{"id":17546,"date":"2022-07-19T12:55:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T10:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=169030"},"modified":"2022-07-19T13:07:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T11:07:14","slug":"who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Who wrote the theme tune for \u2018Neighbours\u2019? And what music is used in the show today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Michael Beek\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 19 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

All good things come to an end, and after some 37 years Australia\u2019s longest-running drama series, Neighbours<\/em>, is waving goodbye. The lives of the various occupants of six houses on a cul-de-sac in sunny suburban Melbourne have entertained generations since it was first broadcast in 1985 (1986 in the UK); even The Queen Mother was a fan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the comings and goings on Ramsay Street over the years, one thing has remained (just about) the same: the theme tune.<\/p>\n

\u2018Neighbours\u2019 was written by British composer Tony Hatch, with lyrics by his then wife the late Jackie Trent. They had moved to Australia in the 1980s after a high-profile career in the UK, writing pop songs and the odd theme tune. Petula Clark\u2019s hit \u2018Downtown\u2019 was written by Hatch, with Trent co-writing Clark\u2019s hits \u2018American Boys\u2019 and \u2018A Sign of the Times\u2019, among many others.<\/p>\n

Hatch was no stranger to writing for TV, or indeed soap opera, having written the themes for Sportsnight <\/em>and both Emmerdale Farm<\/em> (now just Emmerdale<\/em>) and Crossroads<\/em>. For Neighbours<\/em>, Trent and Hatch were asked to write something upbeat and sunny by the show\u2019s creator Reg Watson. They didn\u2019t hang about, apparently turning the tune around in a day.<\/p>\n

To give the piece a truly Australian stamp, they asked one of country\u2019s best-known singers to take on the vocals. Barry Crocker, who was interviewed recently on BBC Radio 2, admitted it was a last-minute request and he simply \u2018popped round to Tony and Jackie\u2019s\u2019 to give it a go late one evening. That demo went down so well with Watson it was used as the theme tune from the beginning, when Neighbours<\/em> made its debut on Channel Nine (the show would actually be axed in a matter of months, before being picked up by Channel Ten the following year).<\/p>\n\nCrocker\u2019s version of the theme was freshened up later in the 1980s, then replaced in 1992 with a brand new arrangement featuring lead vocals by Greg Hind. The change took a bit of getting used to for those who had been watching from the start, but remained with the show until 1998. Since then a further six versions have graced the opening and closing titles; that includes the current (and final) version, which is sung by fomer cast member and recording artist Bonnie Anderson.<\/p>\nAnderson\u2019s version made its debut in 2020 and was arranged by the show\u2019s composer and music supervisor Jamie Messenger. The brief from producers was relatively open, as he tells me.<\/p>\n\u2018All they wanted was a fresh, more modern version. The only thing they did specify was getting Bonnie involved on the vocal, which was lovely because she was part of the show at the time. I guess her voice guided me\u2026 I wanted quite a joyful, upbeat version, which is why I went with the feel of the track, and it took quite a while to work out what chords to put in. Obviously the melody is the melody, but you can put different chords onto it to give it a slightly different flavour. I tried lots of different combinations of chord progressions under there. Also, it is such an old-school sounding tune, the original, and I didn\u2019t want it to sound daggy! So to add that modern flair, but keep that original tune was a bit of a challenge, but I was really happy with the end result.\u2019<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""2022\" neighbours=\"\" opening=\"\" titles=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xn1AkIWuYpU?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nMessenger has been working on Neighbours<\/em> since 2018, composing all the incidental music and selecting\/placing all the source music tracks you hear in the background of scenes. The show had a famously gruelling schedule, and it was a full on task, as he explains.<\/p>\n\u2018I was employed for 50 hours a week. I got five episodes on Monday morning and by the end of the day on Friday they had to be full of music and ready to be passed on for the next Monday. Each episode is about 23 minutes \u2013 when you take out the ads and everything \u2013 and there\u2019s sometimes about 15 minutes of music. That will include the background music, like in Harold\u2019s caf\u00e9 or The Waterhole. My score might be five or six minutes in some episodes, but others might have 15 minutes of score. If it\u2019s more out on location, with big drama and action and stuff, that often required a lot more score.\u2019<\/p>\nWith so much music to create in such a short space of time, Messenger reveals he had to be organised and have pieces he could draw on swiftly.<\/p>\n\u2018The most important thing for me was to build up a library of tracks that I could reuse,\u2019 he says. \u2018I guess the hardest thing was working out how I was going to categorise them, and I actually ended up with a numbering system of folders from one to nine \u2013 one being all the light-hearted comedy, easy-going tracks and nine being the harrowing, crazy tracks. So the higher the number the more intense the drama, and that gave a bit of a general idea of where to find a track that might suit a scene. I\u2019ve got a whole bunch of folders\u2026 one of them is called \u2018Personal Pain, Grief, Internal Struggle\u2019 and another one is \u2018Disappointed, Not Going to Plan, Stressed\u2019.<\/p>\nThe show\u2019s final ever episode airs in the UK and Australia at the end of the month, and the moment has been bittersweet for Messenger, who \u2013 when we spoke \u2013 was still working on final adjustments for the finale.<\/p>\n\u2018It felt very strange,\u2019 he tells me, \u2018normally every week we\u2019ve got the current week\u2019s episodes, plus the fix-ups from previous weeks, and then we\u2019re looking at the next week\u2019s episodes and getting ready. But in the last week it was just the five episodes that needed finishing off and there was nothing more coming. It was very strange, and quite sad.\u2019<\/p>\nHe wasn\u2019t able to give anything away, but Messenger did have this to say of his work on the final episodes of the show.<\/p>\n\u2018It was certainly fun. I think there\u2019s going to be some nice surprises for fans of the show. I put a lot of effort into the last couple of weeks of episodes, just carefully choosing every piece of music that went in. We just wanted it to be really special.\u2019<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nThe final episode of Neighbours will air on Channel 5 in the UK on Friday 29 July, but will be available to watch for a month after on My5. Viewers in Australia can see the finale on Thursday 28 July on 10 and 10 Peach, or catch up on 10Play.<\/em><\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/best-television-theme-tunes\/"\">The best TV theme tunes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/mastermind-theme-tune\/"\">Who wrote the theme tune for\u00a0Mastermind?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/who-wrote-the-eastenders-theme-tune\/"\">Who wrote the EastEnders theme tune?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/who-composed-the-theme-tune-to-doctor-who\/"\">Who composed the theme tune to Doctor Who?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-love-island\/"\">Who wrote the theme tune for Love Island?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michael Beek Published: Tuesday, 19 July 2022 at 12:00 am All good things come to an end, and after some 37 years Australia\u2019s longest-running drama series, Neighbours, is waving goodbye. The lives of the various occupants of six houses on a cul-de-sac in sunny suburban Melbourne have entertained generations since it was first broadcast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17547,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-scaled.jpg",2560,1920,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-1024x768.jpg",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-1536x1152.jpg",1536,1152,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/who-wrote-the-theme-tune-for-neighbours-and-what-music-is-used-in-the-show-today-2048x1536.jpg",2048,1536,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Beek Published: Tuesday, 19 July 2022 at 12:00 am All good things come to an end, and after some 37 years Australia\u2019s longest-running drama series, Neighbours, is waving goodbye. The lives of the various occupants of six houses on a cul-de-sac in sunny suburban Melbourne have entertained generations since it was first broadcast…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}