Katsuhisa Hattori -- Kyodai Keiji（兄弟刑事）

Last night, I put on my TV nostalgia cap and went through some old American TV themes on YouTube, notably in the detective show vein. A few days ago, I'd undergone the same phase when I was writing up that article for one of the theme songs for the "Kosuke Kindaichi"（金田一耕助）series in Japan. But last night, I saw the classic opening credit sequence for "The NBC Mystery Movie" with its surprisingly romantic Henry Mancini theme song that has become the de facto theme for "Columbo". Now, whenever there is a power blackout in our building and I have to go down the corridor to investigate with a flashlight, I will always keep getting reminded of that song.

I also revisited an old favourite, the opening credits for the 60s show "Mannix" which was one of the earliest memories in my TV-viewing career. Lalo Schifrin created this one. Of course, he will probably be most famous for the legendary "Mission: Impossible" theme but whereas that one was determined and suspenseful, Schifrin's theme for "Mannix" was an intense but sweepingly jazzy number that I think perfectly described the life of good ol' Joe Mannix in Los Angeles.

Then, there was the funkiness of the theme song for "The Streets of San Francisco" by Patrick Williams. Love the wacka-wacka guitar, those drums and the horns. Couldn't feel more downtown than if I were actually in The City by the Bay itself.

I've had this video on backlog for a while and wading myself into those American cop show theme songs last night, I finally pulled the trigger on covering this one. This is Katsuhisa Hattori's（服部克久）opening instrumental theme for the Fuji-TV drama "Kyodai Keiji" (The Detective Brothers) which premiered some months after the curtain had finally fallen on "The Streets of San Francisco" on ABC.

Last month, I wrote about Hattori tackling some Shibuya-kei even probably before the term was born through his 1985 "Juicy and Crispy" album. Well, it looks like nearly a decade beforehand, he was whipping up some choice Quinn/Martin-friendly theme songs. There is something about his theme for "Kyodai Keiji" that reminds me of not only Williams' theme for "The Streets of San Francisco" but also the theme song for "Kojak". Perhaps Hattori was inspired by those tunes since there is also some funkiness in his creation as well as some of that urban intrepid feeling.