The song stuck in my head is the 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' theme

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/20/the-song-stuck-in-my-head-is-t.html

4 Likes
1 Like

With a cast of Stephen J. Cannell regulars.
Notably from Magnum PI. Higgins, and Rick.
A lot of the supporting cast is a list of people who went on to other iconic roles or are great character actors who you have seen in many many shows.

6 Likes

DIRK BLOCKER

just one typo away from becoming a real legend

3 Likes

Speaking as one who also has had that theme stuck in his head - if you gotta have an earwig, this one isn’t so bad.

And the F4U Corsair was the co-star of the show. Those gullwings… man, you DID NOT WANT one of these on your six!

8 Likes

As the parent of a toddler, I actually have “Baa, Baa Black Sheep” stuck in my head at the moment.

1 Like

And where’s the #$%&% movie? They’ll remake and re-hash any old crap ad infinitum, but ‘Black Sheep’ goes untouched. Sometimes I really hate Hollywood.

5 Likes

I find this tune less internally crazy-making as the Alphabet Backwards (or just about any other set of lyrics, written or not yet written).
ZXYW
VUT
SRQ
PON
MLK
JIH
GFED
CBA
Now I know my ZYXs
Bet that’s not what you expected

Thanks to the headline on this article, I’m hearing it right now

1 Like

Including Mike Post, the theme’s composer. No wonder it’s stuck in his head.

IIRC he’s the son of Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartwright on “Bonanza”.

3 Likes

For a moment I thought, “Oh great, now it’s stuck in my head!”, but it was the A-Team theme.

2 Likes

And for unknown reasons, I have “You cannae shove your granny of a bus” stuck in my head

Fun fact: If you sing this to anyone from Scotland they will hate you for the rest of the day.

4 Likes

It only took me a few seconds of hearing the theme for me to know it was from Mike Post.

3 Likes

The best members of the cast were the 8 Corsairs. My father and I watched the show for the planes.

4 Likes

The song wasn’t written for this show, the show adapted it from The Whiffenpoofs, Yale’s (and the world’s?) oldest a cappella group, who has used the song as its closing number for 110 years. It also shows up in “Monkey Business” with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, and Hope/Crosby’s “Road to Bali,” which both predate this show by a few decades.

1 Like

I have never heard this song, but am instead vicariously enjoying your pain.

Because I get earworms all the fricking time.

1 Like

Loved that show when I was a kid. What did it last, just two seasons? I don’t really remember anything of it (other than the planes), but yeah, the gullwings did it for me.

3 Likes

I remember an episode where Peter Frampton made a special guest appearance as an Englishman named Peter Buckley.

3 Likes

Why has no one mentioned John Laroquette?

1 Like

I once had the revelation that the 1800carsforkids song has the same melody as Charles manson’s Song “garbage dump”… the nation I realized they both ripped off “hush little baby don’t say a word”. (Maybe that’s a bit off topic now that I actually watch the video in the article - I thought we were talking about nursery rhymes, but the Manson song and the cars for kids song are both really terrible earworms also)

I came here to post that some of those guys are still alive and working. I worked this Denis Dirk Blocker and he was fantastic. Super nice guy. He volunteered for me for an number of years and whenever we had long events or worked with screen actors he gave me extra time and smoothed the feathers of those that seemed to need be dramatic in all aspects of their lives.

The reason he went by Dirk, if I remember correctly, was his name was already being used by another actor. You’d never know meeting him in person that for the longest time he was mostly cast as the “heavy” or other background thug.

It was weird, because I hadn’t thought about his work when he came in to volunteer, and a few weeks later I looked up and saw him while I was streaming MASH, and there he was. Then it clicked, The Black Sheep Squadron.

As for late Stephen Cannell (pronounced like panel), he was always thinking about the current or next script, or actually working. He sometimes typed on an IBM Selectric in his chauffeured car, not at all like the title card on his shows. His chauffeur was his gate keeper when he was out and about. He was also dyslexic and his work ethic was amazing. He was quiet and kind, and I only met him twice in a non Hollywood context.

5 Likes