Various Artists - Best of TV Quiz & Game Show Themes

The latter-day success of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? should've come as little surprise; game shows have been a successful TV staple since the medium's beginnings. Most have relied on brief, catchy (or should we say kitschy?) theme songs to give them their instantly memorable musical identity. Devotees of exotica and American cultural kitsch will want to make note of this collection, which gathers some 20 themes from across the genre's, er, rich history, from Bert Kaempfert's Match Game mind taffy to the infectious early electro synth-pop bop of Perrey and Kingsley's The Joker's Wild to the trashy Dixieland-cum-vaudeville charms of Chuck Barris's The Gong Show. Fans and anthropologists, take note: all are the original themes in their complete, unexpurgated glory and feature a concise, illustrated annotation of both their origins and the genre's history. --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

You are a winner listening to this collection!

Thanks to GSN for packaging this collection of TV's popular game show themes in this CD! A few of these I remember growing up to including the original Match Game theme by Bert Kaempfert. There was also a version done by Billy Vaughn if I am correct. Other great themes including Password and To Tell The Truth from the 60's. This is a great compilation of some of the shows we remember from years gone by. Excellent! June 2, 2007

Another must-have for the game show fan

This album is the 2000 "sequel" to the 1998 release "Classic TV Game Show Themes". Get both (also available from Amazon), and read my review of the other album too.
The sound quality is as good as the other album. The tracks are more obscure, and some not as interesting, but it's good for the sake of completion.
Highlights:
The Match Game (A Swingin' Safari) (1962): I don't think this is a good game show theme, but it's good to listen to on its own. I believe this is the original recording, even though it sounds different from (better) what you'd hear from an actual episode, as stereo-sound television didn't happen until the 1980s.
Tattletales (1982 version), Blockbusters (1980), The Gong Show, The $10,000 Pyramid (Tuning Up) (1973), High Rollers (1986).
Lowlights:
Monopoly, The Diamond Head Game, Rock and Roll Jeopardy
The album design and writing is better, but still not great. The notes are more interesting. The photo selection is better; the audience ticket images are a good idea. However, it's mostly gray-on-gray, and the cover is still bad.
Conclusion: buy this album! May 13, 2007

"Original" versions? Close, but not quite

I am a stickler for authenticity. Although a few songs are clearly the "original versions as heard on TV" as advertised on the cover, at least as many are re-orchestrations. Maybe this wouldn't hold up as false advertising in a court of law, but they are not the actual versions of the music heard on the shows that aired. While close, but you can tell they are redone versions.

Password, Wheel of Fortune and Let's Make a Deal are the most obvious examples. In Password and LMAD, the musician "plays" with the melody more than they did on the actual show theme, although the musical instruments and arrangements are nearly identical to what I hear on GSN. If you compare LMAD on this CD with the one on the original GSN Game Show Theme CD, you'll see what I mean. The first CD had the "real" LMAD theme.

Wheel of Fortune (and $10K Pyramid, for that matter) is an excellent imitation, but for those of us who actually watched the show all the years Chuck and Susan (or Dick) were on, it doesn't sound quite right. Same arrangements, but not as forceful in the brass section as the original. Thankfully, there is some original work on this record, which partially redeems it.

Maybe I'm being picky, but much like the original Television's Greatest Hits CD, I feel like I've been duped when I get a bait and switch, even if it's only partial. I'd rather hear the flaws of the original than have a "perfect" imitation. August 21, 2006

Roll the dice! It's paradise!

This was the second volume of game show themes released by Varese Sarabande, in conjunction with Game Show Network. It's a real treasure trove for fans of game shows. Somehow, they managed to find the theme music for all these game shows, without the announcer's voiceover that you usually hear on the shows. That's pretty amazing, considering how old some of these shows are. Now, I'm not going to tell you that every one of these game shows had a great theme, because that's not true. But if you are a fan of old game shows, this CD is definitely nostalgic fun. July 30, 2005

Game Shows

I love to put Scrabble,Now You See It,Match Game,Classic Concentration,High Rollers,Tattletales,Treasure Hunt,Tic Tac Dough,The Jokers Wild,Bullseye,Scattergories,Ceasers Challenges,Family Feud,Lingo,$20,000 Pyramid,Double Dare & Blockbusters on GSN (formerly Game Show Network) March 4, 2005

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