Miami Vice Theme

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miami Vice Theme

Single by Jan Hammer
Released	1985
Recorded	1984
Genre	Electronic
Length	2:26
Label	MCA Records
Producer(s)	Jan Hammer

The song "Miami Vice Theme" was created and performed by Jan Hammer as the theme to the television series Miami Vice. It was first heard by the public in September 1984 and released as a single in 1985, peaking at the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1986, it won Grammy Awards for "Best Instrumental Composition" and "Best Pop Instrumental Performance." This song, along with Glenn Frey's number-two hit "You Belong to the City," put the Miami Vice soundtrack on the top of the U.S. album chart for eleven weeks in 1985, making it the most successful TV soundtrack of all time until 2006 when Disney Channel's High School Musical beat its record.

The theme exists in several versions:

The version that aired with the pilot and the following three episodes which only contains the percussion and keyboards, without the guitars. According to Jan Hammer's manager Elliot Sears, this was the result of the sound elements not being mixed together as Hammer intended.
The synthesized-guitar lead version aired with all later episodes.
The full radio airplay version, that includes the TV version at the end.
An extended dance remix, released in 1985 as a 12" single containing two different length versions (in addition to the original version of the theme).

Miami Vice's pilot episode, made as a two-hour TV movie, did not originally have a theme, but the musical sounds and notation that would become the theme were present as background score. When the series got picked up, Hammer created the sixty second version of the theme. The synth-guitar lead was missing in the aired version of the pilot and the first batch of episodes, and this unfinished version of the theme has remained attached to those episodes, even on the DVD video box set released in 2005.

The theme is also nostalgically remembered as the song played during the first few three-point competitions at the NBA All-Star weekend, including the one in 1986 where Larry Bird famously walked into the locker room and told all his competitors they were playing for second place.

From 1992 until 1997, it was used as the theme music for Westwood One's Radio Free D. C.: The G. Gordon Liddy Show. (From 1992 until 1996, an announcer would introduce the show during the music bed, saying, "From Washington D. C., Radio Free D. C., with G. Gordon Liddy".)

[edit] Tracklisting

[edit] 7": MCA / MCAP1000 (UK)

"Miami Vice Theme" (2:26)
"Miami Vice Theme [TV Version]" (1:00)
"Miami Vice Theme [12" Edit]" (4:30)

7" Picture Disc

[edit] 12": MCA / MCAT1000 (UK)

"Miami Vice Theme [Extended Remix]" (6:54)
"Miami Vice Theme [TV Version]" (1:00)
"Miami Vice Theme [12" Edit]" (4:30)

Remix and 12" edit done by Louil Silas Jr.

Preceded by "Part-Time Lover" by Stevie Wonder	Billboard Hot 100 number one single November 9, 1985	Succeeded by "We Built This City" by Starship