Mister 8

This will wrap up February’s theme of spy surf, and carry us into March’s similar theme, which is instrumental spy music. Seems similar, but I wanted to cover non-surf bands like the Revengers and Billy Strange, and perhaps bring some left-field items into the mix as well.

Tomorrow, we’ll be featuring a lengthy interview with Spy-Fi’s Tom Pervanje, and he’ll be talking about spy surf in general, and his band’s latest album, Black Tie Spy. So stay tuned for that!

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This version of the Get Smart theme is taken from a 1993 compilation album called B Movie Brain that features tracks from The 3D Invisibles, The Zombie Surfers, The Hellbenders, and the perpetrators of this track, the Kaos Killers. The track was sent to me by a reader calling himself Reverb Herb, but now that I’ve seen the track listing, I think I might hunt down the album. I believe the Kaos Killers share members with the Hellbenders and the Invisibles — at least I suspect Chris Flanagan and Rick Mills on bass and guitar, respectively. The Kaos Killers have three tracks on the album, including another that seems Get Smart-related, “The Man From Control.” I’ll try to track down some more information on these guys. Thanks, Herb!

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I’ve always debated whether The Persuaders was a spy show or not, but since A&E included it on their recent sampler of British spy TV, I won’t argue the point. At the very least, the adventures of Danny Wilde and Lord Brett Sinclair qualify under the “international crimefighters” part of this site. This cover of John Barry’s Persuaders theme was successfully orchestrated by the German band The Sidemen on a really solid 2007 release, The Sidemen Go Too Far. Uwe Grefrath plays guitar, Andy Bungert takes on the drums, and Oldrik Scholz plays bass. For more information on the Sidemen, check out their website, or their MySpace page, where you can hear other awesome spy surf songs and buy their albums.

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Our next band hails from Janesville, Wisconsin, and that’s about all I know about them. They’re The Dynamic Subarashi, and their website is under construction. This version of the Mission Impossible theme is certainly dynamic, though. I downloaded it last year from a music blog that seeks out cover songs, and haven’t been able to find more on the band, except a track listing for the self-titled album this song came from, on a German website, with no ordering information. Dynamic Subarashi, if you’re listening, I think you’re awesome and would like to know more about you!

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Last, but certainly not least…this version of the Avengers was performed by one of my all-time favorite surf bands, Laika & the Cosmonauts. Featuring Mikko Lankinen (guitar), Janne Haavisto (drums), Matti Pitsinki (organ and guitar), and Tom Nyman (bass), Laika enjoyed a 20-year career that ended last year. This cover of the Avengers theme was on their 1995 album Amazing Colossal Band, which also had a great cover of the IPCRESS File. For more information on Laika & the Cosmonauts, check out their website.

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The Persuaders Theme

I’ve been searching high and low, and it seems that while information about the film scores of John Barry, who also wrote the music for some series about a spy named James something or other, is abundant, much of the history of his work for television, including today’s spotlighted theme, has been lost to the ages.

    Am    Am9  Em   Em9
e|---5----7----7----7---|
B|---5----5----8----7---|
G|---5----5----9----9---|
D|---7----7----9----9---|
A|---7----7----7----7---|
E|---5----5-------------|

[See full tablature]

The Persuaders wasn’t really a spy show. It’s more of a buddy adventurers show, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis as a pair of playboys who help people in trouble. Still, the Barry connection, plus the supreme awesomeness that is this theme made it irresistible for me (with the help of Simon Rigot) to tab out. The theme was featured in what has to be one of the greatest opening sequences of all time:

One of the few bits I could find on the theme comes from this unsourced section of Barry’s Wikipedia entry:

One of Barry’s best known compositions is the theme for the 1971 TV series The Persuaders!, also known as “The Unlucky Heroes”, in which Tony Curtis and Roger Moore were paired as rich playboys solving crimes. The score for the series was composed by Ken Thorne.The theme went on to be a hit single in some European Countries and has been re-released on collections of 1970s disco hits. The instrumental recording features Moog synthesisers.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the Persuaders a disco theme. It’s got more in common with Roy Budd’s later theme for The Sandbaggers, and Barry’s own theme for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, than anything Gloria Gaynor ever did. Still, the track was definitely a product of its time, and was marketed as a single through this strange performance by Pan’s People on Top of the Pops: