Lalo Schifrin -- Theme from "Mannix"

 

First off, allow me to wish everyone in the United States, including friends there such as Larry Chan, JTM, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" and Scott of "Holly Jolly X'masu" a Happy Thanksgiving today. Hopefully, you're enjoying some of that scrumptious food and good company in some of the weather that we in Toronto have been having: not too brisk but with a good amount of sun.

For this week's Reminiscings of Youth (but once again, I should actually say Reminiscings of Toddlerhood), I'm going to go with the legendary Argentinian-American composer Lalo Schifrin. I call him thusly because I don't know of too many composers who can whip up themes that even a kid in diapers could get into and enjoy for decades upon decades. Schifrin will always be known for coming up with the theme for "Mission: Impossible" which is cool, jazzy, urgent, sneaky and suspenseful.

However, Schifrin also came up with a theme song that is probably only known to a far smaller demographic which was around in the middle of the 20th century in North America. The theme was for a long-running detective series on CBS called "Mannix", and not only did it share the same TV network and theme composer as "Mission: Impossible", but "Mannix" was also created by the mastermind behind the spy show, Bruce Geller. As much as I remember the opening credits for "Mission: Impossible" with the lit fuse and then the flashes of upcoming scenes for the episode, I also fondly recall the opening sequence for "Mannix" in which all these different frames of tough guy private eye Joe Mannix (portrayed by Mike Connors) pop up on the screen showing different aspects of him (he can duke it out with the bad guys, romance the women, and burn his fingers on toast!). My only question was what was he running from on that highway bridge? Doesn't matter...it looked cool.

One thing that I wouldn't realize until I was well into my university years (the show had already ended some ten years before) was that the premise of "Mannix" was slightly different in Season 1 when it premiered in September 1967. Joe was the old-school detective who was working for a company whose staff boasted resolved cases via computer, and he had to work under supposedly stodgy Lew Wickersham played by veteran character actor Joseph Campanella. Mannix was the one piece of grit in the oyster that was the Intertect Detective Agency, relying more on street smarts and fists rather than spinning spools of data. When I was a kid, I always knew Mannix as a solo private eye in Los Angeles with his assistant Peggy, played by Gail Fisher; he would also occasionally have a line of police lieutenants drop by for expositional purposes.

It would take even longer for me to find out that it was Schifrin who was also behind the marvelous theme song for "Mannix". In comparison with the "Mission: Impossible" theme, the "Mannix" theme was also cool and jazzy, but it was much more open and swinging. There was nothing secret about this song which fit Joe's character. The brassy blasts and the percussion showed off the fisticuffs and car chases that the detective would end up in, while the soaring and sweeping main melody led by the saxophones was Joe in his off hours enjoying the drive or that dinner with his latest romantic date. At the time, I didn't know that Schifrin had formed the theme into a jazz waltz; I couldn't conceive of jazz having a waltz since I thought of the waltz purely being in the classical music vein.

The "Mannix" theme was released as a single in 1969, but I'm going to go with the original first airing of the show in September 1967 to see what was coming out in Japan or thereabouts. 

The Peanuts -- Koi no Fuuga (恋のフーガ） (August 1967)

The Spiders -- Bang Bang Bang （バン　バン　バン） (October 1967)

Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica -- Otaru no Hito yo （小樽のひとよ） (September 1967)