The Library Music of Space: 1999.

[tim gueguen]

Produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson for ATV/ITC Space: 1999 was a British science fiction TV series that aired between 1975 and 1977 in many markets.  It starred Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, best known for their roles on Mission: Impossible, as Commander John Koenig and Dr. Helena Russell.  A giant nuclear explosion on the Moon's far side sends it hurtling into interstellar space, and the crew of Moonbase Alpha must fight to survive against the dangerous forces and beings they encounter.

The first season of the series featured opening and closing themes and incidental music composed by Barry Gray, who had been Gerry Anderson's go to composer beginning with 1956's The Adventures of Twizzle. Besides music Gray composed specifically for the series pieces that Gray had composed for series such as Thunderbirds and The Secret Service were also used, along with contributions from music editor Allan Willis, guitarist Vic Elms, and famed British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan.  But on top of this was a considerable use of library tracks.  These were all sourced from the Chappell Recorded Music Library.

When the series was renewed for a second season various changes were made.  This included a new set of music, composed by Derek Wadsworth.  But apparently little library music was used.  One cut known to have been used was Robert Farnon's "How Beautiful Is Night," another Chappell track, that dated from 1946.  Various other Farnon tracks where amongst those used in the first season. (Wadsworth did a library album for Hudson Music Co. called Pathfinder in 1984.)

Space: 1999 was cancelled in October of 1976, while filming of the second season was still ongoing. In retrospect the timing was unfortunate, because as the final episodes were airing in some markets in the spring of 1977 Star Wars debuted, launching the late '70s science fiction boom.  ITC would eventually assemble a quartet of films using re-edited episodes of the series to take advantage of the boom.  Although intended for theatrical release they ended up airing on TV and being released on home video.  A piece by Mike Vickers, former Manfred Mann guitarist, was used for Destination Moonbase Alpha, and released on the Bruton album Points of Impact in 1984.  Alien Attack used several Bruton tracks, including Keith Mansfield's "Disco Dynamite" as a closing theme.

Martin Willey has made a list of the music tracks used and where they were used.  If you're interested in the series the other pages on his site, The Catacombs, are a comprehensive guide to the series, warts and all.
https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/pguide/up05.html

[rajah_d]

Thanks for this, Tim -- I watched this series when I was a boy, and the music in both seasons always stood out to me.

[tim gueguen]

I forgot to mention a piece of library music weirdness connected to the series.  In 1976 RCA released Space: 1999, An Original Soundtrack Recording in the United States, Canada, Spain, and Turkey.  The album included the theme music and incidental music from Barry Gray's soundtrack to the first season.  But 2 tracks were included called "Death's Other Dominion" and "Black Sun" that not only did not appear in those episodes, they didn't appear in the series at all, and were not written by Barry Gray.  These 2 tracks were actually "Funko" and "Earthy,"  both written by Irving Martin and Brian Dee, despite the album crediting them to Gray.  They would later be released on Bruton Music's  Heavy Rock in 1978.  How and why ended up on the soundtrack album is an obvious question.  Gray had no involvement in compiling the album.

Interestingly when the Ariola label released a version of the soundtrack album in Spain in 1978 it correctly credited Dee and Martin for those two tracks.

[Lord Thames]

Irving Martin himself turned up on a previous iteration of this board and explained a bit about how all that happened, but I can't remember any of the details now annoyingly - maybe if we say his name three times he might appear again!