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'Nadia's Theme' is a piece of music composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr. in 1971. It became associated with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci during and after the 1976 Summer Olympics. The composition has been used as the theme music to the American television soap operaThe Young and the Restless intermittently since the series debuted in 1973. This piece is also used regularly by Steve Wright presenter on BBC Radio 2 Sunday Love songs as a backing bed.
- 4Chart history
Other versions of 'Nadia's Theme' have been recorded, including a semi-rock version by The Ventures, an easy listening version by Ray Conniff, and David Hasselhoff's rendition for his 1987 album. The Young And The Restless (TV Theme Song). This music was perfect for a spoof of the Young and the Restless that was performed at an adult day care facility.
Origins[edit]
De Vorzon and Botkin Jr. composed this piece of music, originally titled 'Cotton's Dream', as incidental music for the 1971 theatrical film Bless the Beasts and Children. The instrumental version was commercially released on that film's soundtrack album on A&M Records. The soundtrack also included 'Lost', a song set to this melody, performed by Renée Armand.
Botkin Jr. later composed a rearranged version of the instrumental theme for the U.S. TV soap opera The Young and the Restless, which debuted on March 26, 1973, on the CBS television network. Although a soundtrack album for the TV series was released by P.I.P. Records in 1974, the LP only contained a cover version by easy listening group Sounds of Sunshine, rather than the original recording by De Vorzon and Botkin.
Association with Nadia Comăneci[edit]
In late July or early August 1976, ABC's sports anthology program Wide World of Sports produced a montage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's routines during the 1976 Summer Olympics[1] and used 'Cotton's Dream' as the background music. It was this American television montage that cemented the association of the tune with Comăneci in the public mind. (Comăneci herself never performed her floor exercises using this piece of music, however. She used a piano arrangement of a medley of the songs 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' and 'Jump in the Line'.)
1976 releases[edit]
Viewer inquiries about the music from the Wide World of Sports montage prompted a commercial release of the 1971 version of the song as a single through A&M Records on August 28, 1976. This recording was identical to 'Cotton's Dream,' with a repeat from the bridge to the end edited in to lengthen the piece. The single was titled 'Nadia's Theme (The Young and the Restless)' and was a commercial success, charting for 22 weeks and peaking at #8 in the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending December 12, 1976.
A&M Records failed to credit De Vorzon as the co-writer on the first pressings of the single. He successfully sued the record label for $241,000.
In October 1976, as the De Vorzon & Botkin version on A&M climbed the charts, P.I.P. Records released a single containing the Sounds of Sunshine's vocal and instrumental versions under the title 'Nadia's Theme (The Young and the Restless)'. The label also re-released the 1974 Young and the Restless soundtrack LP, now stickered to say it contained 'Nadia's Theme', although it still only contained the cover version.
That same month, Barry De Vorzon capitalized on the success of the song by releasing it on his first album, Nadia's Theme (The Young and the Restless). Soon after, Sounds of Sunshine released their own Nadia's Theme album.
On 23 November 1976, CBS further entrenched the song's association with the famous gymnast by using the melody in its broadcast of 'Nadia—From Romania with Love', a one-hour TV special hosted by Flip Wilson, co-produced by CBS and Romanian television.
The Young And The Restless Intro
The De Vorzon & Botkin version of the song was not released on CD until Eric Records included it on the 2003 compilation Hard to Find Orchestral Instrumentals II.
An extract from the tune is used regularly as a jingle by BBC Radio 2 disk jockey Steve Wright on his Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs.
You Tube Young And The Restless
Chart history[edit]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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Alternate versions[edit]
Other versions of 'Nadia's Theme' have been recorded, including easy listening renditions by such artists as Ronnie Aldrich, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, the orchestra of The Lawrence Welk Show, Roger Williams and James Galway; a semi-rock version by The Ventures; and David Hasselhoff's vocal rendition, which incorporated De Vorzon's and Botkin Jr.'s lyrics, for his 1987 album Lovin' Feelings. There was also a vocal version by The Sounds Of Sunshine released as a single on p.i.p.(Pickwick International Production) records.
The Young and the Restless began using a light remix of 'Nadia's Theme' in 1988, then switched to a jazz arrangement during a three-year stint in the early 2000s (decade) before returning to the 1988 version.
The song was sampled in a piece of music from the 1993 video game, Aero the Acro-Bat.
Mary J. Blige included the instrumental version as a backdrop in her 2001 single, 'No More Drama'.[9]
Sonshine Media Network International in the Philippines used the piece as background music following a series of montages for the Glory Mountain in Mt. Apo, Davao City.
Awards[edit]
Grammy Awards:
- Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement, 1978 [10]
References[edit]
- ^Nadia Comăneci at Olympic.org
- ^'Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada'. Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1976-12-25. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
- ^'Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada'. Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1976-12-11. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
- ^Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN0-89820-089-X
- ^Cash Box Top 100 Singles, December 4, 1976
- ^Canada, Library and Archives (January 16, 2018). 'Image : RPM Weekly'.
- ^Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN0-89820-142-X.
- ^Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 25, 1976
- ^Evan Serpick (2002-03-27). 'Daytime 'Drama''. EW.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
- ^Grammy Awards of 1978
External links[edit]
Young And Restless Theme Music
- 'Rings ‘n’ Things: 10 Best Facts About the Olympics in Pop Culture.' TIme, August 2, 2012
- 'Did Nadia Comaneci compete to 'Nadia's Theme' in the 1976 Olympics?.' Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2012.