Johnny Williams -- Lost in Space (2nd Theme)

 

Years ago, when I was doing my usual hemispheric voyage between Tokyo and Toronto, I opted to watch one of the offered choices for movies on a plane. Of course, to make me forget that I was flying in a pressurized tin can thousands of metres above the land and sea, I opted to catch a movie that involved a lot of flying...mind you in outer space. That movie was the 1998 redux of the old TV series "Lost in Space" starring the late John Hurt and Gary Oldman. I had a basic idea of what the original 1960s show (1965-1968) was all about but unlike another sci-fi franchise from that decade, "Star Trek", I never became a fan although I was aware of the Robot and the goofily villainous Dr. Smith. The movie did have its charms including a new Robot and some nice effects, but it was just a timewaster with the characters spewing technobabble that appeared to have been lifted straight from "Star Trek".

It says something when the really good part of the movie is the ending credits with a pretty kickass theme by electronica band Apollo 440. At the time, I just had no idea that the group had based it on the second theme song for the original series. 

Listening to both the first and second theme songs, yeah, I agree that the latter was the better one for being more upbeat and adventurous. It was used for the third and final season of "Lost in Space" from September 1967, and it's a nice touch to have that visual countdown at the beginning of each episode of Season 3 just to add to the excitement. To add to the epic nature of this story, both themes were composed by one Johnny Williams (cool, daddy-o!), aka master movie soundtrack maker John Williams.

Of course, Williams is already on the blog for "Star Wars" and I noted in that ROY article that the music legend had already been making his mark in the industry during the 1960s, but at the time, I hadn't really realized that the man who was also behind the great music behind "Superman", "Indiana Jones", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", etc. had a decade previously come up with cool television theme tunes for those pulpy sci-fi shows including "Land of the Giants" and "Lost in Space". It must have been great training for Williams because even back then, those TV themes were also thrilling blood-pumpers.

I have to admit though that as much as I discovered this Williams theme via an electronica band cover decades later, the same goes with "Star Wars". Months before I finally got to listen to the original overture, I'd first discovered that movie's theme from the disco cover by Meco, so I gather that I will have to talk about disco "Star Wars" in a future ROY.

Anyways, I could only find one single in Japan that was released in the same month that the newer and more improved "Lost in Space" theme made its presence known. 

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