While mourning the passing of actor Michael K. Williams last week, I revisited some of the episodes of the HBO classic series The Wire and was reminded of the theme song: Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole.” The song was performed by different artists each season, including The Blind Boys of Alabama—whose version was selected for the series’ premiere season—as well as the Neville Brothers, Waits himself, and a group of Black Baltimore teenagers.
Listening to these very different versions got me thinking about Black musicians and music in other television series. Though white artists and composers predominate scoring and performing for television series, I was elated to find Black music offerings in various genres. Some I was familiar with, and others which I had not heard until I started searching.
So for today’s #BlackMusicSunday, join me in a musical expedition on the small screen, starting with The Wire.
In 2008, The Chicago Tribune explored “The music behind 'The Wire.'”
As mentioned, the original series opening was performed by the Blind Boys of Alabama.
YouTube Video
The Blind Boys of Alabama’s website gives their background details.
In a review for Classic Rock of all five versions of The Wire’s theme, Emma Johnston gives her opinion on the Neville Brothers’ rendition.
Listen for yourself.
YouTube Video
Season Four of The Wire focuses on Baltimore’s schools.
This version was particularly surprising to anyone who paid attention to the first three seasons’ performances, which were performed by musicians far from childhood.
YouTube Video
Once I finished exploring and refreshing my memory of The Wire’s theme song, I was taken back in time to an ‘80s TV series I had forgotten: Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.
YouTube Video
The theme song is “Harlem Nocturne,” written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers in 1939 and has since become a jazz standard. Radio station WFMU lists 42 versions—which is only a partial listing.
Here are two of my favorite renditions.
YouTube Video
YouTube Video
Several television series themes feature funky Latin beats. Puerto Rican percussionist Willie Bobo recorded one of them.
Here’s Bobo’s beloved Kojak theme.
YouTube Video
Surprisingly, another Latin percussion-enhanced theme song on my list is “Suicide is Painless,” from M*A*S*H. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson recorded a version of it in 1975.
YouTube Video
Who woulda thunk that the theme song from The Flintstones cartoon series, “Meet The Flintstones,” would become a jazz standard?
YouTube Video
You may have noticed that I have not shared music from television series with predominantly Black casts and targeted specifically to Black audiences. I did that simply because one would expect that Black TV shows would include both Black music and musicians. There are a few to choose from, most of which were sitcoms. I’ll be posting some of them in the comments, but I would like to highlight one Black sitcom theme that came from an unlikely source: actress Ja’Net Dubois, who was one of the stars of the series Good Times.
As YouTuber Pop Goes The Culture TV wrote in February 2020:
Enjoy this story of Dubois’ self-advocacy—aimed at Norman Lear—and how she found success … with a little help from Mom.
YouTube Video
Enjoy both versions of the iconic theme below.
YouTube Video
Notes posted by YouTuber E included the lyrics that Dubois described as “personal”:
When I think about The Jeffersons and what George and Weezy represented — I also think today of why we, as Black people, are resented by such a distressingly large segment of our fellow citizens. The lyric “finally got a piece of the pie” says it all, to me, at a time when racists still want to take away that tiny slice we’ve gained over time.
Clearly, we still have further to go. After all, in 2020, Amanda Jones became the first Black woman nominated for a Primetime Emmy for composing a score, “for her work on the "Maine" episode of Home, a docu-series that explores the world's most innovative homes.”
Jones did not win the Emmy, but she is part of an organization called the Composers Diversity Collective, “[a]n organization of music creators who are achieving a workplace environment in the entertainment industry as diverse as our society.”
Though we often think of television as mostly “visual,” the music that both introduces and ends shows, as well as providing an aural narrative woven throughout any given program, is key to our enjoyment and often remains with us long after we’ve forgotten dialogue and images.
Since much of American music is fundamentally Black music, that should be reflected and writ large in our small-screen experiences.
Listening to these very different versions got me thinking about Black musicians and music in other television series. Though white artists and composers predominate scoring and performing for television series, I was elated to find Black music offerings in various genres. Some I was familiar with, and others which I had not heard until I started searching.
So for today’s #BlackMusicSunday, join me in a musical expedition on the small screen, starting with The Wire.
In 2008, The Chicago Tribune explored “The music behind 'The Wire.'”
As mentioned, the original series opening was performed by the Blind Boys of Alabama.
YouTube Video
The Blind Boys of Alabama’s website gives their background details.
In a review for Classic Rock of all five versions of The Wire’s theme, Emma Johnston gives her opinion on the Neville Brothers’ rendition.
Listen for yourself.
YouTube Video
Season Four of The Wire focuses on Baltimore’s schools.
This version was particularly surprising to anyone who paid attention to the first three seasons’ performances, which were performed by musicians far from childhood.
YouTube Video
Once I finished exploring and refreshing my memory of The Wire’s theme song, I was taken back in time to an ‘80s TV series I had forgotten: Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.
YouTube Video
The theme song is “Harlem Nocturne,” written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers in 1939 and has since become a jazz standard. Radio station WFMU lists 42 versions—which is only a partial listing.
Here are two of my favorite renditions.
YouTube Video
YouTube Video
Several television series themes feature funky Latin beats. Puerto Rican percussionist Willie Bobo recorded one of them.
Here’s Bobo’s beloved Kojak theme.
YouTube Video
Surprisingly, another Latin percussion-enhanced theme song on my list is “Suicide is Painless,” from M*A*S*H. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson recorded a version of it in 1975.
YouTube Video
Who woulda thunk that the theme song from The Flintstones cartoon series, “Meet The Flintstones,” would become a jazz standard?
YouTube Video
You may have noticed that I have not shared music from television series with predominantly Black casts and targeted specifically to Black audiences. I did that simply because one would expect that Black TV shows would include both Black music and musicians. There are a few to choose from, most of which were sitcoms. I’ll be posting some of them in the comments, but I would like to highlight one Black sitcom theme that came from an unlikely source: actress Ja’Net Dubois, who was one of the stars of the series Good Times.
As YouTuber Pop Goes The Culture TV wrote in February 2020:
Enjoy this story of Dubois’ self-advocacy—aimed at Norman Lear—and how she found success … with a little help from Mom.
YouTube Video
Enjoy both versions of the iconic theme below.
YouTube Video
Notes posted by YouTuber E included the lyrics that Dubois described as “personal”:
When I think about The Jeffersons and what George and Weezy represented — I also think today of why we, as Black people, are resented by such a distressingly large segment of our fellow citizens. The lyric “finally got a piece of the pie” says it all, to me, at a time when racists still want to take away that tiny slice we’ve gained over time.
Clearly, we still have further to go. After all, in 2020, Amanda Jones became the first Black woman nominated for a Primetime Emmy for composing a score, “for her work on the "Maine" episode of Home, a docu-series that explores the world's most innovative homes.”
Jones did not win the Emmy, but she is part of an organization called the Composers Diversity Collective, “[a]n organization of music creators who are achieving a workplace environment in the entertainment industry as diverse as our society.”
Though we often think of television as mostly “visual,” the music that both introduces and ends shows, as well as providing an aural narrative woven throughout any given program, is key to our enjoyment and often remains with us long after we’ve forgotten dialogue and images.
Since much of American music is fundamentally Black music, that should be reflected and writ large in our small-screen experiences.