HAWAII FIVE-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. At the airing of its very last episode, it was the longest running cop show in television history at that time. Another legacy of the show is the popularity of the Hawaii Five-O theme music. The tune was composed by Morton Stevens, who also composed numerous episode scores and performed by the CBS Orchestra. The theme was later recorded by the Ventures, whose version reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart; at the University of Hawaii, it has become the unofficial fight song. (More from Wikipedia)
The Ventures hit again in 1969 with the well-known theme “Hawaii Five-O” for the television show Hawaii Five-O. Allmusic lists an astounding 39 Ventures albums that were released between their albums Walk, Don’t Run and Hawaii Five-O.
Although the Ventures dropped off the US charts after “Hawaii Five-O”, they retained their popularity elsewhere, particularly in Japan where they are touring to this day. In all, 17 of the Ventures’ albums made the Top 40, with total sales of more than 100 million.
(December 2014)
