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Station themes S-Z Click on picture or title for audio clip

RADIO SEAGULL

ALL THE LOVE OF THE UNIVERSE - Santana Track on LP Caravanserai CBS 65299 (UK.1972). Chosen by Norman Barrington as the station theme, the Seagull version was produced on the Mi Amigo by Norman, using Revox tape machines, by crossfading a sped-up and echoed time signal at the front and a subtle crossfade at the end to the Incredible String Band's "Seagull" with added sea effects. This recording is the Seagull version, with thanks to Norman.

RADIO SCOTLAND

THE BLACK BEAR - Frank Cordell HMV POP 824 (UK.1961). Entered the bottom of the charts at no. 44 in February 1961, as the theme to the war film "Tunes of Glory" starring Alec Guinness. A brief clip of Black Bear is included on the LP "A Sound Memorial to Radio Scotland 242" Scotia Records SCO242 (Oct 1967), credited as a traditional Scots song, although no artiste is given. As the album showcases "Scotia" records artistes it pressumedly an arrangement by one of them. There is also a vocal version of the track Tunes of Glory by Andy Stewart and the Frank Cordell Orchestra Top Rank Int’ JAR 1961.

RADIO SUTCH

GREEN ONIONS - Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames The B side of Do-Re-Mi Columbia DB 7255 (UK.1964)  Also a track on LP 20 Beat Classics RSO Records SPELP 45 (UK.1983). ". Another version of the Booker T hit, written by Jones, Cropper, Jackson and used by Radio Sutch and later Radio City.

RADIO SYD

SWINGING SAFARI - Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra  Polydor NH66983 (UK.1962) and track on LP Swinging Safari on Polydor 237 584 (UK.1962) an excellant early stereo release. Also track on LP's "Swinging Safari" Polydor LPHM46 384 (1966); "The Very Best of Bert Kaempfert" Polydor 2371 005 (early 70's), "Everybody Loves Somebody" Polydor 2482 288 (1976), "Great Orchestras of the World" Polydor 3146 069 and a live version on "Bert Kaempfert Live in London" Polydor 2310 366.

RADIO 270

TELSTAR - The Tornados Decca F11494 (UK.1962), Old Gold OG9976 (80’s re-issue). A number one hit in August 1962 for the group who were celebrating the launch of the communications satellite named Telstar.

RADIO 355

OSCAR (MAIN TITLE) - Percy Faith Title track from the LP The Oscar CBS BPG62684 Mono (UK.1966) This track is from the Joseph E.Levine produced film of the same name starring Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer and Milton Berle. The film, about the American Academy award ceremony also features a vocal version of the title song, by Tony Bennett.

 RADIO 390    

SENTIMENTAL - Telecast Orchestra, conducted by Robert Farnon Chappell C562 (1957) Track on LP London Calling - Famous Themes Volume 3 Grasmere GRALP30 (1988).
The daily closing theme of Radio 390 has long remained a mystery. Gerry Bishop’s book "Offshore Radio" stated that the theme was On a Clear Day by Frank Chacksfield.  By listening to old tapes, the theme certainly sounds much like On a Clear Day, (from the US Broadway show & later film starring Barbara Streisand) but after extensive searching, including many hours in oldies record stores going through numerous Chacksfield LP's and singles, as well as searching old Decca catalogues and the BBC record library, no version by Chacksfield was ever found. 
Another possibility was that the theme could be vocal version, with the vocals edited out, or that the track came from a reel to reel tape of music that had been aired on Japanese radio shows. Frank Chacksfield was very friendly with the Radio 390 and apparently supplied a number of these. We asked 390's head Ted Allbeury several times, but he was unable to recall who the theme was by.
Thanks to some detective work by Chris Cortez, we've now discovered that the stations daily theme was actually Sentimental composed by Adrian Foley & Ronnie Dale and recorded by the Telecast Orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon. Canadian Farnon assembled the Telecast Orchestra from the top sessions of the day and way back in 1957, Sentimental was recorded as library music for Chappell Recorded Music Limited of London. This recording of Sentimental, which does sound remarkably like On a Clear Day circa 1965, never surfaced on a commercial disc until 1988. Then the small Grasmere Records label issued it as an LP track on  London Calling! Famous Themes Volume 3. The LP sleeve notes make no mention of Radio 390, but instead states “Sentimental – theme of Richard Attenborough presents”, which was presumedly a radio show. Much more on Robert Farnon, and some excellent links to other light orchestral music sites and be found at the Robert Farnon Society website. Thanks to Chris Cortez, and to Eric White of Out of Time records for finally solving the above.

RADIO VERONICA

a) GRUNCHY GRANOLA SUITE - Percy Faith Orchestra  a) CBS 2548 (NL.1974), b) CBS SSP12032 (NL.1975). Written and originally sung by Neil Diamond as "Crunchy Granola Suite" UNI UN536 (UK Nov.1971), it was the flipside of "Stones" a Veronica hit tip from November 1971. The Percy Faith instrumental version was used by the "Veronica moet aan Land" (Veronica on land) campaign, issued as "Grunchy" not "Crunchy". The flipside of the 1974 release featured many Veronica jingles, whilst the 1975 release features "We Love the Pirates" as the flipside. The track also features on the LP's Veronica Veronica 1975/CBS Special products (NL.1975), and The Day the music died - 3 jaar Veronica CBS 53089 (NL.1977) as well as CD We Love the Pirate Stations BR Music 434-2 (NL.1998).

b) HAWAII FIVE-O - The Ventures Liberty LBF 15221 (UK Jun 1969), Liberty 56068 (USA.1968) UP 35951 (UK.1975), United Artists Silver Spotlight series XW052 (USA.date?). The theme to the famous TV series was also used by Veronica as a station theme.

VOICE OF PEACE

a) (REACH OUT AN') HELP YOUR FELLOW MAN - Junior Campbell  Deram DM403 (26.10.73) Also track on LP Second Time Around  Deram SML 1106. The call sign tune, used on the half hour station identity.

b) PEACE - Peter Sonet SON2012 (UK.1970); Polydor 2050 396 (NL.1976), BR Music (NL.1991). CD single BR Music CDS5301 (NL.1991) Little is known about Peter, except that his full name was Peter Gosling. He was seen on children's TV in the 1970's, playing piano and singing! The song Peace was also used in the early 70's in a 16mm educational documentary film about NATO, showing the firing of missiles from underwater. It is a track on the albums "Free Radio" and "We Love the Pirates", see details under RNI's Man of Action theme.

c) GIVE PEACE A CHANCE - John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band Track on CD Twilight Time NMC Music 20340-2 (Israel 1998) A live version -different to the original single release of the song (Apple 13 UK.1969), that mentions VOP boss Abie Nathan in the lyrics. In Abie’s own immortal words "I come after masturbation" and if you listen carefully he indeed does. John Lennon was apparently in New York at same time as Abie, and impressed by the VOP project contacted Abie, mentioning his name in a version of the song performed that night.

 

 

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Page last updated 17 March 2007