Morton Stevens/The Ventures -- Theme from "Hawaii Five-0"

From YouTube

 

Former contributor and good friend JTM who lives in the Aloha State might snicker a bit, but whenever I hear about Hawaii, it's not palm trees, leis or ukuleles that first come to mind. I always think of gigantic waves...namely the one that shows up in the opening credits of the original "Hawaii Five-0" which began its dozen-year run in September 1968. The image kept imprinting itself into my head because I used to remember it as a toddler whenever the long-running cop series came on CBS (I can't quite believe that I was allowed to stay up that late). At one point, I just marveled at the fact that the wave didn't crash into our living room.

Speaking of those opening credits, they are iconic. It will go down as the coolest and most dramatic travelogue for the 50th State in pop culture history especially when the camera races up to the star, Jack Lord as Steve "Not a Hair Out of Place" McGarrett, turning toward it. Of course, what else is iconic is the theme song which has gone down as one of the best that television has ever come up with anywhere around the world.

We can thank composer Morton Stevens, a protégé of Jerry Goldsmith, for the theme. I have no idea how he was inspired to come up with something this epic for a cop show in Hawaii, but it's gotten to the point that if some band plays it anywhere, it will get a rousing round of applause and cheers...and maybe the odd "Book 'em, Danno, Murder One".

The thing is that Stevens was partially responsible for my early exposure to television music. I only found out recently that he had also been behind the elegant theme for the weekly CBS movies, and it even had a title "So Old, So Young". Along with his work on movie scores, he also had a hand in other television shows such as "Gilligan's Island", another one that I remember very well.

A musical cue that Stevens used in "Hawaii Five-0" got even more fame and popularity as it got a new job accompanying "A CBS Special Presentation" lead-ins. It was those lead-ins that got me excited for the fact that they invariably led me to "Peanuts" specials. The original track from "Hawaii Five-0" is below with that percussive cue revving up at around 47 seconds.

For a few years, I had assumed that The Ventures were the ones behind the theme for "Hawaii Five-0". Well, the band that has given its own contributions to kayo kyoku in Japan actually did the cover for Stevens' theme later in 1968 which became one of their big hits, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard. It did well in Canada, too, hitting No. 5 on RPM.

Of course, it came back for another decade on the new "Hawaii Five-O". And even for a beloved CG movie franchise.

Anyways, a couple of acts won some Best New Artist prizes at the Japan Record Awards in 1968.

Ken Yabuki -- Anata no Blues （あなたのブルース）

Pinky and Killers -- Koi no Kisetsu (恋の季節）