Song From The Price is Right - 1976 record album

[William]

Tonight, on the eve of the 50th season premiere, I thought I'd share with all of you a little project I put together last year.

I love editing and sequencing music, it's something I learned in college and now I do it as a hobby. I decided to put together what could have been an album of TPIR music released in the '70s.

Right from the start, I knew that this would mostly consist of music from the 1976 package. These songs were the peak of musical creativity for the Edd Kalehoff compositions he made for TPIR. Ultimately, the final product came down to 14 tracks and about a 31 minute runtime. I had a larger number of tracks picked out to start with and narrowed them down to the ones that made for the best and most cohesive listening experience. I don't remember all of the tracks I was originally working with, but I do know the last song cut from the album which was Splendido.

Album sequencing is very important to me and I always try to craft the best listening order for the music itself. Some things I did that allude to the actual show include having one car song per side, as well as beginning with Walking and ending with a Showcase song (Starcrossed).

From a both a producer's and businessman's standpoint, this is would have been a promising record. With TPIR being as popular of show as it was, the album was guaranteed to be a good seller right from the start. It's an album that would be bought by adults who already loved the show, and also younger people who like music with a Progressive, Jazz Rock style, as most of the tracks are. It's also an album of great music on its own, and would be a steady seller for years as the show gained more and more fans.

Enjoy!

(time stamps are in video description)

Hypothetical Details
Release date: Late Summer 1976
Chart peak: Top 30
Single release: Amen, Brother Herbert b/w Phaser (also Top 30)

[wvoutlaw2002]

Tonight, on the eve of the 50th season premiere, I thought I'd share with all of you a little project I put together last year.

I love editing and sequencing music, it's something I learned in college and now I do it as a hobby. I decided to put together what could have been an album of TPIR music released in the '70s.

Right from the start, I knew that this would mostly consist of music from the 1976 package. These songs were the peak of musical creativity for the Edd Kalehoff compositions he made for TPIR. Ultimately, the final product came down to 14 tracks and about a 31 minute runtime. I had a larger number of tracks picked out to start with and narrowed them down to the ones that made for the best and most cohesive listening experience. I don't remember all of the tracks I was originally working with, but I do know the last song cut from the album which was Splendido.

Album sequencing is very important to me and I always try to craft the best listening order for the music itself. Some things I did that allude to the actual show include having one car song per side, as well as beginning with Walking and ending with a Showcase song (Starcrossed).

From a both a producer's and businessman's standpoint, this is would have been a promising record. With TPIR being as popular of show as it was, the album was guaranteed to be a good seller right from the start. It's an album that would be bought by adults who already loved the show, and also younger people who like music with a Progressive, Jazz Rock style, as most of the tracks are. It's also an album of great music on its own, and would be a steady seller for years as the show gained more and more fans.

Enjoy!

(time stamps are in video description)

Hypothetical Details
Release date: Late Summer 1976
Chart peak: Top 30
Single release: Amen, Brother Herbert b/w Phaser (also Top 30)

This is really cool! If I had a record cutter, I would definitely put this on a vinyl.

[vnisanian2001]

Good hypothetical effort here. Definitely feels like a record that would have been sold back then.

[angus91]

Why do I think "Dig We Must" might have been a better single? Is it because it sounds a little Funkier? No disrespect to "Amen, Brother Herbert", because I love that song. 

[CaseyBuck]

Edd Kalehoff didn't compose the 1976 package. It was by Walt Levinsky for Score Productions.

[William]

Edd Kalehoff didn't compose the 1976 package. It was by Walt Levinsky for Score Productions.

Well I'll be darned...

How did I never know this? All this time I thought Kalehoff did it all. Am I correct in assuming he composed everything on the show that came beforehand?

I guess I'll have to redo the album cover to credit both of them. Either way, it doesn't make the music any less great. 

I'm glad you're all enjoying the album! Bit of history... I actually thought of the single first. I was just driving down the road one day listening to various game show music and Amen, Brother Herbert was one of them. I remember thinking that it would have made a great single for AM radio in the '70s. Several years later, I decided to go a step further and conceive a whole album of TPIR music.

I've thought about crafting a follow-up album for the 1984-85 era... but I have no idea what songs I would use (except for the full version of On The Franches Mountains). One great thing about the 1976 songs is that they had actual song titles rather than just "1983 Showcase Cue" or something like that. That's mainly why I titled the album Songs from TPIR instead of "Music" from TPIR. It has more commercial appeal that way too.

Why do I think "Dig We Must" might have been a better single? Is it because it sounds a little Funkier? No disrespect to "Amen, Brother Herbert", because I love that song. 

Honestly, Dig We Must isn't a bad choice for the B-side. I'd never flatly decided on the B-side until I made the OP. Phaser is my favorite song on the album and it was the one I figured deserved a shot at radio airplay. B-sides of hit singles often got a halfway decent amount of airplay back then (when DJs were human and could pretty much play what they wanted). On occasion, some markets even had the B-side as the hit in contrast to 95% of the country.

Dig We Must would probably have to be extended by 20 seconds or so if it was to get played on air. One minute 26 seconds is too short and jocks would definitely avoid it unless absolutely necessary. I might tinker with it and see if I can come up with a satisfactory edit.

[wvoutlaw2002]

Why do I think "Dig We Must" might have been a better single? Is it because it sounds a little Funkier? No disrespect to "Amen, Brother Herbert", because I love that song. 

Considering how relatively short the actual tracks were, I could see a double A side and a double B side with two tracks on each side, as Queen did when they released "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" as a double A side single.

[Briguy]

So given the mid-to-late 1970s was still an era for “beautiful” instrumental radio stations and some broke through to MOR/adult contemporary stations (and even a few Top 40 stations) … which tracks do you think might have been played on the radio?

Personally I could see a couple, but I throw the question to the rest of the G-R board.

Brian