The Avengers International Fan Forum

The IMDB.com listing for Laurie Johnson says he began composing music for The Avengers in 1961 and credits him for 155 episodes starting with "Hot Snow" from 1961-01-07. Is this true or nonsense?

Back then, the credits for TV programs were poor. The only music credit is for the music theme by John Dankworth. There was no credit listing for the actual program music. Having listened to the old Keel/Gale era music, I see no similarity at all to Laurie Johnson's work. To my ear, his work began only in 1965 with the first of the Emma Peel episodes when in fact his name began to appear in the credits.

Could someone provide some verifiable information? Or should IMDB.com be changed?

Thanks.

It's nonsense, Johnson didn't start composing music for the series until it went to film in 1965 (adapting the theme from a piece of music he composed called "The Shake").

Johnny Dankworth provided the original theme back in 1961 as well as a library of incidental music which would be used on all the videotaped episode (as well as the odd piece of stock music).

I have The Shake. It's just like his Avengers theme, but without the opening fanare.

Here's a link. Long version without the fanfare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsuYpFIyUI

This is the actual theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IT-3XO-jw4

There's a much more prominent trumpet riff at about 20 seconds into the TV theme, and the trumpets are much more brassy than in "The Shake."

Same song, quite a different arrangement.

Frankly, I was glad to see Johnson replace Dankworth. [/url]

VA_Avenger wrote:Here's a link. Long version without the fanfare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsuYpFIyUI

This is the actual theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IT-3XO-jw4

There's a much more prominent trumpet riff at about 20 seconds into the TV theme, and the trumpets are much more brassy than in "The Shake."

Same song, quite a different arrangement.

Frankly, I was glad to see Johnson replace Dankworth. [/url]

i concur..prefer johnson over dankworth..but dank's music was perfect for the early era of the show

Yeah, but did they have to do "The Twist" in just about every episode with dancing - and to jazz, to boot?

VA_Avenger wrote:Here's a link. Long version without the fanfare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsuYpFIyUI

This is the actual theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IT-3XO-jw4

There's a much more prominent trumpet riff at about 20 seconds into the TV theme, and the trumpets are much more brassy than in "The Shake."

Same song, quite a different arrangement.

Frankly, I was glad to see Johnson replace Dankworth. [/url]

Was even more trumpet added for the Tara season? I think the theme from Emma's era had less trumpet than Tara's.

Oddly, the Contender (UK) DVDs called the theme "The Age of Elegance" not "The Shake". Odd, because that was the name of "The Prisoner" theme by Ron Grainer.

To confuse you, The Shake wasn't the official name of The Avengers theme, but just a piece of music The Avengers theme was adapted from.

I think the Tar-era Avengers music has more punch to it.

Dandy Forsdyke wrote:To confuse you, The Shake wasn't the official name of The Avengers theme, but just a piece of music The Avengers theme was adapted from.

I think the Tar-era Avengers music has more punch to it.

Laurie came later in '65...prior to that, doing film scores like
Dr.Strangelove in 1964....

yeah, the Tara version has more ooophhh..to it, plus it's
faster...

Dandy Forsdyke wrote:To confuse you, The Shake wasn't the official name of The Avengers theme, but just a piece of music The Avengers theme was adapted from.

It's so close that one is just a tiny variation on the other.

Definitely not "The Age of Elegance" though - that's by Ron Grainer!