It was Thursday, July 24, 1986.<\/p>\n
A week or so earlier, Don had put out the call – we needed a new theme song.<\/p>\n
He had sown the wind. He was reaping the whirlwind.<\/p>\n
We had been deluged with tapes – or as close as any station drawing a four share ever gets to being deluged with anything.<\/p>\n
Some of the tapes were obviously the work of very talented musicians, who did the work in actual recording studios, and put serious time into writing and arranging their efforts.<\/p>\n
Totally wrong. Dave and I – both of us actual musicians who appreciated the effort that’d gone into the productions – shuffled uncomfortably as Don flipped past them. “It’s just not right for the show.”<\/p>\n
On the other hand, some were too<\/em> low-fi – a guy had written a fair long, involved, folky song which he’d recorded and sung on, apparently, a cassette tape. Hissy, with mistakes and missed notes and about two minutes too long…<\/p>\n Close!<\/p>\n And then – on the second-to-last day of the contest – we cued up a cassette. Over the home-cassette hiss, we heard a needle cueing up on a turntable – the guy was obviously sitting in front of a record player with a cassette deck…<\/p>\n …and the opening strains of the Bonanza<\/em> theme, swelled up to the familiar tune…<\/p>\n …over which a schlemiely-sounding guy began singing with comic gusto<\/p>\n “Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel, it’s the Don da da Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel Show!<\/em><\/p>\n (then up a fourth)<\/em><\/p>\n “Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel, it’s the Don da da Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel Show!<\/em><\/p>\n (then into the bridge)<\/em><\/p>\n Oh ah uh, oh ah uh, the Round Mound of Sound, (then back to the tune)<\/em><\/p>\n “Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel, it’s the Don da da Don da da Don da da Don da da Don Don Vogel Show!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n You could tell when Don liked something – he’d start laughing with this sudden, sharp cackle, and then keep guffawing uncontrollably.<\/p>\n “That’s the one!”<\/p>\n There were two more days to the contest, but Bill Kramlinger of White Bear Lake had us at “Don da da Don…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was Thursday, July 24, 1986. A week or so earlier, Don had put out the call – we needed a new theme song. He had sown the wind. He was reaping the whirlwind. We had been deluged with tapes – or as close as any station drawing a four share ever gets to being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twenty-years-ago-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOh ah uh, oh ah uh, the Round Mound of Sound!<\/em><\/p>\n