Post by magillamcgee on Apr 27, 2024 22:34:54 GMT -5
Just happened upon this thread as well as the one chronicling recycled underscore throughout the Scooby franchise. I apologize in advance for bumping, but Hanna-Barbera's underscore library, among other library cues used in old cartoons, have long been of fascination to this young 'toon fan, so I had to register an account here to chime in with some thoughts concerning the music of Curtin and Nichols/Paich. The "Top Cat" library is probably my favorite (especially helps that several of them are fully fleshed-out compositions as opposed to just short cues scored to picture), but I like a lot of cues from just about any of their shows from their golden days. My main area of expertise is the score Hoyt Curtin prepared for the studio's early 1960s output, but I've learned a bit of the mid/late 60s ("Magilla", "Wacky Races", etc.) Curtin/Nichols/Paitch tracks as well.
One point I'd like to make regarding the "Magilla Gorilla"/"Peter Potamus" underscore - most of those oft-repeated throughout the 60s and early 70s cues weren't actually written by Hoyt (such as a series of frantic chase pieces, one of which was used in abridged form as the title card for Peter Potamus' cartoons), rather by a gentleman named Jack de Mello, who recorded a lot of Hawaii/Polynesian music for a number of labels. He never received credit for his work for Hanna-Barbera, but Greg Ehrbar did a nice salute to him on the wonderful Cartoon Research blog many years ago, which is how I know his name. There are some cues from the Ideal Toys-sponsored shows that do have Curtin's distinctive sound, though - one that immediately springs to mind is a upbeat piece reused in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear during the scene where Yogi discovers Cornpone in his cave and tricks him into taking the trip to the zoo instead of himself.
There is one particular score that I've really been curious about lately, however with prominent woodwinds and trumpet (among other instruments). It was first used in 1960/61 cartoons (like the Huck Hound cartoon "Cluck and Dagger", where it dominates much of the underscore there), and was obviously scored for something Flintstones related, having started being used in that show in Season 1 in episodes like "The Split Personality" when the (horse) doctor comes in to check on Fred. It continued to be used steadily in the 60s stuff (especially the earlier ones), although it was phased out for the most part by the later part of the decade. (I say "for the most part" because a few of these later crept up into the "Yogi's Ark Lark" TV movie in 1972, and one of these wound up in a Banana Splits segment as well.) Some of the more notable cues in this library for me are a march piece I like to call "The Tin Soldier March" (heard as late as a 1975 T&J cartoon, "Watch Out Watchdog"), a short woodwind waltz-type cue sometimes heard for characters floating (like in the Flintstone episode "Nothing but the Tooth"), a wonderful mysterious piece often used as a motif for the Hitchcock-inspired Alfie Gator in the "Yakky Doodle" cartoons and a beautiful slow trumpet piece heard at the end of Fred's bowling fantasy in the "On the Rocks" TV movie of the early 00s.
If anyone here has the folders uploaded by "CartoonCade" on the Internet Archive of various H-B music, this set begins with track 43 ("Main Title, Take 11") in the third Flintstones folder. I often wonder what these cues were intended for, as they seem scored "to picture" for some Flintstone project, although they have a different sound than Hoyt's other cues for the show and there's no scene in the earliest episodes that seem to correlate directly to these cues. I imagine they were meant for some industrial film or some promotional film meant for executives or studio employees' eyes only with Fred and Barney.
One point I'd like to make regarding the "Magilla Gorilla"/"Peter Potamus" underscore - most of those oft-repeated throughout the 60s and early 70s cues weren't actually written by Hoyt (such as a series of frantic chase pieces, one of which was used in abridged form as the title card for Peter Potamus' cartoons), rather by a gentleman named Jack de Mello, who recorded a lot of Hawaii/Polynesian music for a number of labels. He never received credit for his work for Hanna-Barbera, but Greg Ehrbar did a nice salute to him on the wonderful Cartoon Research blog many years ago, which is how I know his name. There are some cues from the Ideal Toys-sponsored shows that do have Curtin's distinctive sound, though - one that immediately springs to mind is a upbeat piece reused in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear during the scene where Yogi discovers Cornpone in his cave and tricks him into taking the trip to the zoo instead of himself.
There is one particular score that I've really been curious about lately, however with prominent woodwinds and trumpet (among other instruments). It was first used in 1960/61 cartoons (like the Huck Hound cartoon "Cluck and Dagger", where it dominates much of the underscore there), and was obviously scored for something Flintstones related, having started being used in that show in Season 1 in episodes like "The Split Personality" when the (horse) doctor comes in to check on Fred. It continued to be used steadily in the 60s stuff (especially the earlier ones), although it was phased out for the most part by the later part of the decade. (I say "for the most part" because a few of these later crept up into the "Yogi's Ark Lark" TV movie in 1972, and one of these wound up in a Banana Splits segment as well.) Some of the more notable cues in this library for me are a march piece I like to call "The Tin Soldier March" (heard as late as a 1975 T&J cartoon, "Watch Out Watchdog"), a short woodwind waltz-type cue sometimes heard for characters floating (like in the Flintstone episode "Nothing but the Tooth"), a wonderful mysterious piece often used as a motif for the Hitchcock-inspired Alfie Gator in the "Yakky Doodle" cartoons and a beautiful slow trumpet piece heard at the end of Fred's bowling fantasy in the "On the Rocks" TV movie of the early 00s.
If anyone here has the folders uploaded by "CartoonCade" on the Internet Archive of various H-B music, this set begins with track 43 ("Main Title, Take 11") in the third Flintstones folder. I often wonder what these cues were intended for, as they seem scored "to picture" for some Flintstone project, although they have a different sound than Hoyt's other cues for the show and there's no scene in the earliest episodes that seem to correlate directly to these cues. I imagine they were meant for some industrial film or some promotional film meant for executives or studio employees' eyes only with Fred and Barney.