The theme song of the show has become a popular standard. The lyrics were written by Academy Award winner Paul Francis Webster, while the music was composed by Bob Harris. The song's opening line, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can," became almost as synonymous with the character as his costume. The original song was recorded at RCA Studios in Toronto (where the cartoon was also produced) featuring twelve CBC vocalists (members of the Billy Van Singers, and Laurie Bower Singers groups) who added to the musical backing track supplied by RCA Studios, New York. The singers were paid only for the session and have had no residuals from its use since then.
The 2002 and 2004 film adaptations have featured characters as buskers performing the song; Jayce Bartok and Elyse Dinh respectively. Both films also feature some version of the song at the very end of the credits: the 2002 adaptation featured the original 1967 recording while the 2004's Spider-Man 2 has a re-recording by Michael Bublé (also featured on the film's soundtrack). 2007's Spider-Man 3 features a performance of the song by a marching band at a public rally celebrating Spider-Man. In 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter uses a version of the theme as his ring tone.
Meanwhile the incidental music from the series, with its jangling surf guitar, groovy brass lines and jazzy scoring, is highly regarded by fans and much sought after by soundtrack collectors.[citation needed] The first season featured an original score written by Ray Ellis,[citation needed] who also adapted the Bob Harris theme, in the same way John Barry utilized Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" in various 007 films, or Nelson Riddle utilized Neal Hefti's "Batman Theme" in addition to new material. The second and third seasons reused the Ellis score while adding a substantial amount of new music taken from KPM Musichouse tracks[citation needed] ("production music") featuring such English composers as Johnny Hawksworth, Syd Dale, David Lindup, Johnny Pearson, Alan Hawkshaw, Kenny Graham and the team of Bill Martin & Phil Coulter. Other music came from the Capitol Library by U.S. composers Bill Loose, Emil Cadkin & Jack Cookerly. The Capitol tracks can also be heard on such earlier shows as The Untouchables, The Fugitive and 8th Man. Still other recordings came from the DeWolfe Library.
Spider-Man (theme song) "Spider-Man" is the theme song of the 1967 cartoon show Spider-Man, composed by Academy Award winner Paul Francis Webster and Robert "Bob" Harris. The song's opening lines, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can," have become as synonymous with the Marvel Comics character as his costume. The original song was recorded at RCA Studios in Toronto (where the cartoon was also produced) featuring 12 CBC vocalists (members of the Billy Van Singers, and Laurie Bower Singers groups) who added to the musical backing track supplied by RCA Studios, New York. The singers were paid only for the session and have had no residuals from its use since then.
Myths A long-standing rumor claimed that the bassline for the Spider-Man theme was performed by jazz musician Charles Mingus; however Ralph Bakshi confirmed the rumor as being erroneous, stating that Mingus did not perform on the theme song.[1]
Legacy The 2002 Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 film adaptations have featured characters as buskers performing the song; Jayce Bartok and Elyse Dinh respectively. Both films also feature the song at the very end of the credits: the 2002 film featured the 1967 version, while the 2004 film featured a re-recording by Michael Bublé (see below). 2007's Spider-Man 3 also featured the song's melody during the scene where Spider-Man arrives at a big celebration. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter has the theme song in his phone as a ringtone and whistles the tune while defeating Aleksei Sytsevich.