Walter Murphy -- Family Guy

 

When it comes to the long-running prime-time animated series "Family Guy", I've been somewhat of an in-betweener fan. I remember catching the early episodes back in the late 1990s and enjoying the show for all of the pop culture references via their famous cutaways and it got to the point that I ended up buying the first seven seasons of "Family Guy" on DVD in Japan. Since then, it's basically been just the cutaways that I've been watching since they've generally been more hilarious than the main story which has often gotten a little too dark for my tastes in recent seasons.

However, one thing that has generally remained the same all these years since 1999 is the opening credit sequence with Peter and Lois Griffin making like Archie and Edith Bunker as they sing on the family piano. Plus, there is that jazzy and snazzy theme song by Walter Murphy that reminds me of another theme song from another much older animated series. Murphy, strangely enough, is someone I've known about since I was a kid (although I didn't know the name at the time) because he was also the fellow behind the disco "A Fifth of Beethoven" all the way back in 1976. 

Well, years later, I see him as the maestro of the swinging jazz orchestra that has often inhabited the soundtrack of "Family Guy", and I've been a big fan of the main theme. In fact, years later, I finally got the album "Family Guy: Live in Vegas" just for a full version of the theme by Murphy, and he, Seth MacFarlane (and his multiple voices), and the rest of the cast don't disappoint. One YouTube commenter said he hoped that this would be the version that would end the entire show once that comes to pass. I wouldn't mind that at all either...having everyone come on stage to do one big brassy take on the theme. Maybe the humour in "Family Guy" is often crass and cruel, but when it comes to the Murphy music, it's all class.

Yup, I know...this is really a Reminiscings of Young Adulthood more than Youth, but I just had to include this one. So, what was being released in Japan when "Family Guy" made its premiere in January 1999?

Kohmi Hirose -- I Wish

Every Little Thing -- Over and Over

Dreams Come True -- Asa ga Mata Kuru （朝がまた来る）