January 11, 2018 - Johnny Pearson - Heavy Action (theme from 'Monday Night Football') (1970)

Are you ready for some football more tv tunes??!! G-F-E-C! As a kid, those descending four notes would send shivers up my spine, as ABC's Monday Night Football blasted onto the TV screen. Howard Cosell's pre-ci-sion speech would build up the tension as he focused on the star players of each team facing off that evening. My Chicago Bears were not on too often in the late 70s, but when they were I could count on hearing Cosell boom out something about the great Walter Payton, the idol of so many Chicago area kids like me.

The horns kicked off the music in glorious fashion, but it was the rising strings that swept me up in the moment. They seemed to build forever, almost like the orchestral surge in A Day in the Life by the Beatles. In households and bars all over the country, this was the music of Monday night. Of course, in Central Standard Time, the game came on at 9 pm. I would usually only get to watch the first half before bedtime. Unless, of course, the Bears were playing (and they weren't already getting their butts kicked by halftime). MNF should have kept this music, instead of that stupid Hank Williams, Jr redneck trash.

This was my crew: Don Meredith, Howard Cosell, and Frank Gifford.