NFL Primetime Music?

Song - Veil

Artist(s) - John Colby

Released - 1987

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Valentino V-CD 23 (Medium Tempo)
Featured Highlight - Patriots @ Dolphins SNF Preview, 1988

I've been aware of this song/clip for a while, but I was reluctant to post it because I'm not sure it really qualifies as NFL Primetime music.  "Veil," one of many Primetime tracks by then-ESPN music director John Colby, was attached to a small segment of the Sunday Night Football preview that aired early in the Week 12 episode.  Despite being housed on an album titled Medium Tempo, the song is actually quite energetic and up tempo.  I wouldn't be surprised if Veil was used for a highlight or perhaps other clips on NFL Primetime, especially since it was composed by Colby, but I haven't seen any evidence of that thus far.  Special thanks to GodzFire for rediscovering the album this track is on (I stumbled on it a long time ago somewhere, but I forgot about it).

I decided to post the entire preview segment with Mike Patrick & Joe Theismann even though the song is only played for about 20 seconds of it.  Hope you enjoy it!

Fast Man (Rhythm Only)

Song - Fast Man (Rhythm Only)

Artist(s) - John Colby

Released - 1987

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Valentino 6162 (Sports Themes), V-CD 13 (Sports Themes)
Featured Highlight - Patriots @ Bills, 1988

The Week 8, 1988 episode of NFL Primetime uncovered recently also revealed a "new" Primetime track.  The regular version of "Fast Man" was used in the very first episode of the show in 1987 (and many times thereafter), but I had not heard the "Rhythm Only" (i.e., underscore) version on a highlight until viewing this episode.  In this clip below, the 3-4 Patriots (QB'd by Doug Flutie) gave the 6-1 Bills a surprisingly good game in Orchard Park.

Unfortunately, the Valentino 1980s compilation album with the regular version of Fast Man does not have the underscore.  The full version of V-CD 13 is on YouTube, though (linked above), so you check out the song there (and no place else that I'm aware of).

 

 

Unknown Song #6 Identified (plus more to come)

At least three, possibly four, Primetime songs have been identified today.  The first of these, "Like the Wind," is the '70s-esque track from that forgettable Falcons/Lions clip from 1988.  This track has a relatively famous composer, though.  Walter Murphy, the writer of Like the Wind, is best known for composing (technically rearranging) the Billboard #1 disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven" in 1976.  Murphy is also the primary composer for most all of Seth MacFarlane's TV & Movie properties (Family Guy, Ted, etc.).  The original Valentino LP that contains Like the Wind isn't available online AFAIK, but—just like The Far Turn & Fast Man–the song made its way onto one of those 2009 Valentino compilation albums.

LINK


Special thanks to GodzFire for ID'ing US #6 and the other songs that I will update in the next few days.  GodzFire has been cleaning up the audio on some of the Primetime clips so the tracks can be heard better.  He uploaded those audio clips to youtube today, and that caused a few of them to be copyright flagged—not very helpful for generating ad revenue (for those people that can still do that on youtube), but extremely helpful for identifying songs.  You can check out his work here.

New Info Updates

I've updated a few previously posted songs with some newly obtained info.  Thanks to Craig-UK for all of this.


- Wheels in Motion is contained on a production-music album, after all.  It's on MPM001 from Manhattan music, which was released in 1987. I left the youtube link for those that find it more convenient, however.

- The Far Turn & Fast Man, in addition to being on two separate Valentino compilation albums, were originally on the same Valentino Album (V-CD 13 - Sports Themes). This album isn't online that I can find, but the previously posted compilation albums still are.  However, the Valentino library apparently isn't hosted on Universal anymore so I had to change the links to their BMG source instead.

- The Right Stuff was originally contained on EA 2015 (Broadcast) from the Emil Ascher library.  This library isn't online, AFAIK, but this info at least provides a release date for this song (1984).  I'm not sure if the alt mix is on this album, however (*EDIT* - the alt mix isn't on the EA album, but the regular version is virtually identical—thanks to Craig-UK again).

Unknown Song #8 - At the Buzzer

Song - At the Buzzer

Artist(s) - William Soden (likely)

Released - No later than 1988

Primetime Usage - 1988

Contained on - Musikos MS1 (Sports 1)
Featured Highlight - Steelers @ Browns, 1988

*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 5/3/23

It's kinda repetitive, but Unknown Song #8 is definitely more intense than #7.  Actually, it's a pretty good highlight track.  The instrumentation does sound similar to John Colby's The Far Turn & Fast Man.  If it is by Colby, however, it didn't make it onto those Valentino compilation albums and may be near impossible to find.  As for the game:  the Browns make a lousy Pittsburgh offense look even worse in a monsoon.

Unknown Song #6 - Like the Wind

Song - Like the Wind

Artist(s) - Walter Murphy

Released - 1983

Primetime Usage - 1988
Contained on - Valentino 6145 (LP), V-CD 33 (Sports), VT040 (Sports Vol. 2, Electronic & Rock 2)

Featured Highlight - Falcons @ Lions, 1988


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 7/23/20

Even though this was 1988, Unknown Song #6 sounds very 1970s-ish.  I guess that's true for some of the other '80s tracks (e.g., Solar Winds), as well, but I don't have much else to say to describe this one.  Unfortunately, I have only one low-quality Primetime clip of this track.  It's an unusually short clip, too, and it features two teams that both sucked throughout the entire 1980s.

Unknown Songs #2 & #3 Identified

Thanks to the magic of overzealous youtube copyright claims, I have now identified the unknown songs I posted last week & the week before.  I'd actually expected this to happen at some point for an unidentified track, but I didn't think it would happen this fast.  More surprising was who the songwriter turned out to be, however…

The copyright claim info for Unknown Song #2 listed an album code of "VT013" and "The Far Turn."  It took me a while to find the source because the real album code was actually "STVT013."  Anyway, that code was for the portion of the Valentino library that's contained on Universal's website and the "1980s Vol. 2" album.  After scrolling down to find the right song, it turned out the artist was none other than John Colby!  So Colby did in fact produce more NFL Primetime songs than just those listed on his website.  Searching Colby's credits led me to Unknown Song #3 ("Fast Man"), as well.  It was not on the same album as I figured it would be, but it was on the related "1980s Vol. 1" disc.  Unfortunately, the entire Universal website only contains about 20 songs credited to Colby.  I also suspect the "1980s" albums are compilations and not the original sources of Colby's tracks because they both have release dates in 2014.  I don't know the identity of the original source library, though I do suspect it's related to Valentino (I suspect it's Major Records, just because some random library-music forum has a list crediting albums on there to Colby).  I wouldn't be surprised if there's more John Colby NFL Primetime stuff out there yet to be found.


Revised Links

The Far Turn
Fast Man

Unknown Song #3 - Fast Man

Song - Fast Man

Artist(s) - John Colby

Released - 1987

Primetime Usage - 1987-88

Contained on - Valentino 6162 (Sports Themes), V-CD 13 (Sports Themes), Valentino STVT012 (1980s Vol. 1 - Rock & Pop Vol. 1)

Featured Highlight - Browns @ Saints, 1987


*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 9/22/17

Unknown Song #3 sounds very similar to Unknown Song #2.  It's so similar, in fact, that I bet it's on the same album.  I have no idea which album that is or what production-music label would house it, but I'd be surprised if they weren't close together.  Accompanying US#3 is yet another (should be the last) highlight from NFL Primetime's first episode.  The once-and-future AFC-champion Browns get a surprisingly tough test from a New Orleans squad seeking their first-ever winning season…