"Nadia's Theme", originally titled "Cotton's Dream", is a piece of music composed by
Barry De Vorzon
Barry De Vorzon (born July 31, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and composer. His earliest hit compositions were "Just Married" (1958), written with Al Allen and recorded by Marty Robbins, which reached number 26 on ''Billboar ...
and
Perry Botkin Jr.
Perry Botkin Jr. (April 16, 1933 – January 18, 2021) was an American composer, producer, arranger, and musician. The tune " Nadia's Theme", composed by Botkin and Barry De Vorzon, peaked at No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1976 and bec ...
in 1971. It was originally used as
incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...
for the 1971 film ''
Bless the Beasts and Children'', and is better known as the
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
to the television
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
'' since the series premiered in 1973. "Cotton's Dream" was renamed "Nadia's Theme" after it became associated with Olympic gymnast
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner (born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian retired gymnast and a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10. ...
during and after the
1976 Summer Olympics
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...
.
The piece was originally released on the original 1971
''Bless the Beasts and Children'' soundtrack, then a 1974 cover version by easy listening group
Sounds of Sunshine Sounds of Sunshine were an American sunshine pop group from Los Angeles, California consisting of three brothers. The group released one album on Ranwood Records in 1971, which peaked on the ''Billboard'' 200 at #187. Its title track, "Love Means ...
was produced. After it became associated with Comăneci during the 1976 Olympics, the piece was later released as a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
in August of that year. Other versions of "Nadia's Theme" have since been recorded. The piece has also been sampled by other artists, and has been used regularly by other radio and television programs.
Origins
De Vorzon and Botkin Jr. composed this piece of music, originally titled "Cotton's Dream", as
incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...
for the 1971 feature film ''
Bless the Beasts and Children''. The instrumental version was commercially released on
that film's soundtrack album on
A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...
. The soundtrack also included "Lost", a song set to this melody, performed by Renée Armand. The single release, under the new title, was electronically patched to extend the song by almost a minute for commercial airplay.
Botkin Jr. later composed a rearranged version of the instrumental theme for the long-running television soap opera ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
,'' which premiered on March 26, 1973, on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
. Although a soundtrack album for the television series was released by
P.I.P. Records in 1974, the LP only contained a cover version by
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
group
Sounds of Sunshine Sounds of Sunshine were an American sunshine pop group from Los Angeles, California consisting of three brothers. The group released one album on Ranwood Records in 1971, which peaked on the ''Billboard'' 200 at #187. Its title track, "Love Means ...
, rather than the original recording by De Vorzon and Botkin.
Association with Nadia Comăneci
In late July or early August 1976,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's sports anthology program ''
Wide World of Sports'' produced a montage of Romanian gymnast
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner (born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian retired gymnast and a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10. ...
's routines during the
1976 Summer Olympics
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...
and used "Cotton's Dream" as the background music. It was this national television montage that cemented the association of the tune with Comăneci in the public mind. (Comăneci herself never performed her floor exercises using this piece of music, however. She used a piano arrangement of a medley of the songs "
Yes Sir, That's My Baby" and "
Jump in the Line
"Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)" is a calypso song composed by Lord Kitchener and best known from a version recorded by vocalist Harry Belafonte in 1961. Later renditions
Woody Herman and his Third Herd recorded Kitchener's song in 1952 for Ma ...
".)
On May 18, 1997, Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner guest-starred in the Season 3 finale of ''
Touched by an Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American fantasy drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced b ...
'' (titled "A Delicate Balance"), during which they performed a brief floor exercise within a montage scene to "Nadia's Theme".
1976 releases
Viewer inquiries about the music from the ''Wide World of Sports'' montage prompted a commercial release of the 1971 version of the song as a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
through A&M Records on August 28, 1976. This recording was identical to "Cotton's Dream," with a repeat from the bridge to the end edited in to lengthen the piece. The single was titled "Nadia's Theme" and was a commercial success, charting for 22 weeks and peaking at No. 8 in the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the week ending December 11, 1976. A&M Records failed to credit De Vorzon as the co-writer on the first pressings of the single. He successfully sued the record label for $241,000.
In October 1976, as the De Vorzon–Botkin version released by A&M climbed the charts, P.I.P. Records released a single containing the Sounds of Sunshine's vocal and instrumental versions under the title "Nadia's Theme". The label also re-released the 1974 soundtrack LP, now stickered to say it contained "Nadia's Theme", although it still only contained the cover version. That same month, Barry De Vorzon capitalized on the success of the song by releasing it on his first album, ''Nadia's Theme''. Soon after, Sounds of Sunshine released their own ''Nadia's Theme'' album.
On November 23, 1976,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
further entrenched the song's association with Comăneci by using the melody in its broadcast of "Nadia—From Romania with Love", a one-hour television special hosted by
Flip Wilson
Clerow "Flip" Wilson Jr. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998) was an American comedian and actor best known for his television appearances during the late 1960s and 1970s. From 1970 to 1974, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series ''The F ...
, co-produced by CBS and
Televiziunea Romana
Televiziunea Română (), more commonly referred to as TVR , is the short name for Societatea Română de Televiziune ("Romanian Television Society"; SRTV), the Romanian public television. It operates six channels: TVR1, TVR2, TVR3, TVR Info, T ...
. The De Vorzon & Botkin version of the song was not released on
CD until Eric Records included it on the 2003 compilation ''Hard to Find Orchestral Instrumentals II''. An extract from the tune is used regularly as a jingle by
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
disk jockey
Steve Wright on his ''Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs''.
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Alternate versions
Other versions of "Nadia's Theme" have been recorded, including easy listening renditions by such artists as
Ronnie Aldrich
Ronald Frank Aldrich (15 February 1916 – 30 September 1993) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist, arranger, conductor and composer.
Early life
He was born Ronald Frank Aldrich on 15 February 1916 in Erith, England, the only son o ...
,
Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Biography
Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...
,
Ferrante & Teicher
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances ...
, the orchestra of ''
The Lawrence Welk Show
''The Lawrence Welk Show'' is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 195 ...
'',
Roger Williams
Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation ...
and
James Galway
Sir James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". He established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstan ...
; a semi-rock version by
The Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...
; and
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on ''The You ...
's vocal rendition, which incorporated De Vorzon's and Botkin Jr.'s lyrics, for his 1987 album ''
Lovin' Feelings
''Lovin' Feelings'' is the second studio album by American actor and singer David Hasselhoff. It was released on October 18, 1987, by Sony Music, CBS Records. The album was produced by Bruce Lynch and recorded in Auckland, New Zealand. The album ...
''. There was also a vocal version by The Sounds Of Sunshine released as a single on p.i.p.(Pickwick International Production) records.
The ''Young and the Restless'' began using a light remix of "Nadia's Theme" in 1988, then switched to a jazz arrangement during a three-year stint in the early 2000s before returning to the 1988 version.
The song was sampled in a piece of music from the 1993
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
, ''
Aero the Acro-Bat
''Aero the Acro-Bat'' is a 1993 video game developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft. It was released for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Aero the Acro-Bat, a red anthropomorphic bat, was created ...
''.
Cuban Link
Felix Delgado (born December 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Cuban Link, is a Cuban American rapper and original member of Terror Squad.
Biography
Delgado was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1974. He and his family emigrated to the Unite ...
samples Nadia's Theme in their song Flowers For The Dead.
R&B musician
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...
included the instrumental version as a backdrop in her 2001 single, "
No More Drama
''No More Drama'' is the fifth studio album by American singer Mary J. Blige, released on August 28, 2001, by MCA Records.
Following the critical and commercial success of her fourth studio album, ''Mary'' (1999), ''No More Drama'' was similarly w ...
". Botkin, who had never heard of Blige prior to this was delighted to get a writing credit, saying: "I woke up one morning and I'm on the cutting edge of R&B,” says the composer, who now specializes in electronic music. ”These days, I'm completely removed from pop music — except when
oyaltychecks arrive.".
Sonshine Media Network International
Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), also known by its legal operating name Swara Sug Media Corporation (SSMC), is a Filipino broadcast media arm of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) led by the Filipino televangelist Pastor Apollo C. Q ...
in the Philippines used the piece as background music following a series of montages for the Glory Mountain in
Mt. Apo
Mount Apo, also known locally as Apo Sandawa, is a large solfataric, dormant stratovolcano on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. With an elevation of above sea level, it is the highest-mountain in the Philippine Archipelago, Mindanao and 24 ...
,
Davao City
Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...
.
A alternate arrangement was used for the series premiere promo in 1973.
Awards
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s:
*
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement
The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ...
, 1978
Grammy Awards of 1978
The 20th Annual Grammy Awards were held February 23, 1978, and were broadcast live on American television. They were hosted by John Denver and recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1977.
Award winners
*Record of the Year
**Bil ...
References
External links
*
Rings ‘n’ Things: 10 Best Facts About the Olympics in Pop Culture" ''Time'', August 2, 2012
Did Nadia Comaneci compete to 'Nadia's Theme' in the 1976 Olympics?" ''Los Angeles Times'', July 23, 2012.
{{authority control
1973 songs
1976 singles
A&M Records singles
1970s instrumentals
Television drama theme songs
The Young and the Restless
Songs written for films
Songs written by Barry De Vorzon
Songs written by Perry Botkin Jr.