Singing In A Majors Key

Long ago at the ol' web page I offered my ranking of the top 25 television show theme songs/openings of all-time.  Ranking very near the top was the opening for The Six Million Dollar Man and somewhere nearer the bottom was "The Ballad of the Unknown Stuntman" from The Fall Guy.  What both have in common is Lee Majors.  One thing that differentiates them is Lee Majors' thoroughly entertaining, fair-to-middling singing performance for The Fall Guy theme song.  I give Lee credit for having the courage and the sense of humor for providing his unique vocalization on "The Ballad of the Unknown Stuntman."

Lest we forget, there is a long tradition of red-blooded American male leads singing badly, usually for intentionally comic affect.  For example, this scene from Magnum P.I.  Television doesn't get better than Magnum P.I.

Lee Majors himself has been the inspiration, or the muse, for two popular tunes from the great American songbook;  "Midnight Train to Georgia" (you didn't know that, did you?) and "Lee Majors Come Again."  This round goes to Gladys Knight and the Pips.

A few weeks back, I was home on a Thursday afternoon and discovered a Six Million Dollar Man marathon on something called the Esquire Network.  Amazing what you'll find when you have 57 channels 8,000 channels and there's nothin' on.  I recall watching this series on the old family RCA television during its original run and then, soon thereafter, Lou and I watched the programme in rerun form in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Yes, I had the Six Million Dollar Man action figure.  I hadn't watched an episode since the Reagan Administration and, being a lifelong fan of The Six Million Dollar Man, I was overwhelmed by an irresistible urge to watch an episode.  It just so happened that episode's "guest star of the week" was Farah Fawcett-Majors.  Classic.  One episode soon turned into another in the swirling blizzard of the SMDM marathon (I think this is a similar phenomena as to what Netflix viewers experience) and two of the following episodes just happened to be the two-part story arc titled "The Bionic Woman."  That's right, featuring Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers.  I was hooked, just like the 8-year old version of me.  Now, I'm DVR'ing each week's SMDM marathon.  I need an intervention.

What spurred this posting was the song that Lee Majors, as Colonel Steve Austin, sings three times in the two-part episode, each time over a gauzy, soft-focus, slow-motion montage of Jaime Sommers running and jumping and laughing, her golden hair flowing, her bright white smile beaming.  The song, evidently, is titled "Sweet Jaime" and sounds like a mix of Fall Guy rehearsals with a Murph and the MagicTones backing track.  Brace yourself.  It's awful.  It's great.  It's awfully great, and it sounds a little something like this.

Cancel the intervention!

Roll the credits!