Contained on - Musikos MS1 (Sports 1) Featured Highlight - Colts @ Bills, 1988
*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/3/23
Unknown Song #9 is even more repetitive than #8. It sets a similar mood to Communique, but has more of an energetic, "cool rock" feel. This Colts/Bills highlight is the only one to use this track that I'm aware of.
*NOTE* - Unknown Song #9 is the first song on this highlight. The clip switches to Unknown Song #8 near the end.
Perhaps the most used song in the the first two years of NFL Primetime, "Marathon"—though enjoyable—is an unusual one. It's a track that doesn't seem to fit football highlights at first, but works surprisingly well after a few listens. I guess Marathon would be classified as fusion, though it's a bit more driving-rockish and edgy than a stereotypical fusion piece like Solar Winds. Speaking of Solar Winds, Marathon is contained on the same hard-to-find FirstCom Up Tempo album.
As with Communique, I'm not certain I have the artist credits correct. There is a song named "Marathon" credited to Hal Brown & Donald Bradley Kelley in the ASCAP database, though, and they were frequent FirstCom composers during this era. They also composed Drive Away, which is similar in many ways to Marathon.
The highlight this time shows the New Orleans Saints coronating their first-ever playoff appearance against the Green Bay Packers. As you'll see in the video, the Saints would be far more jubilant at the end of this one than they would be a week later after a humiliating loss to the 8-7 Vikings. This was also Forrest Gregg's final game as an NFL head coach.
Artist(s) - Mary Therese Matthews, Sally Anne Griffith (?)
Released - 1985
Primetime Usage - 1987
Contained on - FirstCom UT104 (Powersurge)
Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Redskins, 1987
The John Colby saga may be over, but that doesn't mean I'm done posting NFL Primetime music. "Communique" is a perfect track for any football game that seems "frozen," either from excessive cold or from exhausting heat. The song doesn't really go anywhere, per se, but it's a perfect mood setter. The only Primetime use of Communique that I'm aware of was for a rather warm contest between the Redskins & Eagles at RFK Stadium in the 1987 opener. That game served as the coming out party for Doug Williams in what would be his best NFL season, though he would give way to incumbent starter Jay Schroeder for much of the regular season after this.
I'm actually not 100% certain if Mary Therese Matthews & Sally Anne Griffith were the composers of Communique. I haven't been able to check the UT104 album cover for the credits, and this song doesn't seem to exist anywhere else (there's also virtually no info on Griffith or Matthews, either). There is a song with the name "Communique" attached to them in the ASCAP database, though, and these two were frequently credited on FirstCom stuff around this time.
