Name that (old pop classical) tune

June 5, 2005 7:49 PM

Name that tune: pop classical/easy listening, possibly from the 1940s, often heard accompanying black and white images of post-war domestic bliss on TV. Not Holiday For Strings. Here's an mp3 of the first bit, ham-fistedly cobbled together from memory using the gift of MIDI (and unlikely to be note-for-note accurate).
posted by nylon to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

The description and the MIDI file sound like something by Laurie Johnson, but I can't place the exact melody from the MIDI file. Listen to Happy Go Lively and Shopping Spree on the Music for TV Dinners comp to see if one of those might be what you're looking for.
posted by eschatfische at 8:29 PM on June 5, 2005

I think it is the theme for a BBC Light Program show called "Housewife's Choice" which began in 1946 (and later morphed into "Family Choice", whether or not with the same theme I don't know, on Radio 1 when that station started broadcasting in 1967 if this timeline is to be believed).

Whether or not the tune had an independent existence before, or has a name, I don't know, and for some reason Google isn't telling me much about Housewife's Choice, though I remember the theme from listening to the programme with my grandmother.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:53 PM on June 5, 2005

That sounds about right, Quinbus - I had a feeling it might have been a radio thing. Awesome. I can do some more directed research now. And the 1967 page has reminded me of another theme tune I absolutely love - the Jimmy Young Show. Ah, those horns! That driving beat! Oh, the heady scent of nostalgia!

And although not what I was after, eschatfische, that TV Dinners album sounds fantastic. Thanks for the tip-off!
posted by nylon at 10:30 PM on June 5, 2005

And here it is - Housewife's Choice. Along with a pageful of other fantastic radio theme tunes. Joy to the world!
posted by nylon at 10:38 PM on June 5, 2005