Nelson Riddle - Route 66 Theme

Here's a nice album of TV theme songs, performed by Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. Riddle has a wonderful style to his music, very jazzy and modern sounding. Judging by the TV shows, I'd say the album is from 1962 or '63. Riddle started as an arranger for Les Baxter and worked for Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and many others. In the 60's, besides composing themes for "Route 66" and "The Untouchables", he also did the awesome score for "Ocean's 11" and did incidental music for the Adam West "Batman" TV series.

The specific members of his orchestra are uncredited on the record, naturally, but you can guess the personnel includes many of the L.A. session musicians at the time. I think I can recognize Dennis Budimir's jazzy guitar, also heard on "Barefoot Adventure" As for some of my favorite cuts, besides the Title Track, the unexpected "Alvin Show Theme" is a showstopper.

Side 1:
01 - Route 66 Theme
02 - The Alvin Show Theme
03 - The Andy Griffith Theme
04 - Theme From "Ben Casey"
05 - My Three Sons
06 - The Untouchables

Side 2:
07 - Naked City Theme
08 - Sing Along With Mitch
09 - The Defenders Theme
10 - Theme From "Sam Benedict"
11 - Theme From "Dr. Kildare"
12 - This Could Be The Start Of Something

Edit 8/10: I'll be on brief hiatus for a week or so. I've got things in the pipeline for when I come back, so sit tight.