive.  Unknown Song #10 is a bit lighter & cheerier than the last two, though.  It's a kinda like Unknown Song #7, but funkier & less melodic.  It's football-game accompaniment is a preview of the 1988 AFC Championship game.  If you liked the Ickey Shuffle, you'll love this highlight.

Leaders

Song - Leaders

Artist(s) - Christoph Narholz

Released - 1988

Primetime Usage - 1989-90

Contained on - SON 302 (Leaders, Vol. 2), Sonoton SCD 14 (Leaders 1&2)

Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Raiders, 1990


With the John Colby marathon now over, it was only a matter of time before I'd get back to posting Sonoton stuff.  "Leaders," the only known NFL Primetime track composed by Gerhard Narholz's son, Christoph, uses much the same instrumentation as the other Sonoton songs I've identified.  It is a bit repetitive & bland, comparatively, but ESPN nonetheless used it quite frequently throughout Primetime's Sonoton era (1989-90).  In fact, Leaders is the only Sonoton piece to be used in all eight '89/'90 NFL Primetime episodes I've logged.

The accompanying highlight for Leaders serves as eerie foreshadowing.  As the preview thumbnail shows, Bo Jackson ran for 117 yards on just 8 carries in the Raiders' 1990 regular-season contest against the Bengals.  Jackson also had a breakaway run where he was surprisingly tackled from behind by a Cincinnati defender that kinda previewed his career-ending hip injury against the Bengals in the playoffs later that season.  Just like the following postseason meeting, though, the Raiders came away with a double-digit victory.  Also interesting about 1990 is that it is still, to date, the last time the Cincinnati Bengals won a playoff game (they beat the Jets in the Wild Card).

What Coulda Been

Song - N.Y. Giants

Artist(s) - Ray Russell

Released - 1984

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Bruton BRH 20 (Good Morning America!), Archive.org Link

Featured Highlight - Cardinals @ Bengals, 1988


The next couple weeks will feature two songs from the same album that may have been used as little as one time on NFL Primetime.  The only highlight I have of "N.Y. Giants," by Grid Lock guitarist/composer Ray Russell, was for a game that ironically had nothing to do with the New York Giants.  In 1988, the Cardinals had just uprooted themselves from tepid fan support in St. Louis and had to get ready for nearly 20 years of similarly apathetic support in Phoenix.  Despite this, and the franchise's historically underwhelming win/loss record, expectations were high for the 1988 Phoenix Cardinals.  The still had Neil "The Grand Cannon" Lomax who, though not on the level of a Joe Montana, was still one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL.  They also had star WR Roy Green and a decent chunk of other talented players.  An 0-2 start that included a loss to an ultimately terrible Cowboys squad in the Cardinals' first ever game at Sun Devil Stadium probably dinged their egos a bit, but they won 7 of their next 9 games (including a 23-point comeback over eventual Super Bowl champ San Francisco) and were actually leading the NFC East after Week 11.  Unfortunately, 1988 then became the ultimate "what coulda been" season for the Cardinals franchise.  Lomax suffered a leg injury in that last win over the Giants and, though he would eventually return, the team wasn't the same and they lost 5 straight to end the year.  Even worse, Lomax never played a regular-season down again following 1988 due to a chronic hip condition and the Cardinals wouldn't see anything resembling consistent QB play again until 2007.  The franchise's near misses in the late '80s (they also choked away a postseason spot in their final year in St. Louis) combined with the sudden post-Lomax loss of offense led to just one playoff appearance for the franchise from 1983-2007 and largely terrible home attendance over that span.  It's easy to speculate how things could've been different if only Lomax hadn't been hurt or if he hadn't had to retire or even if the team had been able to rally once he returned with 3 weeks to go in the '88 season.  Things are finally going well for the Cardinals now, but it really seems like it shouldn't have taken anywhere near that long.

Anyway…  the aforementioned highlight showcasing N.Y. Giants was the first-ever regular-season game for the Phoenix Cardinals.  Against the Cincinnati Bengals, who would surprise everyone by dominating the AFC that year, Phoenix would kinda foreshadow the tail end of their season by blowing a perfect chance to win the game late.  Oh, as for the song itself:  nothing from the Good Morning America! album was ever released beyond vinyl, as far as I know, so trying to find a bootleg rip online is probably your only option.

Reverse Serendipity

Song - Drive Away

Artist(s) - Hal Brown, Donald Bradley Kelley (Brad Kelley)

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - FirstCom UT102 (Wheels of Commerce)

Featured Highlight - Jets @ Bengals, 1988


Most of the songs I've identified from NFL Primetime were discovered the expected way:  I was already aware of the song from Primetime episodes, then I stumbled upon the track while scouring production music sites or whatever.  There are few I've found the other way around, though, like "Drive Away."  Drive Away is a song that I was already aware of because it was contained on FirstCom UT102 (another Primetime track I ID'd earlier but haven't yet posted is also on there), but I didn't know until recently that it was used on the show.  Special thanks to Andy Provin for posting Week 11 of 1987 and Week 6 of 1988 with the last several months, both of which used Drive Away as a highlight track.

Drive Away is an unusually short song for NFL Primetime.  It's only about a minute, which actually makes me wonder if FC-UT102 only included a :60 commercial cut of it rather than the whole thing.  I haven't found any evidence of this song's existence elsewhere, however, so probably not.  Drive away was composed by Hal Brown & Donald Bradley Kelley, also known as Brad Kelley.  Kelley's website, which has some nice info, is linked above.  I couldn't find anything on Brown, but a lot of his stuff still exists on the FirstCom website (same for Kelley).

This post's highlight features the then-undefeated 1988 Bengals, arguably the best team in franchise history, facing off against the 3-1-1 Jets.  Cincinnati would pull away late for a comfortable win and then eventually end up in the Super Bowl while the Jets would mark the beginning of the end of the Joe Walton era with a disappointing non-playoff finish.  I also included the postgame analysis from Berman, Jackson, and Pete Axthelm as a bonus.  Have fun!

Empire Building

Song - Empire Building

Artist(s) - Mary Therese Matthews, Sally Anne Griffith, John Bähler, Matthew Muhoberac

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987-96 (infrequent)

Contained on - FirstCom UT104 (Powersurge)

Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Colts, 1987


The next two weeks will feature a couple songs that were requested on my youtube discussion page.  The first, "Empire Building," has a relatively strange usage history.  The song played on NFL Primetime highlights during the first 10 years of the show's run, but it was quite rare to hear it.  I've viewed quite a few episodes from that decade-long run, but Empire Building only shows up on three of them:  one highlight in 1987 (the one below), one in 1992, and one in 1996 (EDIT - I've found it was used during at least a few episodes in 1991, too).  Unlike sports cards, however, rarity doesn't make this track a gem.  It's far too neutral and sleepy to be good football accompaniment.  Empire Building is also the third and final (that I know of) track composed by the Matthews/Griffith/Bähler/Muhoberac quartet.

ESPN edited this song a little in the '90s by removing the bridge section and adding in some "creative" looping.  I'm not gonna post a second video for the edit because the edit isn't that meaningful & the song isn't that great, but it's a worthwhile footnote at least.  If you really want to hear it, try to find the Bills/Rams game from week 1 of 1992 or the Vikings/Lions game from week 1 of 1996 (special thanks to Kyle Caughlin on youtube for catching this difference).

The featured game highlight isn't real memorable, but it has a few nice plays.  The Bengals went into the Hoosier Dome and topped the Colts in the 1987 season opener.  It was an ironic result in retrospect since Indianapolis actually ended up winning the AFC East (their only playoff appearance in a 17-year span) while Cincy went 4-11.

Automotion 3, Part 4 - Satellitic Venture

Song - Satellitic Venture

Artist(s) - "John Epping" (Gerhard Narholz)

Released - 1988

Primetime Usage - 1989-90

Contained on - SON 292 (Automotion 3), Sonoton SCD 16 (Automotion 3)

Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Browns, 1989


This penultimate post from Automotion 3 features another work by Gerhard Narholz alias John Epping.  "Satellitic Venture" is more subdued and moody than the other Primetime pieces on this album, and seems to work best for cloudy, cold, and dreary games that are often seen late in the NFL season.  What better fit for this theme than a December edition of the "Battle of Ohio?"  Oh, there's one more thing to note…  This song can be heard in the background of at least a couple episodes of the Tim & Eric/John C. Reilly creation, Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule.  Tim & Eric are known for their arbitrary humor, but hearing the same song on both NFL Primetime & one of their shows is still random even by their standards.