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Posted: |
Feb 3, 2021 - 7:46 AM
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By: |
Broughtfan
(Member)
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Yes, it's fairly well established that Williams had nothing to do with the opening themes.
Maybe it is here, but not on the wider internet. Wikipedia for Gilligan's Island, Gilligan's Island fan pages and other articles that pop up from places like MeTV, who are probably pulling the information from Wikipedia, state that Williams wrote the calypso theme music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan%27s_Island
https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/John_Williams
https://metv.com/stories/have-you-ever-heard-the-original-calypso-theme-song-to-gilligans-island
I'll tell you what I know about this: There was a MT "Gilligan's Travels" session a few days after Williams' Jan 10, 1964 Fox underscore date. The instrumentation was basically what was heard in the (original, calypso-flavored) main title: latin combo with flute, which leads me to believe this was a session for that first MT. Williams, though not listed as the leader (Bob Bain, session guitarist is listed) he is credited as the orchestrator/arranger. So I think it went down like this: Schwartz composed the lyrics, the tune, Williams made the combo arrangement (probably harmonizing the tune beforehand), Bob Bain lead the session.
As for the JW "Gilligan Theme" (you know, the one that sounds kinda-sorta like "Hogwarts Forever" from "Harry Potter"), when used by other composers it was referred to either as "Marina Theme" or "End Music" (as it was the original ET for "Gilligan's Travels"), usually heard in epilogue arrangements made by Fried (and in one case, Mort Stevens) or as act-in cues (theme adapted by Stevens, Fried or Don Ray). As a related aside, was interesting to recently see "So Sorry, My Island Now" (featuring Gerald Fried's superb first score for the series) and to hear that, with the exception of one cue (either culled from the CBS library or from Williams' pilot score) the score was entirely episode-specific, with all cues composed by Fried. Also, it's one of the few GI episodes where the epilogue music is based on the MT theme (rather than JW's "Gilligan Theme"). Like with 'Star Trek" this was supposed to be a one-off gig for Fried...and he hit a "grand slam," becoming the go-to composer on "Gilligan" and an important music contributor to both "Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible" (but, oddly, not to "Mannix").
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