Another unreleased Lalo Schifrin track

In 1966 Lalo Schifrin scored the main title and perhaps some episodes of the TV series "T.H.E. Cat" starring Robert Loggia. The series was created by Harry Julian Fink, who five years later wrote "Dirty Harry", which Schifrin scored, too.

The main title is not to be confused with the theme "The Cat" which Schifrin wrote for the film "Les felins" in 1964. It's a real cool and jazzy theme like Elmer Bernstein's "Walk on the Wild Side". A recording of it is very hard to find, but there is one on Al Hirt's TV theme collection "The Horn Meets the Hornet", which is presented here in it's glorious entirety.

Trivia to know: trumpeter Al Hirt played of course in the version of the "Green Hornet" which you can here in "Kill Bill" while The Bride is driving on her motorcycle to the Japanese club where she will meet lovely Gogo Yubari.

http://rapidshare.com/files/615024/Hirt_Al___The_Horn_Meets_the_Hornet.rar

01 Green Hornet Theme
02 The Hornets Nest
03 Night Rumble
04 "Get Smart" Theme
05 Theme from "Run for Your Life"
06 Batman Theme
07 The King Kong Theme
08 (Theme from) The Monkees
09 Tarzan (Tarzan's March)
10 T.H.E. Cat (Theme from) [LALO SCHIFRIN !!!]
11 Run Buddy Run

Arranged by Frank Hunter

(original LP liner notes by Arnold Shaw)
At a TV rehearsal not too long ago, I listened to big Al run over September Song. He was seated in a rocker and a spotlight threw a stark, angular shadow of the chair and the bearded man on the floor. In a baritone, somewhere between Walter Huston's western gravel and Jack Tea-garden's southern molasses, Al gave an attractive reading of the sad ballad. But no matter how he tried to cool it, something of his sheer joie de vivre came through and, though the rocker was turned so that little of the good-humored face was visible, an aura of insouciant vitality emanated from the shadow itself.
Excitement and vigor—these are the man. And these are the infectious qualities of the Horn. No wonder that when Al recorded the racing, buzzing, breathless theme of "The Green Hornet" TV show, it became a fast seller. And, though another Hirt album was ready for release, there was no denying fans the opportunity of hearing Al's virtuoso treatments of some popular TV themes.
Here, then, are head-bobbing, big-band renditions, with the Hirt horn in high-flying form. Although two of the selections, The Hornets Nest and Night Rumble, are not television themes, Al believed their excitement and drama merited including them in the album. Al's feeling for melody finds lyrical play in The Hornets Nest and (Theme from) The Monkees. The seductive wa-wa trumpet of Tarzan takes on a feline ferocity in T.H.E. Cat. Running, rhythmic countermelodies modulate into appealing sneak licks in Theme from "Run for Your Life." Al even has a few moments to display his penchant for comedy in the "Get Smart" Theme. In all, arranger Frank Hunter has provided charts that effectively combine big-band drive with the teen-age sound-and-beat of electric organ and guitars.
By this time there are many elements at play in the versatile Hirt horn. The lyricism of Al's recent ruminations with the Boston Pops is in striking contrast with the high-register, bop drama of these tunes. Each is in its place, since one is relaxed, armchair listening and the other, the theater of suspense and intrigue. A master musician, Al never permits his dazzling virtuosity to degenerate into meaningless pyrotechnics. Also, the bearded man has ineradicable roots in two-beat Dixie and country music, roots that helped make fabulous sellers of his albums HONEY IN THEHORN and COTTON CANDY, and that give all his horn peregrinations an inevitable, finger-snapping earthiness.