New Prospect (Higher Quality!)

Song - New Prospect

Artist(s) - Zack Laurence

Released - 1984

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - Bruton BRN 13 (New Prospects)

Featured Highlight - Dolphins @ Eagles, 1987

I'm not done writing about new NFL Primetime songs, but pretty much everything left to post that's new or unidentified is from New Primetime (i.e., the 2019-present ESPN+ edition of the show).  Unfortunately, my YouTube posts of New Primetime stuff don't get a lot of views.  The videos with highlights from the '80s and '90s—the classic era of NFL Primetime—definitely seem to get more action.  Some of those clips, however, were not the best quality (especially the ones from 1988).  GodzFire's acquisition of that huge lot of early NFL Primetime episodes last spring created an opportunity to post better quality videos with some of the songs from that era.  I was originally planning on posting those after posting (most) everything from New Primetime, but I kinda feel a need to try and rejuice my channel first—getting closer to the views I was getting last spring-to-summer at least.  As an experiment, I'm going to post a few "Higher Quality" clips of older tracks before getting back to New Primetime stuff.  I plan on going back-and-forth between the two post types (or something like that) afterward.  I hope you enjoy it!

The first-HQ-post belong to Zack Laurence's "New Prospect." New Prospect was one of the staples of the first two years of NFL Primetime.  It was used seemingly every regular-season week from Week 5 of 1987 (or Week 6 if you count the cancelled Week 3) up through the end of 1988.  This time, the included game highlight is the Dolphins' visit to Veterans Stadium to play the Eagles in '87.  The contest featured two star quarterbacks, Dan Marino & Randall Cunningham, albeit playing for middling teams that would not make the playoffs that year.  There's also a nice production blooper at the beginning of the video.  Have fun watching!

Original New Prospect Link

 

 

The Motivating Factor

Song - The Motivating Factor

Artist(s) - Greg Wardson

Released - 1984

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Aircraft ACL001 (Jet Stream)
Featured Highlight - Rams @ Eagles, 1988

It's probably good this one wasn't used much, either.  "The Motivating Factor" isn't a bad song on its own, but it's too filled with solo/bridge segments to really work as a sports highlight track.  It's contained on the first(?) album from the relatively obscure Aircraft Music Library.  The song's composer, Greg Wardson, is literally credited for nothing else on Discogs besides a few songs on this album.  There is (was?) a professor named Greg Wardson at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but I can't be sure he's the same guy.  Anyway, special thanks to GodzFire for getting this track identified.

There were a whopping two highlights to choose from for The Motivating Factor, and only one of those exclusively used that song.  Ironically, the video that used a second song was the best choice.  The Rams/Eagles highlight from Week 10 of 1988 was unusually long (about 3:30), but—compared to the other option—it had better video quality and better audio balancing.  It also showcased a more interesting and more important game, and it played through The Motivating Factor in its entirety before switching to the Fast Man underscore for the final minute.

Drive Away (Underscore) + Combo Mix Explanation

Song 1 - Drive Away (Underscore)

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

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - FirstCom UT102 (Wheels of Commerce)
Featured Highlight - Bears @ Eagles, 1987 (Replacement-Game Week 1)

Song 2 - Drive Away (Combo Mix)

Artist(s) - Hal Brown, Donald Bradley Kelley (Brad Kelley) (edited by presumably John Colby)

Released - N.A. (ESPN custom edit)

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - N.A. (ESPN custom edit)
Featured Highlight - Seahawks @ Bears, 1987

 

A month or so ago, GodzFire got in touch with a guy that had most every highlight from NFL Primetime stored on a boatload of DVDs.  Thanks to this guy's generosity, as well as GodzFire's willingness to host them on a convenient Google Drive, I now have way more highlights to choose from than I did before—especially from the late '80s.  I'm nowhere near finished watching all of these videos yet, but several discoveries have been made just from viewing the 1987 & 1988 clips.

Way back in 2016, I profiled the song "Drive Away" from the FirstCom UT102 album.  As with many songs played on Primetime in 1987 and '88, John Colby also used the underscore.  The underscore alone was only used twice that I've found (once in each year), and the Drive Away US had to share its highlight with another song in both cases (Drive Away and its underscore are each only about a minute long).  All other uses of Drive Away were actually a version that Godzfire and I have dubbed the "Combo Mix."  It's a simple, custom edit job (presumably by John Colby) that indefinitely alternates between the main track and the underscore.  My previous post of Drive Away also used the Combo Mix, but I somehow didn't realize it wasn't just looping the main track at the time.

To illustrate the two versions of Drive Away, I'm attaching two(!) videos to this post.  The first, featuring the underscore, shows the Bears thumping the Eagles in a nearly empty Veterans Stadium during the first week of 1987 replacement games.  After the underscore finishes, the rest of the highlight plays Driving Force—a song that happens to be on the same album and by the same composers.  The end of this highlight is cut off, unfortunately, but no more points were scored after what's shown (the Bears won 35-3).  The second highlight, featuring the Combo Mix, shows Walter Payton's final regular-season home game against Seattle late in the same season.  This quality of this clip is much better than the Drive Away video I posted 8 years ago, as you'll see.

Unknown Song #42 - Liberation Day

Song - Liberation Day

Artist(s) - Paul Foss

Released - 1998

Primetime Usage - 2000-01
Contained on - ATMOS 111 (Impact)

Featured Highlight - Rams @ Eagles, 2001


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/6/19

OK, back to the Unknown Songs.  Unknown Song #42 is similar to Bad Company & Showdown, but was used less often on the show.  It has the same gritty, hard-hitting, rock/orchestral fusion style as those other two tracks, though.  Before I introduce the highlight clip, I should apologize for the low video quality.  I recall hearing US #42 multiple times way back when these Primetime episodes were current, but this is the only clip I could find online of it (that's also why I'm unsure of the exact years it was used).  In this video, the St. Louis Rams began their final Super Bowl run of the Kurt Warner era by edging out a good Eagles team in accursed Veterans Stadium.  The audio quality is fine, so you don't have to worry about hearing the song.

**EDIT** - It was apparently used a handful of times in 2000 & 2001.  Thanks to Robert Enriquez on youtube for this information.

Unknown Song #40 - Surf Your Own Wave

Song - Surf Your Own Wave

Artist(s) - Rick DiFonzo

Released - No later than 1997

Primetime Usage - 1997-99
Contained on - BRg Extreme Cuts BRg3004 (Alternative Energy)

Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Falcons, 1997


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 7/23/20

Unknown Song #40 is probably my favorite song yet to be identified on Primetime.  It's energetic, edgy, and fun, and works well with sports highlights.  It's likely not a well remembered track, however, since it was used sparingly during its mere 3 years of service.  US #40's most memorable use was probably its last:  the 1999 NFC Championship game where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers nearly upset the St. Louis Rams 6-5 before giving up a late TD catch to Ricky Proehl.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find that NFL Primetime highlight anywhere, so here's a different one from US #40's first season of use.

Unknown Song #33 (Oddball Week, Part 3) - Android Highway

Song - Android Freeway

Artist(s) - Robert J. Walsh

Released - 1996

Primetime Usage - 1997

Contained on - Hollywood Film Music HFML 15.02 (Wild City)
Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Giants, 1997

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/6/23

Now we're getting into the Oddball Week dregs.  Unknown Song #33 could probably be labeled the "Jaws Song" because its Jaws-like riff is its only distinguishing feature.  The rest of it is just generic, amelodic '90s-'00s electronica stuff.  The game isn't all that interesting, either, but it's still better than the song.

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).

Total News

Song - Total News

Artist(s) - Tom Blades

Released - 1996

Primetime Usage - 1997-05

Contained on - ATMOS 81 (Current Affairs)

Featured Highlight - Rams @ Eagles, 2002


I finally found one of the missing staples from the later years of NFL Primetime.  "Total News" created a good balance of laid-back fun & energetic tension that saved a lot of otherwise unimpressive game highlights—it's no wonder they used it a lot over the final 9 seasons of the show.  Following Leading Edge, Total News is both the second Primetime track discovered in the Atmosphere library and the second one composed by Tom Blades.  I am currently searching this library to hear if there's more.

Oh, and special thanks to Josh Ochs on youtube.  There's a 1998 Washington Capitals broadcast video posted by Dan Conroy that periodically uses this song.  I asked if anyone knew the song in the comments, and Josh Ochs ID'd it for me.

As for Total News's highlight, here's one of the worst played games of all time…

*SIDE NOTE* - Universal Production Music revamped their whole website a few days ago and all of the album URLs have changed.  It's now universalproductionmusic.com instead of unippm.com and I have fixed all the links on this website to reflect the change.  The "UNIPPM" blog label has also been replaced by "Universal."

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!

Solar Winds

Song - Solar Winds

Artist(s) - Larry Lee Cansler

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - FirstCom UT103 (Lightning)

Featured Highlight - Eagles @ Buccaneers, 1988


We're going back to the Primetime rarities this week.  "Solar Winds," by Larry Lee Cansler (or just Larry Cansler for short), is an odd duck.  Most of NFL Primetime's songs are either rock (synth or otherwise) or edgy orchestral stuff.  Solar Winds, on the other hand, is a textbook-sounding '70s/'80s jazz-fusion number that one might expect to hear from an artist like Chick Corea.  I suppose, given that truth, that it's not surprising I've only seen one highlight with this piece.  It's not even a good highlight, either, unless you like watching guys in creamsicle uniforms play like garbage.  I did at least leave in the Pete-Axthelm-led postgame commentary to shore up the football side, though.

Solar Winds is contained on one of those hard-to-find Up Tempo albums from FirstCom, so you've got your work cut out for you if you want to find it.  A low-quality mp3 of the extra-long version of this song (over 7 minutes!) was housed on Cansler's website (larrycansler.com), but that site has been dead for a few years now.  That means, as of today, Solar Winds does not exist online in any form that I'm aware of.

Communique

Song - Communique

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.

The John Colby Trilogy - Part II

Song - Eric D.

Artist(s) - John Colby

Released - N.A.

Primetime Usage - 1991-05

Contained on - N.A. (Sound Clip)

Featured Highlight - Cowboys @ Eagles, 1999


The second well-known John Colby track has an odd name.  I have no idea who "Eric D." is or what significance that name has to sports or anything else, but the song nonetheless ended up as one of the top-5 most often used pieces on NFL Primetime.  I've also seen the track labeled under the name "Breakdown" on some of those bootleg Primetime music collections floating around the net, and maybe that name would've made more sense.  Speaking of those bootlegs, that's the only known way of acquiring the full-length versions of this particular Colby trilogy's songs.  The media player on John Colby's website (linked above) has higher-quality audio, but the tracks are incomplete and/or fade out prematurely.

As for the highlight:  1999 saw the start of Philadelphia's rise and the beginning of Dallas's fall.  One key moment to this was in Week 5 when Michael Irvin suffered a career-ending neck injury on the turf of always dangerous Veterans Stadium.  To add further insult to the Cowboys, they lost on a late TD pass by—of all people—Doug Pederson.  This was the first of what would a be a whopping 3 career wins as a starting QB for Pederson, a total he's already exceeded halfway through his first year as an NFL head coach.  Enjoy!

Overall Winner

Song - Overall Winner

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

Released - 1988

Primetime Usage - 1989

Contained on - SON 290 (Leaders Vol. 1), Sonoton SCD 14 (Leaders 1&2)

Featured Highlight - *EDIT* - Bills @ Dolphins, 1989


The 1989 San Francisco 49ers were arguably the greatest NFL team of the modern era.  They went 14-2, 10 of their 14 wins were by double digits, and they won their three playoff games by an average score of 42-9.  For a team that dominant, a song with the title "Overall Winner" is appropriate.  Gerhard Narholz's synth-filled fanfare is bright & loud and perfectly fits a champion from the 1980s.  It's also easily accessible to those that want to listen thanks to Sonoton's online service (linked above).  Overall Winner wasn't played that much on NFL Primetime—2 highlights that I know of early in the '89 season—but the games that used it were pretty big ones.  One was a Bills/Dolphins showdown from Week 1, while the other—shown below—featured the aforementioned 49ers travelling to Veterans Stadium to take on an Eagles team that was considered one of their chief NFC-title threats.  What followed was perhaps the finest game of Joe Montana's (or anyone else's) career:  428 yards and 5 TD passes on just 34 attempts despite being sacked 8 times and being hit several more.  Grab a snack or something, because this entertaining highlight is lengthy even for the 28-team era.

*EDIT* - The NFL copyright blocked the 49ers/Eagles video because of a 13-second play match (Rice's last touchdown, specifically).  This is the first time this sort of thing has happened to one of my videos in ≈40 posts, so hopefully it won't happen again.  Here's the aforementioned Buffalo/Miami matchup from Week 1 as a replacement.