A Crazy Discovery
Mariah said:
Star Wars Main Title --> King's Row Main Title (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
9 years later...
This influence was discussed in the 2013 BBC4 series, “Sound of Cinema - The Music That Made the Movies”. While the “King’s Row” theme definitely does sound similar, it’s nowhere near as jaw-dropping as something else I discovered recently…
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While watching a DVD of the “The Banana Splits” (don’t ask why), I noticed that one of the cartoon segments, “The Three Musketeers”, featured a repeating piece of music which sounds almost identical to John Williams’ theme for “Superman”! It was a shock at first, considering that it’s from 1968, but I chalked it up to being a mere coincidence…until seeing the shows’s credits. Turns out that none other than
Richard Donner (the director of “Superman”) was heavily involved in “The Banana Splits”, sometimes directing segments or sometimes the entire show. Yes, it’s the same man so the connection is too large to ignore.
A quick check on YouTube reveals that the theme in question was used numerous times in each episode. Here’s just one example:
2:16 - 2:25
4:40 - 4:50
6:19 - 6:55
7:55 - 8:05
8:34 - etc.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zbJGyUY-F2I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I know that Williams wrote for various, late ’60s TV series but the music for “The Banana Splits” is credited to these guys:
Ted Nichols and
David Mook.
Could it be that Mr. Donner played this “Three Musketeers” tune to John Williams for inspiration? I certainly think so.