Crush You

Song - Crush

Artist(s) - Mark Matthews, James Griffith

Released - 1990

Primetime Usage - 1991-95

Contained on - FirstCom A2 (Intense)

Featured Highlight - 49ers @ Cowboys, 1995


"Crush" could probably count as NFL Primetime's "epic" theme for the first half of the '90s.  I like it, though, because it has more synth and is therefore less over-the-top than International Statement.  It was composed by Mark Matthews and James Griffith.  I couldn't figure out if Mark is any relation to Mary Therese Matthews or if James is related to Sally Anne Griffith, but—since they were all FirstCom composers—I wouldn't be surprised.  Unlike with the female Matthews/Griffith set, however, I have not found more than one Primetime song written by Mark or James.

Crush is contained on FirstCom A2 - Intense.  Unlike a lot of the Primetime themes on early FirstCom CDs, I don't think this track is on any of the earlier FirstCom Up Tempo LPs.  Crush isn't legally streamable or downloadable, as far as I know, but the single-digit FirstCom "A" discs are the most common ones to show up on eBay (that's how I got FC-A2).  Fast Drive is also on this album, plus one other Primetime song I haven't yet covered.

Accompanying Crush is an interesting footnote from the 1995 season.  The defending champion 49ers, despite being without Steve Young, rolled into Texas Stadium and thumped the eventual champion Dallas Cowboys.  Also included in this highlight is Merton Hanks's famous (infamous?) "Pigeon Dance," which was certainly one of the most unique celebration moves in NFL history.  Have fun!

Bad Company

Song - Bad Company

Artist(s) - Robert J. Walsh

Released - no later than 1999

Primetime Usage - 1999-05

Contained on - Hollywood Film Music HFML 15.10, Hollywood Music HM-007 (Renegade)

Featured Highlight - Chiefs @ Bears, 1999


NFL Primetime almost always had a go-to song for defensive, tough, and often ugly games.  In the last several years of the program (in its original form), that track was "Bad Company."  It's a more orchestral song, rather than synth or rock, and it definitely works as a mood piece for football grittiness.  In addition to defense in general, Bad Company was also associated on the show with the Oakland Raiders and the "Black Hole" motif of Raider Nation.  It was composed by prolific movie/TV/production composer Robert J. Walsh, who—in addition to his composing work for the company—was briefly a FirstCom executive in the mid '90s.  Walsh also founded the Hollywood Film Music library in 1987, which is not to be confused with the Hollywood Music label linked above.

This track is streamable on FirstCom's website.  One thing I don't like about their organization is that, although you can sort albums by release date, there's no way I can find where you can actually see the release date listed.  If anyone has figured it out, please let me know.

Below is, to my knowledge, NFL Primetime's first use of Bad Company.  The Chicago Bears, behind "The Shane Matthews Band," (one of Chris Berman's best nicknames) edge out the Kansas City Chiefs at home to open up the 1999 season.

Strategery

Song - Strategy

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

Released - 1985

Primetime Usage - 1987

Contained on - FirstCom UT105 (New Beginning)

Featured Highlight - Lions @ Vikings, 1987


It doesn't get much more obscure than this.  "Strategy," composed by same three artists as "Fast Drive" plus Matthew Muhoberac, was used on the very last highlight of the very first episode of NFL Primetime and I haven't seen any other clips use it.  The availability of 1987 Primetimes is rather limited, however, so it definitely could've been used more than that.  Still…  it's probably one of the least remembered songs used on the show.  That doesn't mean it's bad, though.  Strategy's combination of '70s style and '80s instrumentation is unique, and it's relatively large amount of starts & stops—though not ideal for sports highlights—makes it an interesting song to listen to.

Finding the hard copy of FirstCom UT105 is the only way to get this track legally, I'm pretty sure.  Good luck with that…

As indicated above, Strategy's only known highlight usage was the Lions/Vikings game that ended the first-ever NFL Primetime.  Minnesota pulls out a somewhat comfortable, albeit sloppy, win that kicked off one of the most schizophrenic seasons for a team in NFL history.

Close Games Between Bad Teams

Song - Neck and Neck

Artist(s) - Alan Hawkshaw

Released - 1989

Primetime Usage - 1990-96

Contained on - MusicHouse MHE13 (Live Action)

Featured Highlight - Saints @ Falcons, 1996

When two awful football teams get together, the result—however lacking in polish—can be quite entertaining.  "Neck and Neck" is a song that symbolizes that ambivalence perfectly.  It's up tempo and electronic, but it also gives off much more anguish and unhappiness than most NFL Primetime tracks.  If your team was struggling, you wouldn't be surprised to hear Neck and Neck playing in the background.  This seemed especially true if your team played on astroturf and/or in a dome such as historically mediocre franchises like the Lions, Saints, or Falcons.  The song provided a kind of therapy for football sadness.

Neck and Neck was composed by production music legend Alan "The Hawk" Hawkshaw, who has been active in composition & pop music for more than 50 years.  I won't go through all his awards, group memberships, & accomplishments here, mainly because it would take forever, but you can check them out on his website (linked above) or on his wikipedia page.  Outside of production music, he might be best known for putting together the disco group Love De-Luxe that produced the #1 disco hit, "Here Comes that Sound Again," in 1979.  Hawkshaw's daughter, Kirsty, is also a prolific electronic composer/artist and was the lead singer for Opus III in the '90s.

Neck and Neck is streamable on EMI's production music site, which is linked above.  Unfortunately, it appears to be the only Primetime song that was composed by Alan Hawkshaw.

A fitting clip for this song (and the post title) is this "epic" 1996 matchup in the Georgia Dome between doomed June Jones's 1-9 Falcons and interim coach Rick Venturi's Saints.  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.

International Overuse

Song - International Statement (Main Track & Alternative Version)

Artist(s) - Alan Bell (Alan Blackham), Roger Dexter

Released - 1990

Primetime Usage - Main Track: 1997-05; Alternative Version: 1991-96

Contained on - Chappell AV 34 (Classical Excellence)

Featured Highlight - Main Track: Raiders @ Chiefs, 1999; Alternative Version: Steelers @ Bears, 1995

The song is technically called "International Statement," but it may as well be called "Oh, yeah…  the NFL Primetime song!"  Its mix of early 20th. century orchestral style and '80s instrumentation & edge creates a fitting accent for any "epic" football highlight.  In fact, starting in the late '90s, this track became NFL Primetime's go-to accompaniment for the highest profile games.  That trend continues unabated even to this day, though, because this song seems to always be featured at least once on The Blitz each week and at least once on each postseason day on Primetime.  Unfortunately, it's gotten to the point that this quality composition has become a cliche for over-the-top epicness and I long to actually hear something else with the top-tier highlights.  It's the football music equivalent of "Bohemian Rhapsody" after Wayne's World.

One thing many NFL Primetime viewers may not remember, however, is that they actually used two versions of International Statement during the run of the show.  ESPN started using the "epic" version we all know in 1997, but they had actually been using the "Alternative" track with an added driving rock drum beat over the previous 6 seasons.  I think the added percussion tones down the over-the-top aspects of this song and, as a result, I would love to see ESPN bring this version back.

Unlike FirstCom's own Powersurge from the previous post, International Statement can ironically be found on the FirstCom website using the above link.  Even if you didn't have the link, though, it's easy to find because Classical Excellence is the earliest Chappell AV album currently housed there.

In commemoration of my second song post, you get a twofer!  The first highlight, using the Main Track, is the Raiders/Chiefs game at the end of 1999 where Oakland won at Arrowhead for the first time in the '90s and consequently knocked Kansas City out of the playoffs.  The second video, with the Alternative Version, features the Steelers finally getting over .500 on their way to their first Super Bowl appearance in 16 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…