The Theme to “Hill Street Blues” Was a Hit For Composer Mike Post

The theme to the eighties cop program continued the streak of hit TV songs for this composer/musician.

Hill Street Blues was a popular cop show from the eighties. It lasted seven seasons and won 26 Emmys.

Its theme song was composed by someone who has enjoyed a prosperous career in music: Mike Post.

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Hill Street Blues in summary

HSB depicts the lives of cops in a precinct in an unnamed city, one comparable to Chicago or New York. Steven Bochco, with Michael Kozoll, created the show. Bochco, a ten-time Emmy winner, was also responsible for LA Law and NYPD Blue, major dramatic hit shows from the eighties and nineties.

The ensemble had multiple, ongoing plot threads, introduced at the start of each episode during roll call for the cops. (The conducting sergeant would always conclude with the line, “Let’s be careful out there.”) The cops dealt with real-world issues and often struggled to achieve justice within the bounds of the law.

TV Guide named it the best dramatic series of all time in 2013. That same year, the Writers Guild of America ranked it 15th among its list of 101 Best Written TV Series.

Post’s theme song was one of several TV themes of his that became pop hits.

Mike Post before television 

Mike Post is a five-time Grammy winner and five-time Emmy nominee, winning the Emmy in 1996 for the theme to Murder One. 

A native of Berkeley, California, he took up the piano at six and played clubs at fifteen. (Fun fact: he went to high school with future Monkee Mickey Dolenz and Tom Selleck.) Later, he was part of the well-known studio group known as the Wrecking Crew, as well as Kenny Rogers’ old band, the First Edition.

As a producer, he won his first Grammy in 1969, at age 23, for The Mason Williams Phonograph Album, which had the hit instrumental song “Classical Gas.” 

Early success in TV

At 24, he became musical director for The Andy Williams Show, the youngest person to hold that title in television history.

In 1968, Post met musician and arranger Pete Carpenter. The two would share a long career scoring for television, including 

• The Rockford Files, 

• CHiPS, 

• Magnum PI, 

• The A-Team and 

• Hunter. 

The theme to Rockford became a top ten hit single. It led to Post’s second Grammy.

The HSB theme, with Larry Carlton

In 1981, when Post discussed the HSB theme with Bochco, they chose to forego a hard, gritty sound in favor of something more emotional. Post put it together in a half-hour. They discuss it in this video.

Larry Carlton plays guitar on the song. A session musician turned solo artist in pop and jazz, he has won four Grammys and has worked with, among many others, Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. Carlton also played on the Rockford theme.

The HSB theme, on the Elektra label, reached number four on the Adult Contemporary chart and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1982 it won Grammys for Instrumental Composition and Pop Instrumental Performance (shared with Carlton).

Post’s later career

Also in 1981, Post had a big hit with the theme to the sci-fi comedy series The Greatest American Hero, with vocals by Joey Scarbury. The next year, his theme to Magnum PI also hit the Top 40.

Post went on to compose for other shows, including

• LA Law (which earned him his fifth Grammy), 

• Quantum Leap,

• Doogie Howser MD, 

• NYPD Blue, and 

• the Law and Order franchise. 

Earlier this year he released a bluegrass and blues record.

@byrichwatson

PLUS: This is the website for the Pete Carpenter Fellowship, the residency Post co-founded with BMI as a tribute to his collaborator, who died in 1987. It was created for aspiring film, TV and video game composers.

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