Terri's Jack Lord Connection

Home

What's New

Central Dispatch

Twelve Seasons of

Hawaii Five-0

Fan Fiction

Photo Galleries

Articles & Interviews

Links

Copyright &

Privacy Statement

Melodic Memories

Emmy Commemorative Issue

August 30, 2002

Classic theme songs remain a vital link to the legacy of a cherished series. BOOK 'EM DAN-0: The theme song from "Hawaii 5-0" is an up tempo number that is more electric guitar then ukulele.

Few TV themes were intercut as spectacularly with visual imagery as "Hawaii Five-0," CBS's long-running police drama set in the 50th state with Jack Lord as tough-guy Steve McGarrett.

Morton Stevens, who in 1968 headed CBS' West Coast music department (and later penned the "Police Woman" theme), recalls what creator Leonard Freeman had told him about the concept: "It's about a guy who's hard as a rock and living on a rock. And he's hard."

Stevens interpreted all this crude sexual innuendo as implying that the music should have a macho strength.

Stevens composed a forceful, rhythmically exciting theme, avoiding the usual Hawaiian clichés of ukuleles, steel guitars, falsetto voices and bongo-drums. Title designer Reza Badiyi-using a tempo that Stevens had supplied even before he finished writing - edited together location shots of a giant wave, hula dancers, a jet flying overhead, faces of Hawaiian natives and sunset over the Pacific into a still-memorable 60-second montage.

Donated by Ruth Hughes