We’re an Anglo-American musical group called SQUARE HALO and we’re keen to get songs from our Lyme disease awareness album ‘The Lyme Years’ featured in independent films. We have original, evocative, catchy, high-quality songs for sync licensing and we’re happy to waive the licence fee too!
Exclusively for Raindance, here are our favourite TV series theme music…
Singer-songwriter Demetrios Loukas of SQUARE HALO:
My favourite opening theme song for a television series has to be ‘The Love Boat‘.
American singer and actor Jack Jones recorded ‘The Love Boat‘ in 1977 for a television series of the same name which ran for 9 seasons between 1977 and 1986. The setting for most episodes of ‘The Love Boat‘ was a cruise ship called the Pacific Princess. Viewers followed a few plot lines each week as passengers and crew had various adventures. The opening theme song was used to introduce the guest stars and regular characters.
I wasn’t aware that a more soulful version recorded by Dionne Warwick was used for the last (ninth) season of the show, and having just listened to it for the first time, it’s surprisingly quite good!
Jack Jones has had a singing career for more than five decades. He’s won two Grammy awards and the legendary Frank Sinatra regarded him ‘one of the major singers of our time’. Once again, I wasn’t aware that Jack Jones had recorded and released a song called ‘The Impossible Dream‘ in 1966 which is one of my favourite covers by the late Luther Vandross.
The popularity of the opening theme song of ‘The Love Boat‘ got it featured in hit movies such as ‘Airplane II; The Sequel‘ (1982) and ‘Demolition Man‘ (1993).
‘The Love Boat‘ theme music was composed by American composer for film and television Charles Fox and the song lyrics were written by American composer, singer-songwriter and actor Paul Williams.
Composer Charles Fox tells the story of how he pitched ‘The Love Boat‘ theme song to American television producers Aaron Spelling and Douglas Cramer:
‘When I went to Aaron Spelling‘s office (to Doug Cramer) to play ‘The Love Boat‘ song, I got the demo of the song, and (in) Aaron’s office at 20th Century Fox, there wasn’t a tape machine or cassette machine available. So I said, well, okay, we’re here at 20th Century Fox, let’s find a piano, I’ll do it live, I’ll sing it live. Well, the secretary got on the horn and a few minutes later, there’s no pianos available at all to play the song. So, I didn’t know how he was going to get to hear the song without a piano, without a tape machine. So, I finally said, alright Aaron, here it goes ‘Love, exciting and new, come aboard, we will welcome you, the love boat…’ and I sang the song acapella, snapping my fingers, and that’s how they heard it and they liked it that way, and that was always a curious thing for me.‘
Songwriter Paul Williams expresses his gratitude for the ‘The Love Boat‘ theme song:
‘Charles (Fox) and I actually wrote ‘The Love Boat’ together… and ‘The Love Boat‘ sailed for 11 years and it’s still out there somewhere, you know, every time they play it, I get a little taste, not a lot but a little something. It’s what I call horizontal money; you’re laying in bed and you go ‘The Love Boat…’ – thank you Lord, it’s good to be working!‘
Composer, arranger and producer Treyvonce Ambers-Moore of SQUARE HALO:
Hands down, my top TV series theme music would have to be from the Netflix show called ‘Narcos‘. It’s one of the smoothest songs I’ve ever heard. The beautiful guitar strums, the calm vocal inflections and the percussions just paint such a vivid audio canvas of creativity.
I was first introduced to this theme on a random incident of walking into my older sister’s room to ask her a question, then BOOM, this theme plays and the next thing I know, I’m sitting down watching the whole intro that would then lead me to watching the show’s rollercoaster plot of drug trafficking through the viewpoint of Pablo Escobar (played by Wagner Moura). From just that unexpected occurrence, my sister and I would then binge-watch the episodes till we’d eventually finish the whole first season.
The funny thing is, I speak absolutely zero percent of Spanish so I have no idea what the vocalist is singing about and I don’t think I care to know. I enjoy the musical mystery of not knowing the English translation.
More importantly, I’ve become a fan of the singer and artist Rodrigo Amarante. It’s honestly crazy to think that I may have never found this artist if it weren’t for me stumbling upon the Narcos theme song. I’m actually listening to him now!
This goes to show how much a theme song can garner and attract new viewers and turn them into real fans. I hope to one day pass down a similar feeling to listeners with the music that’s been created within Square Halo.
Composer and co-writer Omar Shelesh of SQUARE HALO:
For this category, I’d like to highlight the remarkable work of one particular Film and TV composer. Many people aren’t familiar with the name Stu Phillips, but when we see his name included in the title credits of popular classic American TV shows from the 70s and 80s, we know he deserves serious recognition.
The two works I would like to mention here demonstrate Phillips’ range and versatility as a composer, the first being the music to the 1978 science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. Solely composed and conducted by Phillips, the original soundtrack is a full suite of strongly thematic orchestral scoring featuring standout tracks including the foreboding Prologue, followed by the heroic Battlestar Galactica Theme, which equals the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek in its sense of majesty, melancholy, and adventure.
As for the other show that Phillips has worked on, it’s hard to imagine why Knight Rider would need an introduction beyond its title. It’s also hard to imagine the iconic imagery of a black futuristic car cruising along a dusty desert road without Phillips’ signature theme music.
Technically speaking, the Main Title theme is based on a simple musical concept, as Phillips composed four musical motifs using a conventional ensemble, consisting of electric bass, guitars, synths, and drums that, when isolated, are merely sequences of repeated notes.
However, the old adage about the sum being greater than its parts really rings true here because, when merged together, they form an intricate melodic and rhythmic counterpoint that, to me, beautifully reflects the high-tech inner workings of the car itself (as well as making it look simply awesome). As countless others would agree, I believe the Knight Rider TV show boasts one of the best soundtracks of the 1980s.
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‘SQUARE HALO’ are a trio of creatives from across the globe: we have London-based singer-songwriter and Lyme disease lobbyist Demetrios Loukas, Minnesota-based music producer Treyvonce Ambers-Moore and Demetrios’s long-time co-writer Tokyo-based composer Omar Shelesh.
Their story begins with Demetrios, a former primary school teacher who contracted Lyme disease back in 2005 whilst on a school trip to a farm in Oxfordshire. The infection went undiagnosed and untreated for 8 years and during this time his health deteriorated with the infection spreading and his life hanging in the balance. He was however clinically diagnosed in 2013 and since then, his health has improved.
In 2015, Demetrios reached out to Treyvonce online and they started collaborating remotely. Their debut album ‘The Lyme Years’ took the group over 5 years to complete.
Whilst still suffering from the disease, Demetrios managed to turn this experience on its head and was inspired to fight back and thus two projects were born, the first being ‘The FIGHT LYME NOW Campaign’ and the second ‘SQUARE HALO’. We have a mismatch of science and music combining forces with two main objectives – to spread positivity and awareness of Lyme disease through musical collaborations and also lobbying for the recognition of chronic Lyme disease (which is currently dismissed by the international medical establishment) and the need for effective treatment for both acute and chronic Lyme disease including Lyme disease co-infections (which are currently not considered, much less treated).
Contact Demetrios by email here.
