Saturday Soundtrack: TV Re-Runs

This Saturday Soundtrack posting is unusual in that it isn't about my memories of a song but about my experience with music on two television shows. As a boy I watched a lot of television. I'm not sure how it is now, but in the 1970's the late afternoon was the time for re-runs. I know I saw every episode of I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. that ever aired. I've already mentioned in this series how I was influenced by I Love Lucy,so I won't revisit that but I'd like to say a word about the other shows.

Both The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. were headlined by excellent singers, who sang very different kinds of music. The former was filled with, and I'm not sure how to describe it, music like what I was used to hearing in church, but not exactly. Sure, once in a while actual songs I sang on Sunday (I was a protestant then.) would appear in the show, and I have selected one of those for this post, but there was a whole style of singing on that show that seemed that seemed church-y to me. It was, I think, something to do with the way the men on the show sang together. Additionally, though the show was shot in the 1960s, and set in the 1960s, there was a very 1930s feel to it. I liked that.



The other show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. had a very different kind of music. I think, the first time I heard opera was on this show, which was something of a showcase for Jim Nabor's voice. Here is one of my favorites.