HERC loves TV Theme Song Compilations: The Vinyl Years 1976-1982: Dad's Albums

The first TV theme compilation album we had in our house was no kiddie collection. It was an album that Dad either ordered on purpose or received because he accidentally forgot to return the Selection Of The Month card to Columbia House Record And Tape Club, as it was known back then.  That album was Ray Conniff's TV Themes...  If I recall, the album was bundled with another album, the dreaded double selection, but I have racked my brain to no avail.

As a ten year old at the time, the vixen on the back cover, with her soul-piecing stare and pillowy lips, intrigued me in ways I was just starting to be intrigued.  I believed for years that she was not the same girl as the witchy looking one of the front of the album.  The music on the album held a certain curiosity factor until I listened to it once and realized it was not what I was used to hearing and I knew what it was supposed to sound like because I had four of the songs on the album on 45 by that time, though the fourth one may have been my little sister's:

Plus, I had the Rhythm Heritage Disco-fied album, the first album I ever bought with my own monies, which had a different edit of the "Theme from S.W.A.T." and a full-length take of "Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow)".

Then in 1982, history repeated itself (sort of but not really) and the second TV theme song compilation album appeared in our house when Television Themes Songs showed up on the dust cover to Dad's Teknika record player, part of his complete Teknika matched system from Diamond's department store.

I was skeptical after the "Conniff debacle" but when I did finally manage to sneak the Mike Post album into my room and play it on my dying Soundesign system, I was surprised to hear that the songs sounded just like the "real deals", the television shows I watched.  The whole album is more like an EP, just six songs running nineteen minutes.  I dubbed the three songs on side two to cassette and put the album back where it belonged.

The unequivocal gem on the album for me is the Beach Boys sounding theme from the Rockford Files spin-off. Richie Brockleman Private Eye.  Titled "School's Out", the song had been haunting me ever since the show aired for only a month back in 1978.  After making the tape, it was the most played song in my life all that week.  The song was somewhat surprisingly released on 45 in 1982 and it remains on my digging list to this day.