It doesn't quite fit, but the second Oddball Week track is the best one. I mean, I guess it does fit if you associate football with the oboe, but that proclivity probably isn't common. This song would fit well in a JRPG, though. It sounds especially like some of Noriyuki Iwadare's stuff from the Lunar & Growlanser series. I really doubt Iwadare wrote this particular piece, however, since all the Primetime tracks I've ID'd to this point have been by American or European composers.
US #32's highlight is quite appropriate for Oddball Week. A full minute is spent showing the same punt over & over again.
Contained on - MusicHouse MHE7 - Jingles, Bumpers and Donuts (KPM search link) Featured Highlight - Cardinals @ Bengals, 1997
*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 12/17/21
1997 was the last year where the NFL Primetime producers attempted to do a large-scale overhaul of the show's music. I say "attempted," though, because most of these new tracks didn't stick. Week 1 of '97 was particularly bizarre. There were 13 highlights that week (not counting the SNF recap on the non-live broadcasts); more than half of them used songs that were, to my knowledge, never used any other time on the show. Most of these tracks just didn't work, so kudos to the producers for both realizing that early and for replacing them with better new songs later (like Total News).
The very first Primetime highlight of 1997, featuring two teams that would not end up winning a lot of games, sadly includes one of the better oddball songs of Week 1. I apologize for the video quality of these Oddball Week clips in advance. Fortunately, the audio quality does not suffer nearly as much.
*EDIT* - This song was actually used once in 1996. Thanks to Robert Enriquez on youtube for confirming this.
I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that Unknown Song #30 is one of the most recognizable tunes from NFL Primetime. If you watched the show with any regularity in the '90s or 2000s (aside from 1996, where it was either not used or maybe used rarely), you surely heard this piece numerous times. It's a pretty good song, even if it does sound a bit like Eric D.—I often get the two confused in my head. This track has been roaming around the net (in the Polinsky set, among others) for a while, and it's called "The Big Game" on Dave Volsky's channel on youtube. I have yet to see an artist or album/library credit attached to it, however. It's similarity to Eric D. suggests John Colby could've composed it, but who knows? If any of you readers has an idea, don't hesitate to comment or contact me.
Given the huge volume of Primetime highlights that feature US #30, I had a tough decision for this blog entry's video. One of the top contenders was the Jets/Patriots game from 2001 where Drew Bledsoe got hurt, paving the way for Tom Brady—forgotten is that the game was probably best known at the time for its pregame honoring of Joe Andruzzi's firefighting family members that were involved with rescues on 9/11 (that game was from the first week after 9/11). I ultimately rejected this highlight, though, because the game itself wasn't that interesting (Brady didn't get a chance to do much) and because the Bledsoe injury is likely a prime target for the NFL's copyright bots. Instead, you get to see a veritable highlight reel for a different NFL great as his team came back from a 20-3 fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Vikings.
The next couple posts will highlight a couple unidentified songs that were used quite extensively on NFL Primetime. The first, Unknown Song #29, is probably the most famous of the "longing" Primetime tracks that often accompany struggling, frustrated teams. The style & instrumentation are also reminiscent of the music from the SNES RPG Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. This song predates Lufia by at least a couple years, so it's almost certainly a coincidence, but it's interesting nonetheless. Anyway… I saw this piece referred to as "Looks Like We Made It" on at least one of those downloadable NFL Primetime music collections that have been circulating a while (like the Mark Polinsky set, but it wasn't specifically that one). I have no idea if that's actually the track's name or if, say, somebody with bad ears thought it somehow sounded like the Barry Manilow song of the same name.
US #29's video accompaniment features the Seahawks hosting the Chiefs in the final regular-season game at the Kingdome. This contest also effectively decided the West division title that year, giving Seattle their only playoff appearance in their last 13 years in the AFC.
Primetime Usage - 1994-96 Contained on - pyr 702 (Sports/Action)
Featured Highlight - Patriots @ Jets, 1996
*SONG IDENTIFIED* - 10/3/19
There isn't much complexity to Unknown Song #28, but it's still a better highlight track than the last couple songs I've posted. US #28 does the basics well, as some hard edge and a driving rock beat are enough to make any NFL Primetime track at least passable. It's lack of direction & melody means it doesn't really do anything beyond that, though. Still, the track is a good accent for any high-energy football game.
I listed US #28 as being used from 1994-96, but I've only seen one instance of it being used outside of 1996 (Week 11, 1994). That also means I'm not certain it was actually used in 1995 (*EDIT* - a comment by Kyle Caughlin on youtube indicates it was used at least a couple times in '95). At any rate, here's a 1996 highlight of Rich Kotite's hard-luck Jets getting robbed late against Drew Bledsoe & the Patriots.
*EDIT* - The BMG website isn't hosting the Pyramid music label anymore, so I
replaced that link with Craig-UK's youtube post of this song. Special thanks to him for specifically putting that song up for this purpose.
*LATER EDIT* - the YouTube post is gone now (10/2024).
Continuing the theme from World Cup Shuffle, here's another cheesy NFL Primetime song. Unknown Song #27 makes World Cup Shuffle seem like a perfect football track by comparison, though. US #27 is jazzy, but not in an appealing way, and the instrumentation is quite tinny. I'm not certain I would rate it as the worst Primetime piece, but it's definitely down there. How this awkward song got paired with a Bears/Packers classic at Lambeau is anyone's guess.
*EDIT* - The BMG website isn't hosting the Pyramid music label anymore, so I
replaced that link with Benjamin Lane's youtube post of this song.
Most NFL Primetime aficionados will recognize Unknown Song #26 as the Primetime Players ("Game Balls") accompaniment music from the mid-to-late-'90s. I believe it was used as the Inside the Numbers song at one point, too. What most fans probably don't remember is that US #26 was also used as a regular highlight track during the 1992 season. Don't worry if you don't remember, though, because it's one of the weakest highlight songs in the show's history. US #26 is very much an emotionless interlude piece that just doesn't go together with action. It's use with Game Balls/Inside the Numbers is much more fitting.
Here's a Lions blowout of the Buccaneers to go with this relatively boring piece. Those new orange pants sure do look spiffy, though. Oh, and I have absolutely no idea why Wayne Fontes is wearing a shirt with Union Jacks all over it.
