Man From U.N.C.L.E. Album Cover
Welcome to Tablature Tuesday here at Mister Eight, where we’re hoping to start a weekly presentation of guitar tablature for fledgling Vic Flicks out there. Last week, you jammed along to John Barry’s spy-fi-like “Beat Girl,” but this week, it’s actual secret agent sounds for you:
e|----------------------------------| B|--------------8-6----6h8p6p0------| G|--------6---7----------------6-7--| D|------5---------------------------| A|----5-----------------------------| E|--3-------------------------------|
This is the tablature to the end title version of the theme, written by Jerry Goldsmith and arranged by Lalo Schifrin for the second season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I can’t figure out where I got this mp3 of the extended theme from as I can’t find it on the excellent four-disc release from Film Score Monthly. The second season theme is a less orchestral version of the original main theme that I think works better for guitar, but you can probably extrapolate most of what you need to know about the original brassier main theme from it.
This one had a tricky part that, as far as I can tell, doesn’t appear on the show (the bridge-like section where the root goes to F) and I’m not sure if it is entirely correct, but I’m happy to take suggestions and corrections!
The late Goldsmith’s theme to the Man From U.N.C.L.E. was nominated for both an Emmy and a Grammy in each award’s “Best TV Theme” category. Jon Heitland, in his The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Book: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Television Classic, had this to say about Goldsmith’s theme:
As early as October 1963, Norman Felton knew he wanted Jerry Goldsmith to compose the theme for the show…Goldsmith composed a rousing, powerful theme for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that was used, in slightly varied forms throughout the series…The theme song was played during the opening and closing credits of each episode. The theme was extremely popular, and for a time, a 45-rpm single version was on the market…The U.N.C.L.E. theme was performed by the Gallants, but they received screen credit only in one first season episode, “The See Paris and Die Affair,” in which they played nightclub musicians.
Here are the opening credits to the second season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.:
