gdoc - Posted - 02/28/2012:  20:50:25

I just got an email from a friend who sent a short clip of Earl and Lester playing during that show.  Got me courious to see the show again, so I looked it up on Youtube.  It's there, I think all eposides.

So! Here's the question, and don't cheat and go look it up on youtube.  The first theme song wasn't the one I remembered, "come and listen to a story about a man named Jed....".  What  was it?  If you look it up on Youtube, what the point of answering.

Also, I was surprised at how much banjo background music there was that I didn't remember.

Life was so much simpler when I was 12.  Except for that cute girl on the next block over....

WildJimbo - Posted - 02/28/2012:  21:43:43

Banjo Signal was not the original theme.

That was used on the DVD set that was released due to copyright issues.

As for the banjo music during the show, Don Parmley did a great deal of that.

Edited by - WildJimbo on 02/28/2012 21:45:00

gdoc - Posted - 02/28/2012:  22:00:28

WildJimbo,

I had heard that too about Don Parmley, but it never see any creidts about who played.

And by the Youtube version I saw, yes it was Banjo Signal,  however I don't know about the DVD sets or what ever.

If Banjo Signal was not the original theme, what was?

When did the theme we all "remember" come to be?

Oh, the plot thickens....

dmiller - Posted - 02/28/2012:  23:01:23

We watched Beverly Hillbillies (as a family) all the time when I was a kid.

The only theme song I can remember is "Come and listen to a story - - -" etc.

kmwaters - Posted - 02/29/2012:  06:01:19

Wiki has nothing on a theme song other than the Ballad as we know it.  But here is some interesting stuff from Wiki:

The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", was written by producer and writer Paul Henning and originally performed by bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. The song was sung by Jerry Scoggins (backed by Flatt and Scruggs) over the opening and end credits of each episode. Flatt and Scruggs subsequently cut their own version of the theme (with Flatt singing) for Columbia Records; released as a single, it reached #44 on Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart and #1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart (the lone country chart-topper for the duo). Flatt and Scruggs also had another Billboard country top ten hit with the comic "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl", an ode to the feminine charms of Miss Pearl Bodine who was featured in the episode "Jed Throws a Wingding," the first of several Flatt and Scruggs appearances on the show.

WildJimbo - Posted - 02/29/2012:  12:13:09

quote:

---

Originally posted by kmwaters

The song was sung by Jerry Scoggins (backed by Flatt and Scruggs) over the opening and end credits of each episode.

---

There's the answer...

Gymbal31 - Posted - 02/29/2012:  12:45:22

quote:

---

Originally posted by kmwaters

Wiki has nothing on a theme song other than the Ballad as we know it.  But here is some interesting stuff from Wiki:

 

---

Ah, Kenneth, you should have read further into the article.  Also from the Wiki entry:

Copyright issues and availability

There are 55 episodes of the series that are in the public domain, (all 36 season one episodes and 19 season two episodes), because Orion Television, successor to Filmways, neglected to renew their copyrights. As a result, these episodes have been unofficially released on home video and DVD on many low-budget labels and shown on low-power television stations and low-budget networks in 16 mm prints. In many video prints of the public domain episodes, the original and much-loved theme music has been replaced by generic music due to copyright issues.

So there's the real answer! Just like WildJimbo said!

Edited by - Gymbal31 on 02/29/2012 12:46:46

Martian - Posted - 02/29/2012:  13:06:26

I have heard Don Parmaley say a few times that he did all the series music, and that Earl got all the credit, but he made all the money

WildJimbo - Posted - 02/29/2012:  13:08:45

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gymbal31

...the original and much-loved theme music has been replaced by generic music due to copyright issues.

 

---

Generic!!  Pffft!

mudslinger - Posted - 02/29/2012:  13:25:54

On one Cumberland Highlanders Show,Haskell McCormick said he played

some of the T.V.series music! Is that true ?

I love his playing!

Clark - Posted - 02/29/2012:  21:56:00

they did commercials with the theme with Scoggins singing over the F&S trac
youtube.com/watch?v=v8bpg4C9VDw

The Old Timer - Posted - 03/01/2012:  08:28:48

Well, I don't know if this is the answer you're looking for, but I DISTINCTLY remember in the early fall of 1962 when CBS was running "preview" commercials for the Hillbillies (showing the opening where Jed shoots his gun and hits the oil in the ground) the music behind the commercial was F&S Foggy Mt. Banjo cut of "Sally Ann". I wasn't playing the banjo then, but I knew that LP and that song! I about fell out of my chair! Saw that commercial several times. I had high hopes for the music when the show came on and was a bit disappointed with the sung version we all remember. Not enough banjo picking! And at such an odd meter/beat...



I do remember some of the background music in the early episodes being "Home Sweet Home" played in D tuning with Scruggs tuners, I thought for years it was Earl, only to find out later (much later) that Don Parmley played most of that early background music on banjo.



So I don't know if I've answered the original question or not, but that's what I remember, from the original broadcasts.



By the way, the end of the first line of "Ballad of Jed Clampett" has some of the most mysterious picking and band back up chord structure of any banjo song I can think of. I've NEVER heard ANYONE play it to duplicate Earl and Lester and the FMB. There's some magic in that A minor position roll and back up!

BTW, that YouTube "first episode" has Banjo Signal dubbed in for YouTube for some reason, that was not at all what was played in the first broadcast, it was "The Ballad of..." by Scoggins, Flatt & Scruggs.

Edited by - The Old Timer on 03/01/2012 08:31:43

gdoc - Posted - 03/17/2012:  04:25:37

Up until a few weeks ago I'd never heard of this Don Parmaley.  I don't know if that means he was an unexposed player, or just someow I never (knowingly) heard him play.  Of course there are lots of players I never heard of who are household names in the Banjo comminity.  But you'd think that since he did so much of the Beverly Hillbillies music, I would have been more exposed to his playing elsewhere too.  Maybe I was and just didn't know it.

The Old Timer - Posted - 03/17/2012:  07:49:25

gdoc, Don Parmley was sort of a West Coast secret through the early 60s but became more well known when Chris Hillmen et. al (including Don) put out the very popular Hillmen LP. In the early 70s Don formed up the Bluegrass Cardinals and within a couple of years they moved east and put out a great series of LPs. They became EXTREMELY popular on the bluegrass festival circuit. It was about this time I became aware that Don had played all that background banjo pickin' on the Hillbillies. I always wondered if he also played the electric guitar background music in the later years.



The Cards ran their course, Don is retired now I think, and his son David Parmley leads a bluegrass band called Continental Divide.



For a while Don was better known as the "banjo pickin' Trailways bus driver" (which he was, on the west coast) than as an early and influential California bluegrass band member/singer and background picker on the Hillbillies.

Once I found out about Don's work on the Hillbillies, it always irritated me he was never mentioned in the credits, only the music "director" got a credit.

Edited by - The Old Timer on 03/17/2012 07:50:18

torpedo - Posted - 03/17/2012:  11:15:44

Banjo Signal

gdoc - Posted - 03/17/2012:  12:12:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Old Timer

gdoc, Don Parmley was sort of a West Coast secret through the early 60s but became more well known when Chris Hillmen et. al (including Don) put out the very popular Hillmen LP. In the early 70s Don formed up the Bluegrass Cardinals and within a couple of years they moved east and put out a great series of LPs. They became EXTREMELY popular on the bluegrass festival circuit. It was about this time I became aware that Don had played all that background banjo pickin' on the Hillbillies. I always wondered if he also played the electric guitar background music in the later years.



The Cards ran their course, Don is retired now I think, and his son David Parmley leads a bluegrass band called Continental Divide.



For a while Don was better known as the "banjo pickin' Trailways bus driver" (which he was, on the west coast) than as an early and influential California bluegrass band member/singer and background picker on the Hillbillies.

Once I found out about Don's work on the Hillbillies, it always irritated me he was never mentioned in the credits, only the music "director" got a credit.

---

 Thanks for all that info. Old Timer,

You know I remember the Bluegrass Cardinals veyr well from my early years of being exposed to Bluegrass, but never knew the players names, only the band name.  Shame on me.  And unfortunately, there are a lot more players I know by band name only.  Well, I was young and there was a lot to learn.  Now, I'm older and am taking the  time to learn what I should have known a long time ago.

Banjo - Posted - 04/10/2012:  12:02:36

The Old Timer - Posted - 04/10/2012:  19:50:29

It just hit me in the last week for some reason, but the Ballad of Jed Clampett is very near the same structure as Fisher Hendley's "Hopalong Peter", especially in the last two lines.

Jim Yates - Posted - 04/10/2012:  20:05:03

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Old Timer

It just hit me in the last week for some reason, but the Ballad of Jed Clampett is very near the same structure as Fisher Hendley's "Hopalong Peter", especially in the last two lines.

---

I learned Hopalong Peter from a New Lost City Ramblers album in the mid-sixties and have taught it to groups of kids ever since.  I had never noticed the similarities between the two songs, but you're right.  Except for the chorus of Hopalong Peter, they're very similar.

southerndrifter - Posted - 04/11/2012:  05:11:43

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Old Timer



 I always wondered if he also played the electric guitar background music in the later years.

---

 Yes he did.

mikehalloran - Posted - 04/12/2012:  21:56:47

quote:

---

Originally posted by Martian

I have heard Don Parmaley say a few times that he did all the series music, and that Earl got all the credit, but he made all the money

---

That's sort of correct but...

For years, the rumor was that Howard Roberts played the theme, not Earl. In a Guitar Player interview, he set the record straight. F&S played The Ballad... but at the end, there was a little single string tag segueing into the opening scene. Earl was having difficulty playing those measures as simply as the producer wanted, so Roberts played those 3 1/2 measures on Earl's banjo with a flat pick.

rdawsoniii - Posted - 04/13/2012:  05:33:12

If you want to see some funny Beverly Hillbillies videos on you tube, check out the Winston cigarette commercials they did.

stringbreaker - Posted - 04/13/2012:  09:01:24

quote:

---

Originally posted by Martian

I have heard Don Parmaley say a few times that he did all the series music, and that Earl got all the credit, but he made all the money

---

true story

Edited by - stringbreaker on 04/13/2012 09:01:42

wuzapicker - Posted - 04/13/2012:  09:57:10

I was a kid in primary school when the show aired prime time on CBS. It must have been '62 or '63 several years before I started learning banjo. Ironically, the town we lived in was just down the road from Beverly, WVa. It was kind of a standing joke at school.

I remember being fascinated by the sound of the banjo in the theme song, but I didn't know who Flatt and Scruggs were at the time. My folks thought quite poorly of the show, so I didn't watch it much until it was in syndication years later. The show always reminded me of the silly Ma and Pa Kettle films from the early '50's. My Grandfather didn't like those either. He enjoyed traditional music, but he didn't like the stereotype of the backward hillbilly.

tomrice - Posted - 04/13/2012:  10:14:37

Hey Michael,



Same story in my family. My dad was from very near Beverly, WVa, and that show was forbidden to come on in the house. I had to sneak around to hear Earl play the theme - which blew me away.

 

Does anyone know how Earl was gettin' the Winston Tastes Good lick in that tune?  Was it a slide up to the fifth fret on the 2nd string hittin' the first string at the fifth fret simultaneously, etc??

Edited by - tomrice on 04/13/2012 10:18:28

RioStat - Posted - 04/13/2012:  11:18:25

So WHAT WAS the original song for the series? If not "Ballad of Jed Clampett" ???

wuzapicker - Posted - 04/13/2012:  12:17:11

quote:

---

Originally posted by tomrice

Hey Michael,



Same story in my family. My dad was from very near Beverly, WVa, and that show was forbidden to come on in the house. I had to sneak around to hear Earl play the theme - which blew me away.

  

---

You do know with that background we just may be related.  My family were in the southern Tygart Valley as early as 1754.  My ancestor built a Fort against Indians at what became Beverly WVa. That Fort was the hub around which the town grew up.  I'm glad my Dad moved us out in 1970.  I surely couldn't have married any of the pretty girls in that region.

SWCooper - Posted - 04/13/2012:  13:31:20

My mother hated the Beverly Hillbillies and, later, Hee Haw. She thought Hollywood's notion of country people beclowned everyone involved (at the same time, she understood the musicians craved the work and the exposure).

Unlike, say, the Opry, which was a genuine phenomenon. Until, of course, Old Nashville worked out there was money in it, had the Ryman condemned and moved the whole deal out to an absurd amusement park in the suburbs.

tomrice - Posted - 04/13/2012:  15:37:40

Tygart valley in 1754, I can't even imagine how remote! My people were 6 mi. N. of Elkins - near Kerens/Montrose, but weren't there till the 1850's. Prior to that over the Mts. E. in the Shenandoah. I'm related to everybody in Randolph Co. though. Did you go to Elkins High?

Yeah, we weren't livin' in WVa. when The Ballad of Jed..... came on TV, But I guess the old man had heard enough WVa. jokes by that point to try and do what he could to stomp out anything in association with the hillybilly image.

Sarah, couldn't agree more with the "absurb amusement park" statement.

The Old Timer - Posted - 04/13/2012:  18:49:20

The original theme song as broadcast in the opening of the show, was indeed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", as all know it and love it.

The Original Poster was referring to a YouTube video of the Hillbillies he saw that had "Banjo Signal" dubbed over it, sometime in recent decades, not from back when the show was actually broadcast.

The background music played on CBS television for the promo advertisements for the show in late summer 1962, BEFORE the show was actually broadcast, was "Sally Ann" from the Foggy Mountain Banjo album. But that doesn't make it "theme" music.

The Old Timer - Posted - 04/13/2012:  18:50:55

Do you W. Virginia denizens know the old fiddle tune "No Corn on Tygart"?

wuzapicker - Posted - 04/13/2012:  18:53:51

Howdy cousin!



Actually I went to school in Belington in Barbour County about eight miles west of Elkins, just over the ridge south from Kerens. We lived in the Talbott Community quite near the Randolph County line with my Grandfather who had a farm there.



In 1753 Virginia Colony Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie (I lie not) was worried about French incursions into the western regions of Virginia's claim. He invited Dutch colonists from New York and others with the incentive of free 400 acre land tracts in the western Allegheny region. The purpose was to displace Indians and buffer the French. Then was the French and Indian War. My ancestors came in their dozens arriving in 1754. I left in 1970.



While I was fascinated with the banjo in "Ballad of Jed Clampet" on TV, my first vision of a real professional Bluegrass band was in 1964 at the Forrest Festival in Elkins WVa when The Stanley Brothers performed. I was a very impressionable 9 year old, who had never seen three finger banjo picking before. I was awestruck. For some time in my ignorance, I thought every time I heard anybody play banjo like that it was Ralph Stanley. I was 14 when I got my first 5-string. By that time my horizons had expanded somewhat and I had a couple of Flatt & Scruggs LPs. But alas, by then they had already parted ways.

 

Edited by - wuzapicker on 04/13/2012 18:54:34

wuzapicker - Posted - 04/13/2012:  19:00:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Old Timer

Do you W. Virginia denizens know the old fiddle tune "No Corn on Tygart"?

---

No, but if you hum a few bars...

Actually two of my Mother's Uncles played Old Time fiddle and guitar at family gatherings.  My paternal Grandfather played banjo in an old time two finger style.  But I never saw him make music with my Mother's people   I got some directions from Grandfather and started with two finger Old Time.  But once sombody showed me Scruggs rolls and a few licks, I went for the firecrackers.

Edited by - wuzapicker on 04/13/2012 19:02:13

tomrice - Posted - 04/14/2012:  06:00:11

No Corn on the Tygart, that'd be a must learn. Old timer, don't make us wait, put it on there for us!

My family spread to and came from Barbour as well (Wilmouths, Vanscoys, Schonovers, etc.). Great great grandfather Wilmoth was murdered (hung on his own place, then run through several times with a pitchfork) in Belington in 1875 supposedly over a Civil War dispute (could'ave been over someone elses wife as far as I know), I have a colt pistol of his he carried at Ceder Mountain. The Rice family farm is just over Laurel Mtn. from Belington.

That 1700's stuff is interesting from that region, I had always heard that the French and Indian war reached down into that area. The oldest graves I've seen (Israel Church) are of War of 1812 Vets (Some of Andrew Jacksons backwoods boys) that got tracts of land in lieu of pay, which is how my bunch was able get there. There's a great deal of interesting history from there.

Elkins, I guess you know, has become a hotbed of bluegrass, oldtime, dancing and all the fringe stuff thanks to Augusta at D&E.

I don't know how to Bring this all back round to the Ballad of Jed......, or the Beverly Hillbillies, 'ceptin to say that all the above is related to Beverly WVA in Randolph Co. Hope that's good enough to keep us from gettin' booted.

tomrice - Posted - 04/14/2012:  06:47:27

Hey Old Timer,



Do you know what I'm talking about in the Ballad of Jed, the Winston Tastes Good lick? At the end on the show, and it may have been after it was on a couple of years, when they were wavin' to everybody following the finial verse, they stuck in a verse for the sponser - Winston Cigarettes. There was a lick Earl played that followed the Words: Winston tastes good lke a (two beats) Cigaretter should?

And I'd like to play a couple of your banjos sometime!

Edited by - tomrice on 04/14/2012 06:50:19