"Crockett's Theme" is an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

composed by

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television an ...

for the hit

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

television series ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

''. The surname Crockett refers to

Don Johnson Don Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series '' Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Emm ...

's character, James "Sonny" Crockett. The initial version of the theme first appeared in the episode " Calderone's Return: Part 1 – The Hit List", which aired on October 19, 1984, and other variations were used in later episodes. The first commercial release was a version on the late 1986 album '' Miami Vice II'', the second volume of music from the television show. A slightly different mix was released for the single in 1987, and also appeared on Jan Hammer's 1987 album '' Escape from Television''.

Chart performance

The song was a hit in western Europe, reaching number one in Belgium and the Netherlands, for two and four weeks respectively. It peaked at number two in both Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

Later uses

Between 1991 and 1994, the song was featured in a series of adverts for

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

in the United Kingdom. It was subsequently re-released as a single in May 1991 in the United Kingdom as an

A-side and B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

with Hammer's theme tune for ''

Chancer ''Chancer'' is a British television crime drama serial, produced by Central Independent Television for ITV, that first broadcast on 6 March 1990. Starring Clive Owen in the title role of Stephen Crane, ''Chancer'' tells the story of a likable c ...

''. It reached number 47 in the UK Singles Chart. The song also featured in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, appearing on the in-game radio station Emotion 98.3.

References

{{Authority control 1984 songs 1986 singles 1980s instrumentals Television drama theme songs Miami Vice New wave instrumentals Dutch Top 40 number-one singles MCA Records singles