Heavy Action
"Heavy Action" is a
Superstars
The BBC commissioned Pearson to write the piece for its music library, while he was working as a member of the Top of the Pops orchestra accompanying pop stars on the weekly music TV show. During production of the first series of Superstars in 1973, "Heavy Action" was chosen as the theme music, owing to its high energy brass and string fanfare opening and Olympian themes.[3] The show (which aired in its first run from 1973 to 1985 and has been revived regularly since then) has always used the theme tune for all episodes of the show in its various incarnations, including the latest 2012 Olympic Superstars edition. The theme is now synonymous with sport in the United Kingdom, and was used extensively by the BBC during their coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Monday Night Football
In
For the 2006 NFL season, a team of composers comprising Robert Anthony Navarro, Cris Velasco, Sven Spieker, Sascha Dikiciyan and Chris Rickwood were hired by APM Music (APM) to arrange yet another entirely new recording of "Heavy Action" for the rebirth of Monday Night Football on ESPN.[4]
For the 2010 NFL season, Cris Velasco, Robert Anthony Navarro, Rod Abernathy, and Joachim Svare were hired by APM to do several arrangements of "Heavy Action" in various musical styles including rock, hip-hop and holiday for Monday Night Football on ESPN.
For the 2018 NFL season, ESPN brought back the original Pearson arrangement of "Heavy Action" as the main theme for Monday Night Football.
For the 2022 NFL season, ESPN used a remix of "Heavy Action" by EDM producer and DJ Marshmello as the intro theme for Monday Night Football.
Other uses
- Three years after its arrival on Monday Night Football, this same music was used as the theme for the now defunct syndicated SFM Holiday Network monthly offering of family feature films.[5]
- NFL Films used this piece of music along with the narration of John Facenda in its Super Bowl IX highlights film.
- In 1975 British Leyland used the soundtrack on the launch film of the 18-22 Series Austin Princess saloon.[6]
- The music was also used as the theme for the American television show Ten Who Dared (1976), which was a reworking of the BBC series The Explorers (1975).[7]
- Used in the 1976 Indianapolis 500 & 1977 Indianapolis 500 opening credits as Monday Night Football Producers Roone Arledge and Chuck Howard along with Director Chet Forte also worked on this other ABC Sports staple.[8][9]
- A remix by library music.
- Since January 2012 Chris Evans has used the song as the opening theme to his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show on Monday mornings.
- WWE has used the song for their Halftime Heat specials which aired at halftime of the Super Bowl, most recently for Super Bowl LIII.
- It was used in the introduction to the "Genkibowl VII" DLC missions in the video game Saints Row: The Third.
References
- ^ "Johnny Pearson". 3 May 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ Chakerian, Peter. The Browns Fan's Tailgating Guide. Cleveland, Ohio: Gray & Co., 2008, p. 85.
- Independent.co.uk. 23 March 2011. Archivedfrom the original on 2022-05-09. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ a b "APM Music Updates 'Monday Night Football' Theme Music." MixOnline.com. October 18, 2006. Archived February 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2012-02-15.
- ^ The SFM Holiday Network (Bumper, 1982) at YouTube.com
- ^ BLHeritageFilms (7 March 2009). "Leyland 18/22 Series / Princess Development 2". Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 27 September 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ Background on Ten Who Dared
- ^ 1976 Indianapolis 500 opening, w/Monday Night Football theme
- ^ OldSchoolNascar (18 December 2010). "1977 Indianapolis 500". Retrieved 27 September 2018 – via YouTube.
External links
- "Heavy Action" (audio) on YouTube