Best of TV Quiz & Game Show Themes
The latter-day success ofWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?should've come as little surprise; game shows have been a successful TV staple since the medium's beginnings. Most have relied on brief, catchy (or should we say kitschy?) theme songs to give them their instantly memorable musical identity. Devotees of exotica and American cultural kitsch will want to make note of this collection, which gathers some 20 themes from across the genre's, er, rich history, from Bert Kaempfert'sMatch Gamemind taffy to the infectious early electro synth-pop bop of Perrey and Kingsley'sThe Joker's Wildto the trashy Dixieland-cum-vaudeville charms of Chuck Barris'sThe Gong Show. Fans and anthropologists, take note: all are the original themes in their complete, unexpurgated glory and feature a concise, illustrated annotation of both their origins and the genre's history.--Jerry McCulley