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Scenario Seen From Outer Space: “Theme From ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It Or Not)” by Joey Scarbury

By Marcello Carlin


In Britain we adored “O Superman” but in the United States (and not even Laurie Anderson’s conception of them) people went for the theme from a comedy TV series about somebody thinking they’re Superman. The show never played in the UK and so I’ve never seen it, but this dismal précis of Reaganite can-doism doesn’t exactly inspire me to go check it out on YouTube, and I suspect didn’t suit the show that well. Mike Post wrote the music and Stephen Geyer the lyric. You’ve heard it even if you’ve never heard it. The trend for rather sentimental theme tunes to sitcoms would continue well into the nineties. The nascent Nuremberg pop that this record predicates has still not absented itself from the atrophying stage of contemporary music. It stayed on the chart for two years.

Date Record Made Number Two: 15 August 1981
Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 2
Record At Number One: “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
UK Chart Position: None

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