Chicken Man (theme tune)

"Chicken man" is a tune composed in 1975 by Alan Hawkshaw which is notable for its use in two popular British TV series since the 1970s.

It was recorded in Munich as part of the Themes International music library. Hawkshaw composed the tune in less than an hour, claiming he 'didn't really know what [he] was doing' and that 'he just wanted to do something quirky'.[1]

It became well known as the theme to the long-running children's series Grange Hill. In its original version it was used as the main title music from 1978-1987, and was replaced by a re-recorded version from 1988-1989. After being replaced by a completely different theme tune, it made a reappearance in the final series of Grange Hill in 2008. An entirely different arrangement of "Chicken Man" was also used as the theme to early series of the British quiz show Give Us a Clue, despite the fact that it was already being used on Grange Hill. It lasted as the theme tune from 1979 until 1982, when a new producer/director commissioned an entirely new theme tune.

Most recently, the tune has been used as a jingle for the El Árbol supermarket chain in Spain throughout 2010, on UK adverts for Paddy Power bookmakers in 2013 and McVitie's DeliChoc in 2015 and as the musical bed for the feature "Homework Sucks" on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 2 show in the UK. The full piece of music is 2 minutes 2 seconds in duration.

References

  1. ↑ Pemberton, Daniel. "The Sound of Your TV". Archived from the original on 2007-07-13.
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