The gent who composed the theme to Gilligans Island has died. George Wyle (born Bernard Weissman, name changed by the producers) composed the tune for the 1964 CBS series (and, yes, that means we are coming up on the 40th Anniversary of Gilligan’s Island).
Wyle is quoted as once saying, “America doesn’t want great music themes. Just something it can remember.”
This kind of gets Lileks’ dander up, but I think it’s a pretty fair thing to say. Hum a few notes from a Charles Ives tune (I dare you), and you’ll have blank stares. Hum a few notes from Gilligan’s Island and you’ll get smiles and laughter and a pick-up session (complete with arguments over which ending to use). Trust me — I’ve seen this.
My prediction for the ages: the theme to “Gilligan’s Island” will go down through the years with the same stick-to-it-iveness that some of the more famous folk tunes of centuries past have carried.
Does that make it great? I dunno.
You could ask the same thing of the show. While it was often mindless, it also carried a lot of social commentary about attutides (toward sex, toward money, toward fame, toward international relations, toward human nature) held by 60s America. And there were some remarkably clever episodes — I keep flashing back to the musical version of Hamlet they performed (if you never saw it, never mind why); it’s brilliant, it makes use of some great (there’s that word again) music, and it probably served a lot of folks better at remembering Shakespeare’s play than their high school English class ever did.
So here’s to you, George Wylie. It may not have been “great,” but it sure was memorable.
I cannot hear certain music without singing the songs from the Gilligan’s Island’s Hamlet.
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be, do not forget, stay out of debt…”
“I ask to be, or not to be…”
Of course, I’m one of those freaks who, when something is put to music, I have an enormous capacity to never ever forget it.
Me, too.
“Hamlet, dear,
Your problem is clear,
Avenging your father’s death …”
Brilliant stuff. If it were a Saturday Night Live skit, it would be even more famous.
Oh, sweet. A web site with the musical on it. Though it doesn’t cite the original tunes the music is sung to.
Bizet’s Carmen. Cool.
Have you heard the theme from the Gilligan’s Island pilot? It’s a calypso tune by “Johhny Williams.”
Ah, yes. John[ny] wrote tunes for a number of 60s shows. The second Lost in Space theme, too, as I recall (the one that starts with a count-down).
Wonder what ever happened to him? He seemed to have a bit of talent.
Here’s another bit of trivia on the theme. The theme has the same meter as Amazing Grace. Try it.
Charles Ives was fond of quotation, e.g. America, Yankee Doodle, and the old 100th Psalm. It would have been interesting to here what he would have done with Gilligan’s Island.
Is that like that “You can set all the poems of Emily Dickinson to ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas'” thing, Rich?
My favorite is Gilligan’s Island song to Stairway to Heaven – Can’t remember who did it.
When I first started attending Star Trek cons in the late 70s, filksingers would warble Heinlein’s song from “The Green Hills of Earth” to the GI theme (doubling lines when necessary, as seen below)!
The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
All hands! Stand by! Free Falling!
And the lights below us fade.
And the lights below us fade.
Heh.