LAST TIME I covered The Don is Dead, my 116th Goldsmith work, which could charitably be described as inessential save maybe for Goldsmith completists.
THIS TIME I’m covering something that is arguably essential for everyone here: music from the original The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series by Jerry Goldsmith and (deep breath now) Morton Stevens, Walter Scharf, Lalo Schifrin, Gerald Fried, Robert Drasnin, Nelson Riddle, Richard Shores, and Robert Armbruster.
Listening to and assessing this music has been more of a gargantuan undertaking than I expected it to be. In the aughts FSM released three 2CD volumes (plus another album of new / newly arranged / re-edited music written for the cinema re-releases of various two-part episodes), with Volume 3 also including music from the spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. by Dave Grusin, Richard Shores, and Jack Marshall.
Initially the producers probably weren’t sure about demand, so the first volume has many of the best moments across each season (many of which were contemporaneously rerecorded by Hugo Montenegro). Also, Volume 1 is still in print (along with the cinema music album), while the other two volumes command higher prices in the secondary/used market. As such, Volume 1 alone will be a sufficient purchase for many listeners.
That aside, Vol. 2 & 3 still cover all the seasons and contain some sensational stuff, like the classy take on the main theme and the subsequent rumbling piano/percussion volley at the start of Vol. 2’s suite from The Vulcan Affair, as well as Grusin’s rollicking 9/8 arrangement for Girl’s title track.
If you’ve enjoyed any action music from Jerry Goldsmith from the 60s or 70s, you’ll probably enjoy this too. Many of the aforementioned names also worked on various seasons of Mission: Impossible in the 60s and 70s, so fans of that sound (and/or the perpetually underrated gem that is the music from I Spy) should also seek this out.
What follows is my thoughts by season AND by composer. If you prefer the TL;DR version, it would be “the first and second seasons are the strongest, and the best work was done by Goldsmith & Fried.”
Season 1 (1964-65)
Previously, all I knew of the U.N.C.L.E. music was the main theme’s inclusion in Goldsmith’s TV Themes suite. It’s good, but the original music reveals additional depths. As with Jerry’s other episodic TV music, part of the fun of listening to it is marveling at what he was able to generate out of smaller forces.
Some of this comes from performance subtleties; the jazzy wail the trumpet does as the 5/4 title theme plays is downright thrilling. And the theme proves rather malleable, turning into both a brassy action motif and a sly idea set atop bouncy woodwinds. Outside of the theme, you get action music from the same building blocks as Jerry’s spy/crime music to come like the Flint duology and Walking Distance. Bonus points for ‘Meet Mr. Solo’, the OTHER primary theme Goldsmith created; its romantic sendoff by brass and piano at the end of The Deadly Games Affair (the last episode Goldsmith worked on) is quite serene.
The occasional atmospheric suspense music (slow guitar notes, Novachord sustains, single timpani hits) doesn’t work terribly well as a standalone listen. Still, Goldsmith’s output for this season probably places in my top 30-40 scores of his.
This is the most-represented season, with nearly 3 hours of music covered across all the FSM releases, so we get plenty of strong compositions by others. Stevens and Scharf deliver sharp, martial action material that sometimes features rapid-fire piano parts. Delightful exotic music for all the globetrotting often pops up. Stevens’ music on average is a little more memorable than Scharf’s, although the latter composer does a solid job of creating a sense of mystery (the winds and guitar in The Quadripartite Affair, for example)
Stevens also wrote additional material for The Spy with My Face, the cinema release of The Double Affair (which already had his brief-but-awesome trumpet take on the main theme), and his off-kilter percussive opener is a season highlight.
Schifrin’s one episode feels like a warm-up act for M:I seasons to come, especially its doom-laden opening, the way harps create a sense of mystery, and the Latin-style source music.
Season rating: ****½
Goldsmith material: ****½
Stevens material: ****½
Scharf episodes: ****
Schifrin episode: ***½
Season 2 (1965-66)
This season got a (mostly) new set of composers and the music, based on the almost 2 hours released by FSM, shifted from straightforward action towards the funkier stuff showing up in concurrent films. Goldsmith was annoyed his title piece was rearranged into a 4/4 version, and while it’s not at all a bad take on the idea (akin to what Schifrin & team would put in the next year’s initial M:I season) it still does lose some of the theme’s uniqueness.
Still, the episode scores still fire on all cylinders. Fried said you could manipulate the audience into thinking it was hearing a larger group if you had a “depth of sound”. This ingenuity helped since the show’s budget usually only allowed for less than 10 musicians. The music plays like one outrageous jam session after another of some of the quirkiest groups ever assembled, with instruments including brass, sax, piano, double bass, electric bass, a banjo pretending to be a shamisen, all manner of percussion including (LOTS. OF.) bongos, the occasional harpsichord, and (once, I think) a bass clarinet. As an added bonus, the group would sometimes work in Goldsmith’s themes.
The show’s music was like a jazz Doctor Who in that it could go ANYWHERE, even into the Western/hillbilly goofiness of The Bat Cave Affair, which amazingly is NOT the episode scored by Nelson Riddle. Some of Fried’s episode scores have a riotous energy to them, as does his additional music for the cinema release One of Our Spies Is Missing. The Discotheque Affair showcases (and I can’t believe I’m writing this) some of the most badass harpsichord scoring ever. Parts bring to mind Mancini at his most easygoing and delightful, though it should be noted Fried was also great at delivering energetic music with a regional influence (Asian-inflected jazz, conga rhythms, etc.).
Drasnin’s scores are all fun and strike a nice balance between being stylishly menacing and just, like, GROOVY, man. Schifrin’s episode is fine, with a nice take on ‘Meet Mr. Solo’ and some suspenseful flute variations on the main theme.
Season rating: ****½
Fried episodes: ****½
Drasnin episodes: ****
Schifrin material: ***½
Season 3 (1966-67)
The show became sillier, and based on the 90+ minutes released you can tell the composers followed. We hear some piercing organ in Fried’s The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful Affair. A kazoo shows up elsewhere, and not in a “John Powell...what a rascal!” kind of way. Nelson Riddle got chewed out by one of the producers for basically doing Batman music; that’s unfair (it’s not like he wrote lyrics containing ‘na-na-na-na-UN-CLE’), but his episode still has the weakest music of the series.
And there aren’t many variations of Goldsmith's themes this time. That’s understandable In the context of that decade’s TV music, as many shows rotated through composers when they weren’t tracking in material from prior episodes (like Star Trek) and/or really didn’t emphasize thematic consistency (like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea). But it still feels like a missed opportunity, especially given how the later seasons of M:I continued to feature new takes on the title theme and ‘The Plot’.
Still, the season gave us plenty of gems. The Fried title arrangement is probably slightly preferred to Schifrin’s Season 2 effort. Fried’s absurdly catchy ‘medieval jazz’ from The Monks of St. Thomas Affair might be the best episodic score from the show. The Her Master’s Voice Affair unleashes the largest band ever assembled for the show for some high-energy jams. The deeply silly ‘Arabian rock n’ roll’ from The Come With Me to the Casbah Affair is tons of fun, as is the occasionally Asian-influenced music for the cinema release The Karate Killers.
Drasnin only did two episodes, and of those the slinky smooth vibes of The Pop Art Affair are the superior selection.
A good portion of Daniel Pemberton’s all-over-the-place music for the underappreciated 2015 film would fit right in with this season.
Season rating: ****
Fried material: ****
Drasnin episodes: ***½
Riddle episode: ***
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966-67)
There is no underlying theme for Girl, and outside of the aforementioned thrilling 9/8 title arrangement by Grusin there are no callbacks to Goldsmith’s themes for Man. There IS, however, enough harpsichord to make you think you’re listening to a 1970s John Williams score (I kid...somewhat).
Grusin’s music is often tuneful and inventive, even if it lacks the atypical arrangements of the 2nd and 3rd seasons’ scores. The Dog-Gone Affair showcases some intriguing collisions between jazz and ethnic material in its action portions. The Mother Muffin Affair compares favorably with some of the better Man episodes and gets a lot of mileage from its playful villain theme.
Like Grusin, Shores composed with a standard jazz band feel, plus the occasional harpsichord. Generally easy-going, occasionally exciting, and yet also somewhat interchangeable with other crime TV music of the 60s and 70s, it’s a preview of what he would deliver in Season 4 of the mothership.
If you’re an addict for bossa nova, I guess the short source piece by Jack Marshall will be catnip for you.
Season rating: ****
Grusin material: ****
Shores episodes: ***1/2
Season 4 (1967-68)
The show veered back towards seriousness. Most of the music did too. Fried’s wild new title arrangement went unused, and that was probably for the best since, in addition to being borderline unlistenable, it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the episodes.
Most references to the original themes were (likely) arranged and conducted by MGM music head Robert Armbruster. His title track take for the season is enjoyable enough (as are his Fried-like arrangements for the bookend tracks for the movie The Helicopter Spies), but it’s also the most straightforward of the various versions. If you’re gonna go 4/4, at least be a little weird about it!
Shores’ somewhat darker music, cut largely from the same cloth as his music from the spin-off, has its high points, namely in the two-part finale and the medley track from Volume 3. But it doesn’t reek of espionage. Fried’s sole episode, with its Mexican influences and sneaky interpretations of the original theme, is greatly preferred.
For completists, you can even hear the bits from Jerry’s three Season 1 episodes re-recorded in stereo for stock music usage during this season. But compared to the original tracks these parts are performed with less enthusiasm and taken at much slower tempos. I can’t imagine returning to these versions often.
Season rating: ***½
Shores episodes: ***½
Fried episode: ****
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