Hey all, I was very sad to hear that Earle Hagen, the composer of the theme and music for The Andy Griffith Show, has passed away. I found a very detailed notice about Mr. Hagen's passing at http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hagen28-2008may28,0,1306284.story
I won't cut and paste the entire article, as it would be far too long, but the article had quite a bit of detail about how Mr. Hagen came to write the theme for The Andy Griffith Show, and I thought I would share that here. Again, this is from the May 28, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times: "The happy-go-lucky theme for "The Andy Griffith Show" may be Hagen's most recognizable tune. It's certainly the most beloved. "In his autobiography, "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard Of," Hagen wrote that while sitting at home "wracking my brain for an idea for a theme for the Griffith show, it finally occurred to me that it should be something simple, something you could whistle. With that in mind, it took me about an hour to write the Andy Griffith theme." "That night, he and several musicians recorded a demo of the theme for the opening of the show, with Hagen doing the whistling and his 11-year-old son Deane doing the finger-snapping. The next morning, Hagen took a copy of the demo to executive producer Leonard's home. "As Hagen recalled: "He listened and said, 'Great! I'll do [the show's opening] at Franklin Canyon Lake with Andy and Ronny [Howard] walking along the bank with a couple of fishing poles over their shoulders."" I have heard they sing, but do angels whistle? If they do, then can you imagine the Pearly Gates opening wide for Mr. Hagen and the Heavenly Choir breaking out into a rousy round of "The Fishin' Hole"? I couldn't think of a more fitting welcome. Dan Greensboro, NC _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
