Mike Post's Theme from Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues

It is funny how I used to watch a lot of television when I was younger. How I found the time I cannot remember. One of those shows that I eagerly looked out for was Hill Street Blues. I still remember the promo plugs about how we should watch out for this cop show that was touted to be a really good one.

And I did catch that pilot episode that turned me into a fan for life. It was the first cop show that was real grim and gritty; very realistic where even the cops weren’t as clean cut as we have been led to be. I loved that its locale was in the East Coast or Midwest.

My favorite characters were Bobby and Renko (Michael Warren and Charles Haid respectively) as well as Detective Mick Belker (Bruce Weitz). And I had this crush on Veronica Hamel who played lawyer Joyce Davenport. Michael Conrad was outstanding as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus who made famous that line, “Let’s be careful out there.”

I am not sure if you know that Michael Warren was a starter on those UCLA champions teams with Lew Alcindor and Lucius Allen. Yeah, he was a bonafide jock who averaged in double figures in the college game. His son is married to Jessica Alba! How about that!

The show introduced me as well to producer Steven Bocho whose many others shows I came to love – LA Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., and NYPD Blue.

The theme song too was another aspect that I loved from the show. Written and performed by Mike Post with a lovely and mournful guitar solo by Larry Carlton, this was also an entry point for me when it came to modern jazz.

At that time, Television Theme Songs was released locally and it featured many of Mike Post’s compositions – Magnum PI, the Rockford Files, the Greatest American Hero, and Hill Street Blues among others.

I lost that record through the years and when I switched to compact discs in the 1990s, I looked for that particular album abroad without any success. I did find another compilation of Post’s TV themes but the version of Hill Street Blues was without Carlton’s guitar solo.

Last year, 2017, when I went back to vinyl, I was able to secure a copy of that same record that I had. And now, the single version with the cop car from the opening sequence of the intro for its jacket cover.

When I play the song today, it hits me as much as it first did all those years ago. And the cool thing is I have the DVDs of the first two seasons (my personal favorites) and now the record and the single.