Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 242 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.
This is the fourth of six Henry Mancini albums we’ve heard from my dad’s collection. This one is a little different, because most of the other records contained tunes that could have been released as singles or were the theme songs of movies.
While you’ll hear the theme song of a late 1950s TV detective show, you also get to hear the incidental music from the show. And I came to think of a couple of these tunes as some of Henry’s best melodies.
I’m also going to apologize in advance, but my show theme of skips, scratches, and pops is on full display in this episode.
So get ready to hear music that was as much a star of the show as the actors in Volume 242: Mancini’s Gunn.
[Music: Peter Gunn]
Henry Mancini conducting a studio jazz orchestra with the title track of the late 1950s TV show Peter Gunn
All the music for this recording session was composed by Henry Mancini.
OK…Why this record for this episode?
Who doesn’t know the Peter Gunn theme? But not many people have any idea that it was from a short-lived TV drama. I watched the first episode last week. It was OK. Karen thought it was hokey.
But the musical score behind the show rocketed Henry Mancini to musical stardom.
And before we go any farther I did want to introduce some of the main musicians on this recording.
I’ll let you know after a song when a soloist is listed.
Alto Saxophone – Ted Nash
Guitar – Bob Bain
Trombone – Milt Bernhart
Vibraphone – Larry Bunker
And a Piano player by the name of Johnny T. Williams. We’ll come back to him later.
Next up. Pete can’t make up his mind.
[Music: Sorta Blue]
Sorta Blue
Baritone Saxophone – Ronnie Lang
Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.
Henry Mancini – The Music From Peter Gunn
RCA Victor – LPM-1956
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Mono
Released: 1959
Genre: Jazz, Pop, Stage & Screen
Style: Space-Age, Theme
Recorded in Hollywood, August 26 and 31, and September 4 and 29, 1958.
We will hear 6 of the 12 songs from this album.
This is music from the sound track of the NBC-TV series “Peter Gunn.” Mancini released more music from the show a year later. My dad has that album as well.
The liner notes are not too long, and I will read almost all of them. Because they were written by the incomparable Blake Edwards.
In an industry often referred to as cannibalistic, swept as it is by constant change and unpredictable developments, we at Spartan Productions were faced with the compelling need for something genuinely new in dramatic television. When the idea for Peter Gunn was still incubating, the vital question was: how do we set the Peter Gunn show apart from other mystery Adventure series?
We already had many exciting components, but what was missing was some distinctive element to invest this series with something extra, something superlative. It hit me then – jazz. If we could use the music as an integral part of the dramatic action, fusing storyline and score, we should have something very worthwhile.
By sustaining the Jazz background and source music throughout the show’s 39 week run, I strongly feel we have given the program a positive identification, not to speak of attracting the viewers into an awareness of this vital Musical form.
As creator of the show, I naturally insisted on using live music throughout. In this case aesthetic necessity was implemented by the fact that many of the nation’s greatest Jazz musicians are in the Hollywood area – an ideal opportunity to handpick the most creative jazz men. To give us the musical background required, we also needed a composer with roots in the Jazz idiom, one who could interpret dramatic action in the language of modern jazz. Henry Mancini is that composer.
Hank Mancini, only 34, had already written for such films as the Benny Goodman Story, Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil And The Glenn Miller story. for his contribution to the latter he was nominated, at 28, for an Academy award.
Currently the music director of Spartan productions, Mancini can now claim the distinction of being the first musician to compose modern Jazz for the soundtrack of a filmed television series.
The Music In This Album offers an excellent sampling of the sounds you’re likely to hear any Monday Eve when Peter gun swings into action on NBC tv.
This music is Peter Gunn’s kind of jazz. I think you’ll find that it’s your kind too.
Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.
$23.26 High
$0.99 Low
$5.78 Average
$3.00 Median
Last sold on Jul 11, 2025 for $13.95 or 12 Euros.
My dad’s record is in poor condition. You can hear all of the skips, scratches and pops in all their mono glory.
The surface has some weird splotches on it, which are audible in a couple of tunes later on each side of the disk. It also has plenty of small markings including one kind of small but deep scratch.
The cover is in poor condition. The white edges and back cover are pretty dingy, but there’s a weird abrasion near the top of the back cover. It looks like some liquid had been spilled there and it ate away at the protective covering and even a bit of the top edge of the cover. I wonder what my dad was drinking THAT day.
There are none of my dad’s usual markings on the back and no address label on the front.
So I’ll value my dad’s vinyl at 75 cents.
Time now to visit the featured bar from the show.
[Music: The Brothers Go To Mother’s]
The Brothers Go To Mother’s
We’ve already talked many times about the great Henry Mancini who was born April 16, 1924, in Little Italy, OH. A Cleveland neighborhood we just drove through a couple weeks ago.
So instead of bio material for Henry, let’s learn about Pete.
When *Peter Gunn* hit TV screens in 1958, it wasn’t your typical gumshoe show. Sure, it had a sharp-dressed detective, dames in trouble, and a steady parade of shady characters, but creator Blake Edwards gave it a sleek, modern twist. The title character, played by Craig Stevens, wasn’t the trench-coat, fedora-wearing loner of other TV mysteries. Gunn was smooth, urbane, and more likely to be found in a swanky jazz club than a dingy back alley. Much of the action revolved around a nightclub called Mother’s, where Gunn’s girlfriend, singer Edie Hart, performed—and where trouble often found him.
The music wasn’t just background—it was the lifeblood of the show. Henry Mancini’s score set *Peter Gunn* apart from every other detective series of its day. Instead of generic suspense cues, Mancini brought in a driving, bluesy jazz sound that gave the show its cool, dangerous edge. The famous “Peter Gunn Theme,” with its pulsing bass line, became a hit in its own right and is still one of the most recognizable TV themes ever written. It helped the show feel fresh and contemporary, attracting viewers who might not have cared about crime dramas but couldn’t resist that groove.
In the end, *Peter Gunn* wasn’t just a detective series—it was a marriage of style, story, and sound. Mancini’s music didn’t simply underscore the action; it shaped the mood, defined the main character, and gave the series an identity that made it stand out in a crowded TV landscape. You could almost say the jazz was as much a star of the show as Peter Gunn himself.
By the way, Blake Edwards is the brain behind the Pink Panther movies, with soundtracks composed by…Henry Mancini.
Let’s flip this record over and see what’s on side two.
[Music: Fallout!]
Fallout!
Bass – Rolly Bundock
Drums – Jack Sperling
Trumpet – Pete Condoli
Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with the piano player on this session, Johnny T. Williams.
He became a composer of note in his own right. In fact maybe even bigger than Mancini himself.
In a career spanning six decades, Williams has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures. He also composed the theme music for various TV programs in the 1960s. He was known as “Little Johnny Love” Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine. His most typical style may be considered Neo-romanticism, with a notorious use of leitmotifs and orchestral grandeur, but he has also made incursions in Impressionist, Expressionist or Experimental music, and also in progressive Jazz (his father was a jazz drummer and he began his career as a jazz pianist, often working with Henry Mancini).
Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. As of 2023, he has received 53 Academy Award nominations, an accomplishment surpassed only by Walt Disney (59). His longtime collaboration with producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas has been very fruitful and contributed to the growing popularity of score music. He was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards.
He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Yes, we know him today as John Williams. And I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of his scores in films he has composed soundtracks for. My two favorites are Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
In this next tune, you can really hear Johnny’s light touch on the piano
[Music: The Floater.
[Music: Not From Dixie]
There is Not From Dixie.
And before that we heard The Floater.
Vibraphone – Vic Feldman
Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.
I absolutely love the music of Henry Mancini. Not just his hit singles like Baby Elephant Walk but the many scores that have backed films I have seen over the years. Just like the music from this episode, his soundtracks became another character whenever played. Probably most noticeably in the movie, the Pink Panther.
I don’t remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.
It’s an abstract painting by Fritz Miller. Lots of blue brush strokes with two yellow lightning-like bursts. The title The music from Peter Gunn composed and conducted by Henry Mancini from the NBC television series Peter Gunn is in yellow sans serif font in a few sizes. There is a sticker that claims The original in all capital red letters.
The back cover is mostly taken up by a drawing about half a silhouette of a person I can only assume is Peter Gunn holding a gun in his left hand.
After the title repeats itself you see the listing of tunes and the liner notes I read earlier.
There is also a small headshot of Mancini.
OK
You may have noticed I already played the six tunes promised. I did play 6 of the 12 from this album.
I’m going to do something different and finish with a recording not on this album. In late 2023, several famous musicians gathered in Los Angeles to lay down tracks for an album to commemorate what would have been Henry Mancini’s 100th birthday in 2024. John Williams, who played a Steinway grand piano, was the only member from that original recording in 1958. The great Quincy Jones conducted. There were several other big names as well. Arturo Sandoval on trumpet and on keyboard was Herbie Hancock, who we’ll be seeing in concert in a couple months. Those musicians won a combined 97 Grammy Awards.
They recorded THIS version of Peter Gunn.
[Music: Peter Gunn for Henry Mancini’s 100th Birthday]
An all-star cast with a special recording of Peter Gunn for Henry Mancini’s 100th Birthday.
Did you hear all 97 Grammys in there?
And there you have selections from a TV drama soundtrack that changed the role of music.
So thanks for tuning into Volume 242: Mancini’s Gunn
however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.
I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops
FOR Volume 243: Hi-Fi Hawaii
Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.
