23 November 1968
Ah-oo-ah-oo-aah! Wah wah waah! Yes, it’s the most iconic Western movie theme of all, at number one in Ireland and the UK – but as a cover version. Okay, maybe my rendition of Ennio Morricone’s classic lacks a certain something. This one by US bandleader Hugo Montenegro—an American James Last, if you will—goes the other way, adding a limber drumbeat, strings, brass, a soupçon of space-age analogue synths and, because the original wasn’t dramatic enough, a climactic key change. Where my and Ennio’s versions have a certain evocative sparseness, Montenegro softens this into radio-friendly loungewear.
Really, though, what’s this doing at the top of the hit parade? Yes, it’s a cracking tune, the movie and its two earlier companion pieces were a box-office smash, and Clint’s cowboy persona was now a long-life pop-cultural meme; 13 years later Adam Ant will dress up as him in the video for ‘Prince Charming’. Movie tie-in merch aside, instrumental pop records by bands like The Shadows were a familiar commodity in the early ’60s charts, though perhaps less so by 1968. And in a local context you can imagine showbands playing this to the crowded halls of provincial Ireland for some rare and painless topicality. For all that, notwithstanding Morricone’s cred and respectability, in the hands of a schmaltzmeister like Montenegro—whose own career as a composer features the theme from ‘I Dream Of Jeannie’—that distinctive vocal hook tips over into funny-voices gimmickry, so I’m calling this a novelty record.
