John Williams Composes NBC Sunday Night Football Theme

From The Futon Critic

Wednesday, August 30, 2006
LEGENDARY COMPOSER JOHN WILLIAMS COMPOSES NEW "NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" THEME
Released by NBC

"NBC Sunday Night Football" Theme Music to Debut Sept. 7 on Inaugural NBC Regular Season Broadcast

NEW YORK Aug. 30, 2006 Academy Award-winning composer and music director John Williams, the Academy's most nominated living person with 45 nominations, and an 18-time Grammy Award-winner, has composed the new theme music for "NBC Sunday Night Football," and NBC's "Football Night in America" studio show, it was announced today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Sports & Olympics and Executive Producer, "NBC Sunday Night Football." Williams previously worked with NBC Sports on the network's theme music for the Olympic Games, and has composed the themes to films including Star Wars, Jaws, Superman and ET. The "NBC Sunday Night Football" and "Football Night in America" themes will be used as the show opens, and throughout the broadcasts.

"I'm not only excited but also privileged to have one of America's greatest musical talents make his first foray into our country's premier sport of football on television's premier night," said Ebersol. "We at NBC have enjoyed a special relationship with John for two decades through the Olympics and News division. It's a relationship I hope will last forever."

"It has been great fun and a rare privilege to have been asked to contribute music for NBC's broadcast of one of our country's greatest traditions football!" said Williams. "The outstanding athletes that play this game are similar to our great musicians in that they all require complete dedication and rigorous daily practice to stay sharp. I can also say that the members of our orchestra are all avid football fans and they were very excited when, on the day we recorded this music, we were visited by Al Michaels.

"Short of being at the games or meeting Al Michaels in person, the next best thing will be to turn on NBC and enjoy one of these great events. Personally, I'm extremely proud to be a small part of it."

Williams has composed the music and served as a music director for more than one hundred films, including, War of the Worlds, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Minority Report, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Stepmom, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Seven Years in Tibet, The Lost World, Rosewood, Sleepers, Nixon, Sabrina, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Far and Away, JFK, Hook, Presumed Innocent, Born on the Fourth of July, the Indiana Jones trilogy, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, E.T. (the Extra-Terrestrial), Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Star Wars trilogy, Jaws, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He has received forty-five Academy Award nominations, most recently for his scores from Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich, making him the Academy's most nominated living person. He has been awarded five Oscars, seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), eighteen Grammys, four Golden Globes, four Emmys and numerous gold and platinum records. In addition, Mr. Williams has composed the well-known NBC News theme "The Mission," "Liberty Fanfare" composed for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin Good!," composed for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic games and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Many of Williams' film scores have been released as recordings; the soundtrack album Star Wars has sold more than four million copies, making it one of the most successful non-pop albums in recording history. Mr. Williams' highly acclaimed series of albums with the Bos

 

Very cool.

And I'm sure someone will bring up the Monday Night Football Theme. That's called "Heavy Action" and it was composed by Johnny Pearson.

 

Here is the theme composed itself. It looks like NBC has already released it. This was on a cable network News site, so it's safe.

as for the theme, very neat. I'm happy to hear something new out of him. Its not a great piece of work, but for what its for, it'll work nicely.

~JW

 

Good to see the relationship between Williams and NBC is still strong. But John Tesh still has the best sports music ever IMO: his 'NBA on NBC' theme is a classic.

 

Wow that was awesome. Very epic. Recalls ancient Rome with the gladiators entering the arena. Also has a Trade Federation March vibe.

 

Agreed, very TF-ish.

 

^lol, All i can see when hearing it is a bunch of battle droids on the march.

 

I hear the Coruscant space battle. Very cool, though.

 

Yeah, i cant wait to sound all smart and tell everyone that Nbc hired JW to write that score.

 

Woohoo! New material from John! This is really good, light, snappy march with a good dose of epic-ness. Ecactly what Episode III needed but only got in the opening battle.

 

I must be the only one who didn't really care for it. It's good music, but doesn't really bring to mind American football. I agree that it sounds like the Trade Federation March, a little too much so. It just doesn't sound orginal or inspired.

 

_Vader_, where do you think this music would fit in the PT?

 

Overall, I like the cue. It has a lot of the flavor of the "Trade Federation March" and "Love Pledge and The Arena", as well as a dash of the "Battle of Coruscant". Williams really seems to be favoring these types of themes and action cues in recent years-- crazy, running triplets in the high brass as opposed to big, powerful action cue statements that defined his work in the 70's and 80's. I wish I could more accurately describe what I mean by "these types of cues", but my musical vocabulary is very limited. Anyways, a big thumbs up for Williams' new "Sunday Night Football" theme as a standalone piece of music.

However, for some reason, it doesn't bring to mind American Football for me. The old "Monday Night Football" theme had a sense of "showtime" to it. With its jazzy instrumentation and tempo, it really gave the sense that we were watching a glitzy American showtime event.

And if you want a truly "grand" theme that brings to mind American Football, look no further than the thundering "NFL on FOX" theme, a staple of Sunday afternoons across America. Of course, from here we could delve into a discussion of the wonderfully epic and inspiring music composed for "NFL Films" over the years. Cues such as the "The Raiders" and "Classic Battle" are not easily forgotten.

Returning to the topic at hand: my reservations concerning Williams' new theme may only be caused by the fact that I have yet to hear William's new "Sunday Night Football" theme alongside visuals of epic gridiron battles. Time will tell whether or not this theme is destined to become a classic, as has his theme for the Olympics.

If I was a harsh grader, I'd give Williams' new "Sunday Night Football" theme a solid B+. I really, really like it as a musical cue, but it doesn't quite feel like football. ...Yet.


P.S. Oh, and yes, the old "NBA on NBC" tops them all. Talk about your nostalgia. *runs off to go listen to it*

 

Williams must have like "The Flag Parade" so much that he couldn't resist reprising it.

But seriously, this is totally negligible. The same damn 4-b3-2-b3 figure that's plagued every fanfare of his since the original NBC themes is back, and it doesn't help that the mixing is so dry it almost sounds synthesized.

 

Yeah, Kev, I was thinking about some of the NFL films music too. I like "Round Up" the best of the ones I have. "The Raiders" is up there too. I also know there's a really familiar one that I don't have, I and can't quite place it now.

 

Very "ABC-ish"

*aynw*

 

lol same here.

Well, it's a good theme IMO.And hey, if the NFL had super-battle droids as linebackers, it'd probably be quite entertaining to watch.

 

Interesting. What better way to bring Star Wars fans and Football fans together? Nice to have something both can enjoy.

 

I saw this on AICN and ran over to here to see what we nerds thought of it.

Good for what it is, but a bit phoned-in. I really do get the sense that it's from Trade Federation and/or Flag Parade territory. (I actually don't hear Flag Parade too distinctly, I think it's the sports imagery that's bringing that up... I think of battle droids storming on Naboo and capturing Keira Knightley.)

But it's nice that people are sophisticated enough to pinpoint specific cues he's ripping from. A lesser Internet user would have just said "lol it sounds like star wars what".



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

This would be a good replacement for the tracked cues in ROTS. (Kaskyyyk invasion, Temple march) The music doesn't have to be completely bleak, and a snappy march like this helps to keep the score fun, which is what the IM did for ESB.

 

I've thought about it for a minute or two, and I think you're right. This cue would work great with the Separatist invasion of Kashyyyk. I think it's a bit too heroic for such a Debby-Downer moment like the storming of the Jedi Temple.

 

Hmm. It appears that more and more, John William's biggest influence is John Williams.

 

^Lol, like james horner.

 

He could certainly do worse.

 

True, and to be fair, his scores for Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich were quite different from a lot of his previous work. But he's phoning in themes more often than ever now.