Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme (12" Extended Mix)

Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme (Extended Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Unlikely as it sounds - for the soundtrack to an American TV crime drama - this track has its roots in 1950s Prague.

Jan Hammer began playing piano in 1952, at the age of four. Not surprising, perhaps, given his mother was the "first lady of Czech jazz," Vlasta Pruchová, and his father was also a prominent jazz musician, as well as one of Prague’s leading doctors.

Hammer originally aspired to follow his father into medicine, but by the age of 14, had formed a jazz trio at school and had begun performing and recording music.

By the age of 20, Hammer had not only completed his studies at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts but had also composed the soundtrack for The Incredibly Sad Princess, a popular, and now revered 1968 Czech fairytale film.

In the same year, he left Czechoslovakia for the United States following the Warsaw Pact invasion, which crushed the Prague Spring, feeling that he needed to be in New York to be among those who might become his contemporaries.

He continued to study composition at the Berklee College of Music, built his own recording studio, and joined the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a pioneering jazz-rock fusion band led by John McLaughlin, the British jazz guitarist who played on Miles Davis’ biggest albums, among a distinguished career.

While touring with the band at the age of 25, Hammer became one of the first musicians to play Moog synthesizers on stage, enjoying the ability to bend notes and modify sounds on the fly, and deliver an new kind of live instrument performance.

Around the same time, Miles Davis invited Hammer to his New York loft to join a jam session and help work out the arrangement of some new tracks he was recording. "Obviously if Miles calls, you jump and run," he says.

Hammer became a U.S. citizen in 1978, and by 1984, when he was commissioned to compose the soundtrack for Miami Vice, he'd released 11 albums and soundtracks of his own while also working extensively with Jeff Beck.

Executive producer, Michael Mann, chose Hammer to compose the soundtrack because Miami Vice was to be a stylish, cutting-edge show that broke away from traditional cop show conventions. As a pioneer of synthesizer-driven fusion music, Hammer was as well-qualified as anyone to deliver on that brief.

The first Miami Vice soundtrack album was released in 1985 and included Miami Vice Theme, composed by Hammer, which reached number 4 in the UK and number 1 in the USA.

A further soundtrack album, Miami Vice II, featuring Crockett’s Theme, went on sale between Christmas and New Year in 1986.

A slightly remixed version of Crockett’s Theme was released as a single in the UK in September 1987, quickly climbing into the top 10, where it stayed for six weeks, peaking at number 2.

"I remember when I first wrote the melody," says Hammer. "I had a feeling that it would be widely accepted. It had a certain universal feel to it, and I knew that it could be a big hit if it was given a chance."

The extended 12" version, featured here - mixed by Hammer and François Kevorkian - is surely the lushest iteration of this track, the rich textures and analogue synths made to sound even warmer by the vinyl.

For a composer who built an illustrious career away from the charts and public eye, Hammer's two top-five hits from the Miami Vice soundtrack proved to be a highly successful deviation from his regular work.

"I was suddenly transported into the rarefied orbit of the pop world," he says. "Every so often, I have to remind myself that it’s true. It really happened—it was that amazing!"

Year: 1987

Label: MCA Records Cat no: MCAT 1193