Miami Vice Theme

"Miami Vice Theme"
Song

The musical piece "Miami Vice Theme" was created and performed by Jan Hammer as the theme to the television series Miami Vice. It was first presented as part of the television broadcast of the show in September 1984 and released as a single in 1985, peaking at the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. It is the last instrumental to have topped the chart to date. It also peaked at number 5 in the UK, and number 4 in Canada. In 1986, it won Grammy Awards for "Best Instrumental Composition" and "Best Pop Instrumental Performance." This song, along with Glenn Frey's number-two hit "You Belong to the City", put the Miami Vice soundtrack on the top of the U.S. album chart for eleven weeks in 1985, making it the most successful TV soundtrack of all time until 2006 when Disney Channel's High School Musical beat its record.

Versions

• The version that aired with the pilot and the following three episodes, which only contains the percussion and keyboards, without the guitars. According to Jan Hammer's manager Elliot Sears, this was the result of the sound elements not being mixed together as Hammer intended.
• The synthesized-guitar lead version aired with all later episodes.
• The full radio airplay version, that includes the TV version at the end.
• An extended dance remix, released in 1985 as a 12" single containing two different length versions (in addition to the original version of the theme).

Appearances

Episodes

Miami Vice's pilot episode, made as a two-hour TV movie, did not originally have a theme, but the musical sounds and notation that would become the theme were present as background score. When the series got picked up, Hammer created the sixty second version of the theme. The synth-guitar lead was missing in the aired version of the pilot and the first batch of episodes, and this unfinished version of the theme has remained attached to those episodes, even on the DVD video box set released in 2005.

Commercial

The theme is also remembered as the song played during the first few three-point competitions at the NBA All-Star Weekend, including the one in 1986 where Larry Bird famously walked into the locker room and told all his competitors they were playing for second place.

Radio

From 1992 until 1997, it was used as the theme music for Westwood One's Radio Free D. C.: The G. Gordon Liddy Show. (From 1992 until 1996, an announcer would introduce the show during the music bed, saying, "From Washington D. C., Radio Free D.C., with G. Gordon Liddy".) Liddy had been a recurring guest on Miami Vice during its run.

English radio presenter Paul Breeze adopted the tune to open his music shows on Blackpool's Kit Kat Radio from 1996 to 1999 and, more recently, he re-adopted the tune for Paul & Lucy's "Best Kept Secrets" show - featuring what's on news and interviews for the Blackpool area - on internet radio station Fylde FM during early 2010.

In the Philippines, FM station DWFM or Radyo Singko 92.3 News FM use the music as the background music for its morning news program "Punto Asintado" which is presented by Erwin Tulfo and Martin Andanar.

Music video

The music video of the theme is a mini-episode of the TV series with Hammer as a fugitive on the run from James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Throughout majority of the video, Hammer performs the theme in front of a projector screen playing footage from the TV series - including scenes of the Vice duo chasing him. In the end of the video, he boards a helicopter and escapes from Crockett's sight. The video also shows shots of Fairlight CMI screens including the page R (sequencer) page and the waveform page.

Track listing

7": MCA / MCAP1000 (UK)

1. "Miami Vice Theme" (2:26)
2. "Miami Vice Theme [TV Version]" (1:00)
3. "Miami Vice Theme [12" Edit]" (4:30)

• 7" Picture Disc

12": MCA / MCAT1000 (UK)

1. "Miami Vice Theme [Extended Remix]" (6:54)
2. "Miami Vice Theme [TV Version]" (1:00)
3. "Miami Vice Theme [12" Edit]" (4:30)

• Remix and 12" edit done by Louil Silas Jr.

Charts

Chart (1985/87)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	10
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	16
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	23
UK Singles Chart	5
Canadian Singles Chart	4
German Singles Chart	5
Austrian Singles Chart	4
Swiss Singles Chart	8
Dutch Top 40	22
New Zealand Singles Chart	8