Anybody else watching the Olympics? I’ve been catching some, up to a couple hours a night. And I don’t usually watch TV. (I’m a movie guy.) But it’s been nice to follow some of the athletes and cocoon myself in nostalgia. And what could be more nostalgic than John Williams’ Olympic fanfares, two of which – “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” composed for the 1984 games in Los Angeles, and “Summon the Heroes,” composed for the 1996 Games in Atlanta – are now staples of Olympics’ broadcasts. You can hear them, in arrangements by other hands, used as bumpers, as coverage fades into and out of commercial breaks, and as underscore in segues between events. (In 2016, I wrote a post speculating on Williams’ royalties package!)
Here’s a related anecdote, also prompted in part by my reading of Tim Greiving’s new John Williams’ biography, published by Oxford University Press. During a pledge drive at a certain local radio station around the turn of this century (a station I worked at for several decades, only to be let go, along with all the other local hosts, as a result of the pandemic), I had piled up some inspiring tracks, hoping to get the phones ringing. One of those was Williams’ “Summon the Heroes,” still fairly new at the time. Sure enough, it set the volunteers to work, and one of them walked in with a pledge sheet bearing a comment from Vic Damone.
Damone, the Italian-American crooner who had a big hit in 1947 with “I Have but One Heart,” auditioned a young Johnny Williams in 1955 and immediately hired him (after a falling out with Burt Bacharach) as his accompanist, arranger, and conductor. Damone goes into more detail in Greiving’s book. At the time, he basically said he used to tour with Johnny, and that Johnny was his pianist.
We’re usually giddy during pledge drives anyway, but getting a call from Vic Damone talking about John Williams got us all stirred up. So we started spinning more Williams and Damone’s recording of “Kismet.” (He played Caliph in the film, in which he sings “Stranger in Paradise” with Ann Blyth.) Damone must have been tickled pink, because he kept calling back and pledging more money – and it went on long after my shift!
I can say that Vic Damone was a huge hero that drive. One of the other announcers took it upon himself to hang a plaque on this hole in the wall where we used to eat our lunches when not sneaking them into the studio. It read: VIC DAMONE HOSPITALITY LOUNGE.
How Damone came to be listening that day, I don’t know. Not too much later, he suffered a stroke and spent his final years in Florida. But during that particular drive, John Williams really did summon a hero – Vic Damone!
“Summon the Heroes”
“Stranger in Paradise”
Williams’ arrangement of “Make Me Rainbows,” lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
A new musical called “My Fair Lady” was receiving its test run in Philadelphia when the sheet music was handed off to Damone and Williams by Mitch Miller, then working A&R at Columbia, Damone’s record label. Damone was partial to “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” but Williams convinced him that “On the Street Where You Live” would be a much better fit. The problem was that the show’s producers were actually planning to cut the song. Once Miller and Percy Faith heard what Damone and Williams did with it, a recording session was hastily arranged. When Damone’s version became a major hit, it was decided to keep it in the show!
I venture to guess, this aspect of Williams’ career remains unknown to many of those who latched onto him through his blockbuster film scores. By the time he began to amass his shelf full of Oscars, he’d already been working as an arranger and jazz pianist and contributing to film and television productions for decades.
I have some reservations about Greiving’s biography (which could have used a more attentive editor), but it is valuable for having compiled so many previously uncollected details about the rise of “Johnny Williams.”
