New Article on Music Clearances (1 Viewer)

[Scott_F_S]

Yes. Also, in the couple or three times I've seen WKRP in the past few months, I've also noticed that they substitute some generic, lame guitar music a lot of times for a song that was in the original.

 

[Anthony Hom]

WKRP had some but not alot of songs they played.

I remember hearing, without going back to my tapes:

Doors - Alabama song, Light my fire
Ernie Watts - Chariots of fire
Flying Lizards - Money
James Taylor - Smiling Face
Pink Floyd - Dogs
Maurice Chevalier - Thank god for the little girls (syndicated, substituted "We've only just begun" not even by the Carpenters!)
Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie
Edwn Starr - Happy Radio
Olivia Newton-John - Xanadu
Little Richard - Ready Teddy
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes
Sam And Dave - Soul Man
Toto - Hold the line

none of them entire songs probably not more than a minute on the longest ones.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Actually the Gordon Lightfoot song in question is "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and the publishing rights and profits are divided amongst the surviving families of the crew of the E.F. who died in the tragedy.

 

[john mcfadden]

As far as "That 70's show goes.... as far as i can remember, the music is used mostly in the "bumper" segments of the show ...If im right just replace them !!!!! I want this show on my shelf !!!! The music is'nt important to me at this point ..at the rate that Fox releases season sets ..70's show is in its 6th or 7th season now ?? .i think it's another excuse for Casey /warner (production company) to delay this show because they make way too much in syndication....

 

[Matt.Koz]

Another WKRP bit that sticks in my mind is the episode in which Herb is having a few too many 3 martini lunches and he's at a bar with Craig T. Nelson and the Beatles' Here Comes the Sun is playing over the restaurant's PA system.

 

[Anthony Hom]

oops, forgot that one, but I remember a few more:

Gigi - music soundtrack
Having my baby - Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Weight - The pretenders
Song Medley of: Tumbling dice (Rolling Stones)-Straight On (Heart)-Danke Schoen (Wayne Newton) - Star Spangled Banner
Tara's Theme (Gone with the Wind)
Alive Again - Chicago
After The Love is Gone - Earth Wind and Fire
Old Time Rock And Roll - Bob Seger
De Doo Doo De Da Da Da - The Police

not to mention:
WKRP in Cincinnati - Steve Carlisle
I assume they bought the full rights to that song.

guess I was wrong, they did have ALOT of music on that show!

 

[Keith Paynter]

What about Jennifer's doorbell (Fly Me To The Moon)? Not an original recording, but Who owns the rights to that Frank Sinatra classic?

There's also the one where they hold a contest and in order to win listeners have to guess all the song clips from a very tightly edited (and supposedly impossible) medley. What were those songs?

 

[Anthony Hom]

Fly me to the moon melody was written by Bart Howard.

More WKRP songs:

Had Enough - The Who
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

The radio show medley that were 1 secs snippets - I listed that in a previous post, but I only remembered 4 of the songs and I'm sure there was a 5th.

 

[obscurelabel]

A favorite music moment from WKRP ... Johnny is playing "Dogs" from Pink Floyd's "Animals":

Johnny: Gripping music, huh?
Mr Carlson: Yeah, that's good all right. What's the name of that orchestra?
Johnny: Pink Floyd.
Mr Carlson: Oooh, is that Pink Floyd? Do I hear dogs barking on that thing?
Johnny: (pause) I do.

 

[Louis C]

Wonder Years is also held up due to music rights I hear.

That was a great show too.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

I fear I will never see "Billion Dollar Brain" released, someone told me there was a scene where Caine was walking through a dance club, and there is a Beatles song playing...

Current rights holder: Michael Jackson.

 

[Matt.Koz]

Who knows? I hear legal fees can get quite expensive!

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Heh -- I noticed on another board that due to the mention of "WKRP" in the above article, Shout! Factory has been besieged with emails asking them to do it. A representative posted on that message board:

 

[Randy A Salas]

I would be very surprised if Fox would license WKRP to another label.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

WKRP is my favorite TV comedy of all time. Like most fans, I hate the facts that a) it's not on DVD; b) that they replaced the original music on the newer syndicated versions of the eps, and c) that the replacement music is uniformly awful.

If it were obvious that a DVD release of this show would be a slam-dunk hit, then Fox might be willing to shell out the bucks for full licensing of the original music. Unfortunately, it's not certain how well the set would do after we hardcore fans grabbed our copies...especially if the licensing fees result in a high retail price.

I can see 2 possible compromises that might get the ball rolling.

First: accept that some of the music will have to be replaced, and prioritize which of the original songs should stay. In some cases, songs were very important to a scene (e.g., Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" when Les puts on his wig; Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" in the episode about the Russian defector, etc.) These would be the first priorities.

Songs that are actually referred to in dialog (e.g., "Dogs" by Pink Floyd) should also be kept.

Songs that are simply on in the background could be replaced, but replaced with *good, similar* music. Replace a hard rock song with a hard rock song, a disco song with a disco song, a ballad with a ballad, etc. The songs should be produced in the spirit of the late 70's/early 80's. Hire good lesser-known or unsigned bands to provide this music, and reward them by listing them in the closing credits of each episode and including a feature on the DVD spotlighting each of them, plugging their CD's and linking to their sites.

It would be nice to keep *some* of the original background music...see how much can be saved within a realistic budget, and pick and choose wisely. Some songs may be cheaper than others but still do as much to maintain the original feel of the show as a more expensive one.

The second option: Release a "best of" set with all of the original music intact. Fewer episodes means fewer songs that need to be licensed. This set could include perhaps the dozen most popular eps, as chosen by a fan poll and some input from TV critics. How well this set does could indicate to Fox whether it might be worth their while to go ahead with a full release.

It kills me to think I may never be able to see these episodes again the way I remember them, but the music industry being the way it is these days, we may just have to compromise.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Well, you know more about that than I do, but Fox does sometimes license product to independent labels -- Criterion, for example, just brought out 3 Women and will be bringing out other Fox movies.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Good thing I have all of WKRP on VHS with original music mostly. Also seems like there is no hope for a few other shows I have.
Bob Newhart Show (not Newhart)
Odd Couple (70's version)
Get Smart


There are some box sets of WKRP episodes on VHS. Its not DVD, but better than nothing which seems to be the eventual outcome.

 

[Eugene Esterly]

Thanks for the "Roadblock to a Boom" article. It's a good article which describes the roadblocks in getting TV shows on DVD which use music.

WKRP & Miami Vice are 2 shows which aren't on DVD because they use a lot of music. Beavis & Butt-head is another example, the music videos are cut-out of the B&B episodes because MTV doesn't want to pay the money which is required to allow the music videos to be included. The cutting-out of the music videos from B&B episodes ruins the show because the music video seqments are when B&B made the most funniest comments.

 

[Randy A Salas]

Fox has specifically cited music as the reason WKRP has never come out on DVD. But, despite the amount of popular music used in it, Universal has never said anything similar about Miami Vice. All such claims about Miami Vice can be traced to a misguided individual who did not represent the studio.

It's my strong belief that Miami Vice will come out on DVD whenever Universal has a reason to cross-promote or benefit from an affiliated release or product--just as many of the catalog releases from the company seem to do. Music is a secondary issue that won't stand in the way of a good business decision.