Supercharged (with video this time!)

Song - Supercharged
Artist(s) - Derek Austin
Released - 1983
Primetime Usage - 1988, 1990
Contained on - Amphonic AVF16 (Supercharged), Amphonic AVF64CD (Hit the Heights)
Featured Highlight - Cowboys @ Redskins, 1990

 

Last year, I posted what was believed to be the only NFL Primetime highlight to use the song "Supercharged" by Derek Austin.  That San Francisco/New Orleans video from Week 1 of 1988 was unfortunately blocked by NFL copyright bots, so I had to go with an audio-only post.  As it turns out, that 1988 clip was NOT the only one with Supercharged attached.  ESPN brought it back in Week 3 of 1990 for the Dallas @ Washington contest.  The highlight itself is relatively uninteresting; the Redskins unimpressively got revenge after giving Dallas their only win of the season in RFK Stadium the previous year.  It's still the only known NFL Primetime clip to use Supercharged that isn't blocked by the NFL, though.  This also marks the only instance of a Primetime song that debuted in 1988 ever being used again after the 1988 season (of course, it was only 1 time each).  So… I hope you get even more enjoyment from listening to this song with actual visuals attached than you did watching a still picture of the original NFL Primetime logo for 5 minutes.

Also, the Amphonic album(s) with this track only seem to be streamable on YouTube at the moment.  The later CD release was on Nichion, but—again—Nichion has now been down for some time.

Most Bizarre Highlight Track?

Song - Action Scene (Submix)

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

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987

Contained on - FirstCom A2 (Intense), FirstCom UT105 (New Beginning)
Featured Highlight - Oilers @ Browns, 1987 (Replacement-Game Week 2)

 

There have been some odd choices for NFL Primetime highlight songs over the years.  Mortal Combat immediately springs to mind, though that was only used once.  A few of the songs from Oddball Week (Week 1, 1997) were also rather awkward.  I'm not sure any accompaniment choice was more bizarre than the Submix (i.e., underscore) for Action Scene, however.  Underscores are supposed to remove things like the melody and/or the high-pitched instruments, but the Submix for Action Scene sounds like someone pointed a full-blast flamethrower at the heart of the song.  To call it minimalistic is an understatement, and I'm surprised ESPN actually put it on a football video.  I guess it's appropriate that a "replacement" piece like the Action Scene Submix was only used for two 1987 replacement games.  The clip below, of the replacement Oilers edging out the replacement Browns in front of the Dawg Pound, was its last use.

As an aside, the Nichion quasi-legal(?) streaming service has been down for a while.  I'm still linking it above in case the site comes back, but I'm not sure that's likely.

NFL Primetime Music - Supercharged

Song - Supercharged
Artist(s) - Derek Austin
Released - 1983
Primetime Usage - 1988, 1990
Contained on - Amphonic AVF16 (Supercharged), Amphonic AVF64CD (Hit the Heights)
Featured Highlight - 49ers @ Saints, 1988 (audio-only)

Early in the Unknown Song run in 2017, I tried to post the first NFL Primetime highlight of 1988 because it used a then-new track that I hadn't identified.  The game featured San Francisco and New Orleans, the two best regular-season teams from 1987 (both were upset by the 8-7 Vikings in the playoffs), in a tight and entertaining contest.  Unfortunately, the NFL copyright blocked the entire video when I had no other clips with the song.  As a result, the song from this video was unofficially known among the Primetime Music community as either "Unknown Song #0" or "Unknown Song A."  Thanks to Godzfire's use of an Audio Fingerprinting program, we now know the song is "Supercharged" by Derek Austin.  It's housed on an Amphonic library album that is hosted by Nichion in the above link (EDIT - Nichion is down, so I replaced it with a YouTube post of the original Amphonic LP).

The NFL is still blocking the video, so I had to go audio-only with this one.  I guess I could've done that back then, but I was holding out hope the copyright block would expire or something.  Anyway, special thanks also goes to Godzfire for cleaning up the sound and making it louder.

Out Front - Album Link

Benjamin Lane found that CHAP 121 is on the Nichion Sounds Library, so I added a link on the Out Front/US #22 post.

LINK

Unknown Song #21 Identified

Back in my first post from this late-July extravaganza, I mentioned "at least three, possibly four" newly identified NFL Primetime songs.  The fourth one, "Overdrive," only had the song title mentioned when it was copyright flagged on Godzfire's YouTube account.  Less than a day later, it was fully identified by Moleoman on the Library Music Themes message board.  Overdrive comes from the Amphonic music libary and was written by Howard Jones & Tim Shaxson.  I couldn't really find any info on either composer.  There is a Tim Shaxson who's a Technical Sales Manager for the mixing-board company DiGiCo, but I'm not 100% sure that's the same guy.  Anyway, thanks to both Godzfire and Moleoman for getting this one ID'd.

LINK

Streaming Site for FirstCom Action Albums

A couple months ago, I had an email conversation with a person named "AntiMTVMovement" who gave me a link to a Japanese streaming site with most all of the FirstCom Action (A-Series) albums that are missing from the more well-known library sites.  I'm not totally sure this site is copyright kosher, but it at least seems better than that defunct musiqneed site I mentioned a few years ago on my Hit Drive post.  I added links to all the FC-A tracks on this site as well on my youtube posts.  Unfortunately, this streaming service does not seem to have the Up Tempo (UT series) albums that several other NFL Primetime songs come from.

Nichion Link

Unknown Song #22 - Out Front

Song - Out Front

Artist(s) - Rick Baker

Released - 1986

Primetime Usage - 1991-97

Contained on - CHAP 121 (Electronic; CD version is called Electronic/Sports)

Featured Highlight - Bears @ Vikings, 1992


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 2/14/18

Unknown Song #22 is a nice, energetic, rock/orchestral fusion track that I've been asked to identify a few times since I started this blog.  I obviously can't identify it as of now, but I would very much like to.  One irony is that US#22 isn't primarily remembered as a regular NFL Primetime highlight track.  It was used on the show for 7 years, but its use was pretty infrequent.  Instead, it's best remembered as being the accompanying song for Chris Berman's Sunday Night Football halftime highlights (not to be confused with Gladiator, the accompanying song for Monday Night Football's "Fastest 3 Minutes" segment).  It was used for this purpose well after its end on NFL Primetime.

This week's clip is a particularly humiliating one for both Chicago QB Jim Harbaugh & Chicago head coach Mike Ditka.  The Bears led Minnesota 20-0 in the Metrodome, but Harbaugh infamously audibled into a pass play that resulted in a pick-six for the Vikings.  Minnesota came back to win 21-20, scoring all their points in the 4th. quarter.  I've seen this game referred to as "The Audible" at least once online.  This game could also be seen as the beginning of the end for Ditka's stint in Chicago.  They did win 2 straight following the loss, but lost 8 of their last 9 to finish 5-11.  Ditka was subsequently fired.

Unknown Song #21 - Overdrive

Song - Overdrive

Artist(s) - Howard Jones & Tim Shaxson

Released - 1989

Primetime Usage - 1990-92
Contained on -  Amphonic AVF 75CD (Power U.S.A.), (alt. link)

Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Packers, 1991


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 7/24/20

Unknown Song #21 has more of a hard-rock style than most every other NFL Primetime song from this era.  I guess the producers realized the track's uniqueness in this regard because its use was quite ubiquitous during its 3-year run on the show.  US #21 was even used for two separate highlights for one week in 1992, which is—to my knowledge—the only time that ever happened (not counting the full version vs. underscore splits in 1987).  The Green Bay Packers seemed to be disproportionately featured with this song.

Speaking of the Packers, they're featured in this highlight too.  OK, the clip is really about the Eagles and Green Bay is just their hapless opponent, but still…  At least one statistical analysis claims the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles had the greatest defense in the history of the NFL.  There isn't anything in  this video would cause anyone to disagree, either.  Their offense wasn't too good, however, largely thanks to a season-ending injury to Randall Cunningham that occurred in this game.  Philly still did manage a 10-6 record, but that wasn't enough to make the playoffs in a logjammed NFC (the 49ers missed the playoffs with the same record).

Not Power Cutter

Song - Hit Drive

Artist(s) - Robin Gurin (composer credit only), Georgia Shapiro, Alec Williams (performer credit only)

Released - 1994

Primetime Usage - 1994-96

Contained on - FirstCom A29 (Power Net)

Featured Highlight - Falcons @ Panthers, 1995


If you've been following this blog or are otherwise familiar with NFL Primetime music, you've probably noticed there's another song from the mid-'90s that sounds a lot like Power Cutter but isn't Power Cutter.  Hit Drive is a little darker & edgier, but it still has the same repetitiveness and lack of real melody.  It's often difficult to tell them apart if the Primetime clip you're watching has weak sound quality, too.  It turns out this similarity is not a coincidence.  Not only is Hit Drive on the same album as Power Cutter, it's actually the very next track!

A couple months ago, around the time I was doing the New Day post, I stumbled upon a website called "musiqneed.com".  It seemed like it was at least partially foreign and also legally dubious, but it did have nearly every album from the FirstCom Action series available for streaming (along with a lot more music of all kinds).  Most importantly, though, it had the FirstCom A-series albums that are missing from the FirstCom website.  I was finally able to listen to these (except FC-A19, which was also missing on musiqneed) after searching for them for years.  Unfortunately, Hit Drive is the only NFL Primetime song contained on the missing albums that I hadn't already identified.  Double unfortunately, the musiqneed site has been down since early April.  So the rest of you are out of luck as to listening to Hit Drive yourselves, at least for now.

This track has a lot of mid-'90s highlights to choose from, most of them lame.  You could probably call Hit Drive "The Bill Pidto Special."  Anyway, here are the Falcons (temporarily) choking away a playoff spot against the expansion Panthers.

New Day

Song - New Day

Artist(s) - Geoff Levin, Chris Many, Ian Seeberg

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1989

Contained on - FirstCom UT107 (Heavy), FirstCom A5 (Motivation)

Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Broncos, 1989


For the handful of you watching something other than college basketball right now, here's some NFL Primetime music!   "New Day" isn't the best or most memorable track from the show, but it was used quite frequently in 1989.  This high volume is especially odd because the song's awkward & relatively unusual structure just doesn't work for highlight clips or accompaniment in general.  It fits much better as a stand-alone piece.  Two of New Day's composers, Geoff Levin & Chris Many, showed up a lot on early FirstCom stuff.  They also wrote a lot of other compositions (e.g., "Big Gains," "Reel Action") that I've seen listed on the web alongside actual Primetime tracks, but were not used on the show themselves (they might've been used on other ESPN shows, I suppose).  Levin is probably the most well known of the three, having been a member of '60s one-hit-wonder group People!, but Many and Ian Seeberg are quite accomplished as well.  Seeberg also appears to be quite multitalented, as he's seen a bit of success in many other entertainment fields beyond music.

The highlight this time features two good teams playing a good, entertaining game in what appears to be the aftermath of a massive ticker-tape parade.  Enjoy!

Power Cutter

Song - Power Cutter

Artist(s) - Robin Gurin (composer credit only), Georgia Shapiro, Alec Williams (performer credit only)

Released - 1994

Primetime Usage - 1994-96

Contained on - FirstCom A29 (Power Net)

Featured Highlight - Ravens @ Jaguars, 1996


Another track that has made its rounds on various NFL Primetime download collections, "Power Cutter" is one that makes no attempt to stand out.  It's more generic, repetitive, and background-ish than perhaps any other Primetime song, and it was clearly intended to be nothing more.  It works surprisingly well, however, because it at least provides a nice beat & some steady energy for your football-viewing enjoyment.  Power Cutter was created by the same trio that gave us The Event, and is also contained on the same, impossible-to-find FirstCom album.  You shouldn't have much trouble obtaining a legally dubious, lower-bitrate version on the web, but good luck finding an official, high-quality cut.

Power Cutter's featured highlight has two, then-new teams squaring off in an entertaining game in Jacksonville.  Fun fact!:  despite playing only two years in Baltimore, Vinny Testaverde was the Ravens' all-time leader in passing yards until Joe Flacco passed him in 2010.

Getting Nowhere Fast

Song - Grid Lock

Artist(s) - Ray Russell

Released - 1994

Primetime Usage - 1996-05

Contained on - FirstCom A33 (Big Scores)

Featured Highlight - Jets @ 49ers, 1998


One of the staples of late '90s/early '00s NFL Primetimes, "Grid Lock" most often associated itself with the less prominent games on the schedule.  It makes sense on two levels.  The name of the song implies stagnancy & frustration, something that fits well with teams that aren't doing too well.  Also, the music—though good—sounds rather neutral emotionally and therefore works best for highlights that are more about the individual plays & accomplishments than about who wins.  Grid Lock was written by prominent guitarist, session musician, and production music composer Ray Russell.  Fortunately, this isn't Russell's only Primetime track, as he has one other (much more obscure) song that I have yet to cover on this site.

You likely won't be able to find the original CD cut of this track.  FC-A33 is one of many early albums in the FirstCom Action series that are no longer available on the FirstCom website.  I've never seen it show up on eBay or anything like that, either.  On the plus side, however, Grid Lock is easy to find online if you don't care about obtaining it or listening to it in a fully 100% legal way.  A google search for "Grid Lock" with either "Ray Russell" or "NFL Primetime" should suffice.

This post's highlight choice is ironic given Grid Lock's tendency to accompany undercard games.  The Jets & 49ers, who both were coming off winning seasons & would both win double-digit games in 1998, played each other in a high-octane season opener in what was then known as 3Com Park.  Glenn Foley, who would soon be replaced by Vinny Testaverde, threw for a career-high 415 yards for New York.  This game is mostly remembered for one other reason, though:  Garrison Hearst's 96-yard touchdown run on San Francisco's first offensive play of overtime.

Appropriate Titling

Song - Action Scene

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

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987

Contained on - FirstCom A2 (Intense), FirstCom UT105 (New Beginning)

Featured Highlight - Rams @ Oilers, 1987


Sometimes a song title fits the music perfectly.  "Action Scene," though it doesn't have the most original name, is a track that instantly brings to mind imagery of a hard-hitting & breakneck nature.  It fits so well with sports highlights, in fact, that it's really a shame NFL Primetime only used this in its initial year.  Action Scene was composed by the same quartet that brought us Strategy, and is the third & final NFL Primetime song from FC-A2 to be profiled here.

In the opening week of 1987, the L.A. Rams (still with Eric Dickerson for a few more games) went to Houston as a solid favorite to start 1-0.  Instead, the Oilers came back from a 16-3 deficit to pull the upset and begin their first decent season since Bud Adams stupidly fired Bum Phillips several years earlier.  Gayle Gardner, who left ESPN partway through the 1987 season, presents the highlights here:

The Greatest Show on Turf

Song - The Event

Artist(s) - Robin Gurin (composer credit only), Georgia Shapiro, Alec Williams (performer credit only)

Released - 1994

Primetime Usage - 1994-05

Contained on - FirstCom A29 (Power Net)

Featured Highlight - Ravens @ Rams, 1999


Late in the 1999 preseason, total unknown Kurt Warner replaced the injured Trent Green as the starting quarterback for the St. Louis Rams.  What happened was one of the most remarkable stories in NFL history.  Warner not only led the Rams to their first Super Bowl title, but—partially thanks to weapons like Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, and Az-Zahir Hakim—also had one of the league's all-time best passing seasons.  During this run, Chris Berman coined the phrase "The Greatest Show on Turf" to describe St. Louis's "circus-like" offense that lasted through the 2001 season.

"The Event," in addition to being a Primetime song, is also a good descriptor of watching the Warner-led Rams.  Composed by Robin Gurin & Georgia Shapiro, and performed by Shapiro & Alec Williams, the song provides a nice mix of laid-back tempo and energetic entertainment.  I couldn't really find any info on the three, though, other than noticing that Shapiro & Williams are credited as writers on "Anxiety" by The Black Eyed Peas.

Going back to the first paragraph, this post's featured highlight is Kurt Warner's first ever start against the Ravens in what was then called the Trans World Dome.  His stats weren't as spectacular as what was to come, but he was playing a good defense and it was just the beginning of his run of success.  Enjoy!

Back to the Starting Line

Song - Fast Drive

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

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - FirstCom UT103 (Lightning), FirstCom A2 (Intense)

Featured Highlight - Raiders @ Packers, 1987

To shift the focus from this blog's first couple posts, here's an NFL Primetime song you may not remember.  "Fast Drive" was only used during the first two years of the show and, as such, has become long forgotten compared with the songs I featured earlier.  That doesn't mean it's bad, though.  Fast Drive's '80s hair-metal sound fits the time well and works adequately for sports highlights, too.  I wouldn't say it's one of the best Primetime tracks, by any stretch (in part because I've only seen it used for dud games), but it's still pretty enjoyable.  It was composed by Mary Therese Matthews, Sally Anne Griffith, and John Bähler.  I couldn't find any bio info on Matthews or Griffith (they did contribute to other Primetime songs that will be featured here later, though), but John Bähler was apparently one of the singing voices for The Partridge Family back in the early '70s.

Fast Drive may be obscure for NFL Primetime fans, but you might recognize it if you're a fan of pro wrestling.  It was the theme song for the tag-team duo Stars and Stripes (The Patriot & Buff Bagwell) that competed for WCW in the mid-'90s.

The difficulty in finding this song is similar to Powersurge.  There isn't anywhere to stream it in full, official legality (that I know of), but there's a good chance you could pick up FC-A2 Intense on eBay if you're willing to go that far.  FC-UT103 is harder to find, though, and I'm pretty sure all the FirstCom Up Tempo albums are LPs.

As I mentioned above, the only games I've seen with Fast Drive were relatively uninteresting ones.  Here's a clip from the very first episode of NFL Primetime where John Saunders highlights the final Tom Flores Raiders team going to Lambeau and giving the Packers their first shutout loss in 9 years.

No-One Circles the Wagons Like Ken Nelson & Jim Long

Song - Powersurge

Artist(s) - Ken Nelson, Jim Long

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987, 1990-91, 1993-94, 1998-05

Contained on - FirstCom UT104 (Powersurge), FirstCom A1 (Sports)

Featured Highlight - Bills @ Colts, 1998

On NFL Primetime, Chris Berman's Buffalo Bills fandom was not exactly a well-kept secret.  His love for those Niagara NFLers was best displayed in the coining of his famous line, "No-One Circles the Wagons Like the Buffalo Bills!," in the 1990s.  This catchprase became nearly as synonymous with Berman as his prodigious use of player nicknames throughout highlights and he still uses it often on ESPN to this day.  Another theme that became synonymous with Buffalo Bills highlights was the background song, "Powersurge."  Powersurge, composed by FirstCom founder (and then owner) Jim Long and current FirstCom executive Ken Nelson, provides an entertaining balance of '80s guitar rock and tight brass that works perfectly for football highlights.  Beginning early in Buffalo's Doug Flutie love-affair era in the late-'90s/early-2000s, virtually every highlight involving the Bills on NFL Primetime utilized this track.  In fact, aside from maybe "San Diego Super Chargers," I'm not sure there's another song that is more identified with an NFL team than this one.

One other unique note about Powersurge:  it's the only music track in the history of NFL Primetime that was used in both its first season (1987), and its last (regular) season (2005).

I don't know of a completely legal source to cleanly stream this song on the web at present.  If you're still interested in obtaining it, however, there's a decent chance you can find one of the above albums on eBay (that's how I got FC-A1 Sports).  I believe FC-UT104 is an LP and not a CD, though, so keep that in mind.  There also exists a remix of this song, entitled "Halftime Highlights Remix," that is streamable on FirstCom here.

The NFL Primetime highlight featured below was one of Doug Flutie's first starts for the Bills in 1998.  This was also Flutie's first year back in the U.S. after a moderate stint in the CFL.  Here he's up against a long-forgotten rookie by the name of Peyton Manning…