Pratt & McClain-"Happy Days"

Thanks, Jim! That's great info.

Yes, I bought that "Nick At Nite" CD when I first bought a Pat book and learned of the full-length version existing on that sole CD. The other versions simply fade sooner, as far as I can tell. I think Rhino was one of the first ones to use that early fade, and I think that that source just spread around to the others.

If anyone is interested, Happy Days Online is the website where I found the 2:43 more echo stereo MP3 of the Pratt & McClain song, but you have to click around to find it. On the left blue menu, scroll down and look for a link to Theme Songs/MP3s/Wavs. This opens a new page called Sound Library. Scroll down the page to the section called Theme Songs/MP3 Files. The 2:43 stereo MP3 is the 5th on the list. They also post an instrumental version of the song.

Gordon, when Happy Days started its run on ABC in Jan. 1974, I clearly
remember the opening theme song being an alternate take of Bill Haley &
The Comets' "Rock Around The Clock". Most distinctly, I remember its
ending drum sequence was just a quick "sting", rather than the longer
drum flourish found on the hit version. In fact, its appearance on the show
caused the song's original version it to re-enter the Hot 100 just two
months later, in 3/74, where it peaked inside the BB Top 40.

When the producers decided to replace the Bill Haley song with a custom-
written opening theme in early 1976, and after I'd heard the Pratt &
McClain version on radio, I immediately thought different singers did the
"TV Version." Personally, I preferred the TV version's singers.

I remember hearing "Happy Days" on local radio only a week or two after I
started hearing John Sebastian's "Welcome Back Kotter". (I just checked my
RR books, and sure enough, "Happy Days" debuted just one week after
"Welcome Back Kotter" did.)

Most opening TV themes are designed to only run about one minute. So
when Reprise decided to issue "Kotter" as a single, they surely had to
bring Sebastian back into the studio, to both lengthen and re-record it, to
get it to the more radio-friendly (2:48) 45 length. No doubt the new
"Happy Days" theme was also very top-of-mind at this time, given its
early-1976 episodes premiere, and the fact that both shows were on ABC.
I'd also suspect that some of the same "movers and shakers" were
involved with production of both shows. So why not crank out a slick, full,
45-length take for the new "Happy Days" theme, and see if radio bites?

Gordon, your Ron Hicklin Singers info makes perfect sense to me. Guys
like Charles Fox seemed to be positively prolific, as to co-writing TV
themes in the 70s. Hicklin was likely his "staff group", to crank out catchy,
usable ditties. But, in much the same way as they were replaced by The
Cowsills for "Love, American Style", I suspect this was again the case here.
Although Pratt & McClain were still unknowns, the duo had released three
previous singles for ABC, they were clearly experienced in the studio, and
with trying to create hit singles for radio. As opposed to the "staff demo
singers" that Hicklin's group was, with all due respect to them. Reprise
also probably wanted a 45 out for it absolutely ASAP, before some other
group/label covered it. I'll bet Pratt & McClain could crank out a radio-
ready take in no time. That's always been my sense, Gordon, although
much of it is just an educated guess.

Edited by jimct

I'd love to know what percentage of the Gary Lewis vocals are actually Gary, and what are Ron Hicklin.