Original Mission Impossible Theme Song Download

[Marcelene Vasconez]

The actor Martin Landau, who played the character Rollin Hand on the show, attended the recording session for the theme song. "Lalo raised his wand to the musicians and I heard 'dun dun, da da, dun dun, da da' for the first time, and it was deafening", Landau recalled. "Lalo interrupted the band and said, 'no, no, it should be like this.' They resumed and before we could say anything, they had recorded it. I was stunned. It was so perfect. I came out humming that tune."[4]

The original single release peaked at number 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 19 on the magazine's Adult Contemporary chart in 1967. Also in that year, two years before Leonard Nimoy began playing the role of Paris in Mission Impossible, the theme appeared on the album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space. (Nimoy did not perform on the song.)[5]

The theme won for the Best Instrumental Theme at the 10th Grammy Awards held on February 29, 1968.[6][7] Schifrin also won the Grammy for Best Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Show.[8] In 2017, the 1967 recording of the Theme from Mission: Impossible by Lalo Schifrin on Dot Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[9]

Schifrin's version, as performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the 39th Grammy Awards held in 1997. The Clayton and Mullen version was also nominated for the same award in the same edition.[10]

In 1996, the theme was remade by U2 members Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. for the soundtrack to the film. The duo recorded two versions of the song, the main theme and another subtitled "Mission Accomplished". The main theme was used during the end credits. Unlike the original, the majority of this version is in common time, with the exception of the intro. The accompanying music video was directed by English singer, songwriter, musician and music video director Kevin Godley.[14]

Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that Clayton and Mullen "cover the film's instantly recognizable theme, effectively funking it up for the '90s with a shuffling jeep beat". He complimented Lalo Schifrin's melody as "suspenseful and compelling as ever" and added, "It'll give fans of the TV show a fun jolt while entertaining a whole new generation."[15] Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report commented, "Those not familiar with this piece of music A) are under five years of age, B) have been living with Theodore Kaczynski for the past 25 years, or C) are not aware of television. This interpretation by half of U2 will be heard by millions of moviegoers expected to see what's been anticipated as the film of the summer. Try cranking this up and driving around the hills of San Francisco! Very cool."[16]

Richard Smith from Melody Maker noted that the Mission Impossible theme "has been weirded and danced up with lots of (not desperately imaginative) This tape will self destruct-type samples laid over the top."[17] A reviewer from Music Week gave it four out of five, adding that the song "should be massive".[18] Music Week editor Alan Jones stated, "They have successfully updated it while retaining its more memorable motifs and drafted in mixers including Junior Vasquez, Guru and Goldie to give it a variety of dancefloor flavourings."[19]

The instrumental became a worldwide hit. In the United States, it peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a gold certification, selling 500,000 copies there.[20][21] It additionally peaked at number one in Finland, Hungary and Iceland, number two in Australia and Ireland, and number seven in the United Kingdom.

Russian ethnic band Bugotak recorded a Russian-language rap song with ethnic Siberian instruments based on "Take a Look Around", the theme and "Empty Spaces" by Pink Floyd, entitled "Missiya Maadai-kara nevypolnima".

In January 2013, violinist and dancer Lindsey Stirling and The Piano Guys, Steven Sharp Nelson (cello) and Jon Schmidt (piano), released their interpretation of the "Theme from Mission: Impossible".[74][75] The arrangement is true to the Schifrin original, but also employs a passage with a liberal use of the Piano Sonata in C by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart K. 545 first movement and a self-composed passage to end the piece.[76] The arrangement was introduced with a music video having a comedic cloak and dagger theme. Two official copies of the video have garnered nearly 10.7 million views (as of April 2021) on Lindsey Stirling's YouTube channel[77] and over 20 million views on The Piano Guys YouTube channel (as of April 2021).[76]

Devoted readers of Curious Minds will know that my affinity to Tom Cruise goes a long way back\u2026and hearing this theme takes me back to 1996 when I watched Ethan Hunt complete an impossible mission, while simultaneously making the best tourism promo for the city of Prague.

He would go on to produce and arrange more than 100 jazz albums throughout the 1960s, including Gillespiana, a musical portrait of Dizzy Gillespie that earned Schifrin a lot of recognition \u2013 and an invitation to Hollywood.

Though Schifrin was not asked to score any of the big-screen adaptations of Mission: Impossible, he is not unhappy about it, and even met with other composers and encouraged them to \u201Chave fun\u201D with his theme.

\u201CSchifrin started from the Morse code for M.I. which is \u201C_ _ ..\u201D; if a dot is one beat and a dash is one and a half beats, then this gives a bar of five beats, exactly matching the underlying rhythm.\u201D

Action flicks have given us some of the most memorable theme music: Indiana Jones, the Bond films, and one could argue for either Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again" or Ludacris' "Act a Fool" for the Fast and Furious franchise. (This writer votes for the latter.)

Then there's the Mission: Impossible theme, one of the most recognizable tunes in film and TV history. The rollicking urban samba track drums up aniticipation, excitement and, when matched with actor Tom Cruise's death-defying stunts, is truly a cinematic experience to behold every time.

Composer Lalo Schifrin was hired by producer Bruce Geller in the '60s to write the theme song for the television series, Mission: Impossible, which the current Tom Cruise film franchise is based on. Schifrin says he had no clue what the show was about when he was first brought on to write the song, only to create something that was "very inviting and very exciting."

Schifrin once told the New York Post: "Orchestration's not the problem for me. It's like writing a letter. When you write a letter, you don't have to think what grammar or what syntaxes you're going to use, you just write a letter. And that's the way it came."

During Mission: Impossible's run on television, Schifrin was busy scoring other projects so he wasn't always available to create the music for each episode. However, he struck an agreement with the show where incoming composers working with Schifrin's original theme would have to split the pay with him. "For me it was a good deal because, without working, I was getting royalties."

Schifrin went on to score the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon and Lee was a fan of Schifrin's before they had even met. "Bruce Lee wanted to meet me," Schifrin recalled. "He was practicing martial arts in his dojo in Hong Kong to the music of Mission: Impossible."

U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. recreated Schifrin's theme for the very first Mission: Impossible film in 1996. That version charted in various countries around the world, peaking at number 1 in Hungary, Iceland and Finland. Since then, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Joe Kraemer and Lorne Balfe have taken on the scores of subsequent films, composing variations on Schifrin's original theme.

Although Mission: Impossible first aired in the fall of 1966, the iconic theme music was not added to the series until a year later. Schifrin, who had received acclaim for composing the musical score for the prison movie classic Cool Hand Luke, was brought in to add a signature theme song that would fit within the elaborate title sequences. The Mission: Impossible theme song was essential in foreshadowing major action sequences and adding an element of excitement to each episode. As the original series grew increasingly popular, the theme music became more essential to its identity. With seven seasons and multiple Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, Mission: Impossible became one of the greatest espionage television shows of all-time.

This composer was a specialist in precisely this kind of music. His score to Bullitt (1968) made my list of all time favorite film scores. And his soundtracks grace a host of other action films and franchises, from Dirty Harry to Rush Hour.

Schifrin is still with us at age 91. He had an illustrious career outside of Hollywood, collaborating with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Astor Piazzolla. But this popular theme song, composed in a couple of minutes to meet a tight deadline, will be his most lasting mark on the culture. It will obviously survive him, but it will also outlive Tom Cruise and all the other current stars.

Lalo is an old friend of the family - from the days when my dad was a crooner on Buenos Aires radio and jazz clubs where the very young Lalo would play in the wee hours...Just to add some background to the theme music story: Jerry Goldsmith had composed a terrific theme for "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." at the very end of 1963 - it was in the time signature of 5/4. The following season, the producers of the show hired Lalo Schifrin to update and "latinize" the theme. Ironically, Lalo re-did it in 4/4, added bongos and flutes plus the iconic signature bass line heard in all the commercial breaks. Those who remember Lalo's theme to the 1965 series "T.H.E. Cat" will note the flute melody with wild intervals foreshadowing "Mission: Impossible". Incidentally, Dave Brubeck had composed the theme music for the 1964 TV series "Mr. Broadway"...in 6/8...or was it 7/8?

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