Launching Coaches into Space

Song - Space Rock

Artist(s) - Adrian Baker

Released - 1983

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Bruton BRL 12 (Industrial Video)
Featured Highlight - Chiefs @ Chargers, 1988

"Space Rock" was only used once on NFL Primetime.  That's probably a good thing.  The song itself is alright, but it doesn't really work for sports highlights.  This is especially true for the portions that sound like a knockoff of Gary Numan's hit, "Cars."  Space Rock was composed by Adrian Baker.  Baker was the singer for the '80s band Gidea Park, which is probably best known for doing the cover of "California Girls" that accompanied the snowboard-chase sequence from A View to a Kill (thanks Wikipedia!).  The track (Space Rock, I mean) is available for streaming.  Sometime in the recent past, a website called Usample that uses Universal's streaming/website engine put up most every old Bruton album from their LP heyday (I also mentioned Usample when I plugged a new source for Good Morning America! a couple years ago).  Industrial Video, which houses Space Rock, was thankfully no exception.

 

Space Rock's only highlight clip wasn't memorable.  In Week 16 of 1988, the San Diego Chargers hosted the Kansas City Chiefs in a game that figured to be the final game for both head coaches.  The people doing the figuring were correct, as KC's Frank Gansz and SD's Al Saunders—a Brit who somehow ended up serving as an American Football coach for nearly five decades—were both fired following the game.  Gansz and Saunders would be never be head coaches again, either (Gansz died in 2009, Saunders hasn't coached since 2018).  Appropriately enough, the final highlight featuring Al Saunders was narrated by none other than John Saunders (no relation… I assume).

Special thanks to GodzFire for identifying this one a few months ago by posting it privately to YouTube and getting a copyright flag.

William Tell Overture

Song - William Tell Overture (Finale)

Artist(s) - Gioachino Rossini

Released - 1995 (HFML version), 1829 (original)

Primetime Usage - 2000

Contained on - Hollywood Film Music HFML 8.4 (Classical, Vol. 1)
Featured Highlight - Chargers @ Rams, 2000

Occasionally, NFL Primetime would—as a novelty—use familiar songs one time only because they were  appropriate for a particular game.  One such instance was the previously posted use of two classic Sam Spence tracks for the 2000 matchup between the Raiders & Steelers.  Another example was the show's use of the recognizable final movement of Rossini's William Tell Overture, also known as the theme of The Lone Ranger, for the St. Louis Rams' beatdown of the San Diego Chargers earlier the same year.  The 2000 Rams had a noticeably worse defense than their championship team from the year before, but their offense was arguably even better (this was also the year the Rams changed their secondary color from yellow to gold).  As a result, allowing 31 points to a San Diego team that would finish 1-15 was completely overshadowed by an unstoppable offensive explosion led by Chris Berman's personal "Lone Ranger," Kurt Warner.

Special thanks to SW561 for posting the original version of this highlight clip, and to Godzfire for identifying the specific album this version of the William Tell Overture was on.  For some reason, the NFL copyright bots really liked this clip, so I had to edit two 10 second portions into audio-only segments.  One of those was oddly the first no-music segment when the Chargers fumbled a snap.  I don't really know why the NFL was focused so hard on that moment, but whatever…

 

Unknown Song #43 - Hard Attack

Song - Hard Attack

Artist(s) - Christian Poulet, Fabien Chevallier

Released - 1995

Primetime Usage - 2001
Contained on - KOS 24 (Metal Warrior) (YouTube Link)

Featured Highlight - Redskins @ Chargers, 2001


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 12/23/18

As with many of the one-off (*EDIT* - this song was also used for the Cardinals/Panthers game in Week 16 of '01—thanks to Kyle Caughlin for that info.) tracks on NFL Primetime, it's not surprising Unknown Song #43 didn't stick around.  I actually didn't know this song even existed until I was in the middle of cutting US #42 last week (it's the very next highlight, so I again apologize for the low video quality).  It's not a memorable or interesting piece, and it only accompanied an uncompelling game—the only interesting thing about the game is that it was the first of LaDainian Tomlinson's career.

Unknown Song #41 - Old School Radio Bed

Song - Old School Radio Bed

Artist(s) - Ron Burns

Released - No later than 1997

Primetime Usage - 1997-01, 2005 (it may have been used in '02-04, but I have no proof)

Contained on - BRg Contemporary BRg1016 (High Definition) 

Featured Highlight - Bills @ Chargers, 1998

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 8/7/21

Unknown Song #41 is perhaps the most forgettable regularly-used piece of NFL Primetime's later years.  It's obviously meant to be little more than an ambient background groove, and that's the purpose it served on the show.  The first game to use US #41 was pretty memorable, though.  Given how his overall NFL career went, how many people know that Ryan Leaf actually won his first 2 starts?  Now saying he won those starts is a stretch, since his stats were nowhere near good in those games, but it's still an interesting footnote.  It was an interesting game for Buffalo, too, since it marked Doug Flutie's first action as a Bill (& his first NFL action of any kind in 9 years).  Flutie couldn't pull off his patented magic in this one, however, because Steve Christie didn't get the job done at the end.

*EDIT* - This song actually debuted in 1997.  Thanks to Kyle Caughlin for pointing this out and to SW561 for posting the clip that proves it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vX-NLMSoiI&feature=youtu.be).

Unknown Song #34 (Oddball Week, Part 4) - Power Drive

Song - Power Drive

Artist(s) - Michael Tauben & Simon Benson

Released - 1996

Primetime Usage - 1997
Contained on - Musichouse I26 (Prestige Presentation)

Featured Highlight - Chargers @ Patriots, 1997

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 3/13/20

It's quiet, it's moody, and it's barely a song.  Unknown Song #34 is probably the most forgettable track in NFL Primetime history.  Speaking of forgettable, there was Kevin Gilbride's head-coaching stint with the San Diego Chargers.  He went 6-16 and didn't even last 1.5 seasons.  Here Gilbride coaches his first game against Pete Carroll, who was making his own debut with the Patriots.

Unknown Song #16 - Grid Iron Great

Song - Grid Iron Great

Artist(s) - William Soden (likely)

Released - No later than 1988

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Musikos MS2 (Sports 2)
Featured Highlight - Chargers @ Rams, 1988

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/1/23

If you like a healthy, even mix of synth, brass, & hard rock, then this track's for you.  I don't have much else to say about the song, but the highlight is kinda fun to watch.  Well, it's not so fun if you're a Rams fan.  The Rams were a pretty good team overall in 1988 and the Chargers weren't (Al Saunders would be fired at the end of the season), but San Diego caught L.A. here in the middle of a 4-game losing streak.  Charger QB Mark "The Pickle" Vlasic got hurt part way through and Mark Malone—of all people—came in and shredded the defense while Ram defenders couldn't stop running into each other.

Unknown Song #1 - Powergate

Song - Powergate

Artist(s) - Steve Martin

Released - 1988

Primetime Usage - 1991-95

Contained on - MAT 112 (Prestige & Power)

Featured Highlight - Chiefs @ Chargers, 1995


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 7/3/17

I was originally going to wait & do all the NFL Primetime songs I haven't identified after I'd posted everything I do know, but I'm going to make an exception here because somebody on my youtube page specifically requested this game highlight.  I'm still not planning on making this a regular thing right now, though, so don't expect any more unknown tracks for a while.  This composition was used pretty frequently for most of the early-to-mid-'90s.  It's kind of dour & depressing on the surface, but the synth bass line gives it enough energy to make it serviceable.  I don't think it's a Sonoton track, but it does sound somewhat similar to some of the Sonoton stuff used on Primetime from 1989-90 (especially the songs added in 1990).

The aforementioned highlight shows the post-Montana Chiefs smothering the Chargers in San Diego and, thanks to the 49ers upset of the Cowboys the same day, gaining sole possession of the best record in the NFL.  If any of you readers know what this song is, don't hesitate to comment either here or on youtube.  Thanks!

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…