Lassie (children's adventure)
(CBS Primetime, 1954 - 1971;
Additional episodes produced in syndication, 1971 - 1974)
[Reruns of original CBS series were syndicated under the titles:
"Jeff's Collie" with Tommy Rettig; and
"Timmy and Lassie" with Jon Provost playing Lassie's master;
Later episodes during the mid-1960s featured a team of adult
Forest Rangers that had adopted Lassie;
During the 1970s a cartoon version was produced, called
"Lassie's Rescue Rangers";
Latter-day reruns have turned up on various cable TV
networks including "TVLand" and "Animal Planet"]
Theme 1: "Secret of the Silent Hills (Theme from the Lassie TV Series)"
[aka: "Lassie Main & End Title"]
[aka: "Lassie Main & End Title", and aka: "Lassie Theme";
Original title: "Presenting The Doctor" from the 1940 RKO
Radio film, "The Courageous Dr. Christian"; This was the
original broad sweeping orchestral theme used during the
very FIRST season of the series; According to vocalist
Charlotte Erwine and library music expert Paul Mandell,
this melody was originally written for "The Courageous Dr.
Christian", a 1940 RKO Radio Picture, scored by William
Lava. Paul Mandell identified it specifically as the cue
called "Presenting the Doctor" heard during the Main
Title, but this melody is used as a motif throughout the
film. RKO must have also made this track available for
licensing for other purposes many years after its first
use in the "Dr. Christian" films, since contributor Eli
Segal reports this melody was also heard in the underscore
of Ed Wood's infamous 1953 documentary "Glen or Glenda" a
year before the Lassie series began airing. Lassie Music
Director Raoul Kraushaar had worked at RKO as a writer and
Music Editor for their "B-Pictures", and like David
Chudnow of MUTEL and David Gordon of Gordon Music, decided
he could make money by licensing music tracks from RKO and
other low-budget studios to re-use them in television.
Chudnow's MUTEL stood for "MUsic for TELevision." This
practice which has been called "Music Packaging" had a
shaky legal foundation the way some did it; Although
recordings of tracks made for theatrical films were the
property of studios, the compositions on which they were
based had not been licensed specifically for use in any
other medium like TV, only for films. And music has
several kinds of rights and royalties -- those for the
composition, those that are for the recordings, and those
for synchronization of compositions and recordings with a
particular project -- either on film or video. So there
was a "gray area" which Chudnow, Gordon, Kraushaar and a
few other Music Packagers of the 1950s successfully
exploited. Representing their skill as music editors and
their "library" of tracks, Music Packagers edited
"B-picture" music tracks into episodes of TV series, and
if the writer discovered the extra use and complained to
ASCAP, to feign ignorance and pay him a fee or "buy out"
his rights. If the Musician's Union complained about
re-using recordings made for a motion picture, Music
Packagers would actually hire the original author, and
tell him to "change a few notes", then send the scores to
Europe, Japan or even Mexico where low- cost orchestras
would re-record the cues as if they were a different
composition with a different title for ASCAP royalties.
During the 1950s, foreign recordings of re-cycled cues
were made for many TV series including "The Lone Ranger",
"The Cisco Kid", "Death Valley Days", "Blondie",
"Lassie", "Superman", and others. Even original cues for
"Ozzie and Harriet" and CBS Westerns were recorded for
first-run use by foreign orchestras because of the U.S.
Musicians Union policies on "tracking." But getting back
to re-cycled cues: there was the matter of the
publisher's share of royalties. Performance royalties such
as those collected by ASCAP and BMI have two parts: the
writer's share and the publisher's share (split equally in
most cases.) These Music Packagers were shrewd enough to
realize that there was also a void in determining who
published the music for TV. If the motion picture studio
didn't claim the music publishing, (and the low-budget
studios hadn't wized up to any benefit from that yet) the
Music Packager would go ahead and claim themselves as
publishers inventing a name for claiming royalties on cue
sheets. The name Kraushaar chose for his "publishing
company" was Omar Music. And it was under this name that
several Lassie cues and THEMEs were originally listed on
ASCAP cue sheets. So here again, the rights that the
original author should have under his control were being
usurped unless they complained and/or filed a legal action
to get back the publishing rights for themselves. A few
authors such as Irving Gertz did so, but several others
wanted to still get work from such Music Directors in the
future and were reluctant to fight. Over the years, some
authors finally succeeded in reclaiming their rights, and
ASCAP made changes in its credits, but in some cases the
credits were corrected years after most royalties had been
paid. But in 1960-61 the success in recycling this
nostalgic old tune for the Lassie TV series inspired sheet
music publication in several forms, including an
arrangement for school orchestras and bands as well as a
commission of new lyrics for the tune written by Charles
Newman and a new title "Secret of the Silent Hills." This
was one way the original writer William Lava could have in
obtaining some benefit from the use of his music on
television; the publisher he chose was the least egregious
of the Music Packagers -- David Gordon of Marlen Music --
who did seem to try to be fair with authors even though
re-cycling of cues went on through him also. For awhile,
music packager Raoul Kraushaar of Omar Music Service which
supplied cues for the show, claimed credit as the writer
of this THEME. But it was actually William Lava who
really wrote this tune, a fact which was later corrected
when printed music was published. However, see the next
THEME below which Kraushaar adapted from this one, with
only a slight variation in notes of the melody, using the
same chord progression.]
Composer: music by William ("Bill") Lava (ASCAP), and
lyrics added by Charles Newman (ASCAP)
Original Publisher: Marlen Music (ASCAP),
sole selling agent Gordon Music Co.
1997 Publisher: Gordon Music Company (ASCAP)
Copyright Date: 1961, as seen on band arrangement
1940, concurrent with the film
Theme 2: "Lassie Main & End Title"
[Verified as the THEME in TV Guide article "It Seems To Me
I've Heard That Theme Before" July 28, 1956, pp. 12-13,
with Kraushaar's name misspelled "Krenshaar"; This theme
is a slight variation on the preceding William Lava theme,
which music packager Kraushaar may have made, in order to
claim copyright ownership of the THEME. It only has a few
notes difference, uses the same chord progression, and to
the untrained ear may sound the same. "Superman" CD
producer/expert Paul Mandell caught this melodic
variation, and documented it as a different THEME.
Although it was different, the ruse fooled no one --
especially the author William Lava who heard this
"soundalike" on the air. Music Director Kraushaar began to
have problems when authors complained to ASCAP that
although he may have licensed the rights to various
RECORDINGS done for film studios, he failed to license the
rights to use their COMPOSITIONS for which he claimed
himself as the "publisher" for purpose of collecting the
publisher's share of royalties after splicing them into TV
series; What resulted was a hassle for the TV producers,
since cue sheets had to be corrected, and royalty payments
had to be redistributed after ASCAP determined a breach
had occurred. "Lassie" fan and contributor Bryon Young
tells us this THEME was used for the SECOND SEASON ONLY,
yet researcher P. Mandell said it was used through the end
of Tommy Rettig's appearance as Jeff -- which would have
taken it through the THIRD SEASON at least. At any rate,
it was the second THEME used on the series after "Secret
of the Silent Hills", and it sounded very much like the
former, so most people wouldn't have noticed the change.]
Composer: credited to Raoul Kraushaar (ASCAP)
Original Publisher: Omar Music Service (ASCAP)
1997 Publisher: Gordon Music Company (ASCAP)
Copyright Date:
Renewal Date:
Theme 3: "Dio Possente (Even Bravest Hearts May Swell), from the opera Faust"
[aka: "Dio Possente Dio D'Amor"]
[aka: "Dio Possente Dio D'Amor"; aka: "Dio possente" (To
Thee, 0 Father!); aka: "A Toi, Seigneur et Roi des Cieux";
aka: "To Thee, 0 God, and King of Heaven"; aka: "Avant de
Quitter ces Lieux"; Contributor Bryon Young claims from an
analysis of syndicated episodes he has collected on video
and audio over the years, that this theme was used for
both seasons THREE and FOUR; We are not sure about that,
and Craig Patillo's "TV Theme Soundtrack Directory" makes
no mention of it at all...but Mr. Young is sure he
remembers hearing it as a child during the CBS run of the
series and has it on audio tape recorded off the air on an
old tape recorder, so we'll give him the benefit of the
doubt. This arrangement of an opera aria aired may indeed
have been used during Lassie's master change from Jeff
(played by Tommy Rettig) to Timmy (played by Jon Provost.)
That would have coincided with the change of ownership of
the series to The Wrather Corporation, whose producer-
owner Jack Wrather was married to actress Bonita
Granville; she was said to have influenced him in certain
decisions (perhaps even this casting change...and may have
even liked certain opera arias, for example...) Since
former music director Raoul Kraushaar had created problems
by tracking in cues from other writers and claiming
publisher royalties, the arranger of this aria was most
likely someone else, perhaps the Wrather Corporation's
Music Director at the time, who was Les Baxter (who
composed the next THEME with its melody whistled by Muzzy
Marcelino.) This melody appears in an aria from the
famous 19th-century opera "Faust", arranged as an
instrumental; In the original opera, the aria is sung by a
young soldier named Valentine as he prepares to go off to
war in the second Act of this five-act opera written by
the French author; it became one of Gounod's more
well-known lyrical melodies, and "Faust" firmly
established his reputation throughout Europe and later the
world; Gounod was also the author of "Funeral March of a
Marionette", used as a TV theme for "Alfred Hitchcock
Presents." A little-known fact about this cavatina is that
it did not appear in the original 1859 version of "Faust"
for its French premiere, but was added for the 1863 London
premiere, sung in Italian, and later translated into
French; hence there are multiple lyric versions and
titles, including translations of those variant titles
into English. Whether this THEME originally aired on the
CBS network for ONE or TWO seasons, we do agree that it
came after the Raoul Kraushaar variation of Lava's
original THEME. And it also was identified by contributor
Carolyn Fix as a THEME she recognized during Cable TV
reruns in the 2002 - 2003 season, so it was used for the
Lassie series.]
Composer: Charles Gounod (predates ASCAP & BMI)
Original Publisher:
2001 Publisher: In the Public Domain.
Composition Date: 1863
Copyright Date:
Renewal Date:
Theme 4 (circa 1958 - 1964): "Lassie Theme: Goodbye My Love"
[aka: Lassie Main & End Title; aka: Lassie (Sig[nature]
Composer: Les Baxter (ASCAP/BMI) [professional name of Leslie Baxter]
Original Publisher: [no publisher credit in ASCAP Index 1978,
citation in ASCAP Repetoire says "a BMI publisher"...
may have been originally Granson Music (BMI)]
1997 Publisher: Lone Ranger Music Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Broadway Video Inc.
2013 Publisher: Little Lotta Music, Inc. (BMI)
New York, NY
http://ClassicMedia.tv
div. of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.
Copyright Date: January 11, 1962, Eu 701 869.
Renewal Date:
Theme 5 (circa 1964 - 1966): "Greensleeves"
[aka: "Lassie (Signature)(M & E)", the theme which was used as Main & "]
[aka: "Lassie (Signature)(M & E)", the theme which was used
as Main & End Titles during the eleventh and twelfth
seasons after Lassie had been adopted into the service of
Park Rangers; and later during certain syndicated rerun
packages; Nathan Scott (father of studio and jazz
saxophonist Tom Scott) adapted it, and made the
arrangement heard on the air (verified by his son Tom
Scott.)]
Composer: Traditional [English folk melody], and
Adapter/Arranger: Nathan G. Scott (ASCAP) [For publication of the adaptation/arrangement]:
Orig. Publisher: Arch Lassie Account,
c/o Arch Music Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
[For publication of the adaptation/arrangement]:
1997 Publisher: Lone Ranger Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Broadway Video Inc.
Copyright Date:
Renewal Date:
Theme 6 (circa 1966 - 1971): "Lassie Main & End Title"
[aka: "Lassie Theme"]
[aka: "Lassie Theme"; aka: Lassie (Sig[nature]
Composer: Les Baxter (ASCAP/BMI) [professional name of Leslie Baxter]
Original Publisher: [no publisher credit in ASCAP Index 1978,
citation in ASCAP Rep says "a BMI publisher"...
may have been originally Granson Music (BMI)]
1997 Publisher: Lone Ranger Music Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Broadway Video Inc.
Copyright Date: January 11, 1962, Eu 701 869.
Renewal Date: