On the air for 18 years and counting, the NFL on Fox theme
song is one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable pieces of music not just on
television, but in all of American culture. The iconic song, however, was born
with little fanfare in a humble New York recording studio, written and produced
by Scott Schreer, who had no idea the song would enjoy such otherworldly
success.
"A billion people
hearing it at the same time during a Super Bowl? That’s unfathomable," Schreer said
as I sat down with him recently in his Manhattan conference room. "That’s some
alien sh*t."
The song is synonymous with Peyton Manning and Brett Favre,
Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith – all the way back to Steve Young. It has played
behind the voices of John Madden, Pat Summerall, Dick Stockton, Joe Buck. It
has buzzed from your television as you drift off to a Sunday afternoon nap; it
has played in the background of your Thanksgiving supper.
"I feel like the Forest Gump of what I’ve done," Schreer says. "You have to be dead not to be moved by that."
By the time he wrote the NFL on FOX song, Schreer had
already launched a successful career in TV music. He got his first big break in
the 70s when, almost as an afterthought, he wrote the music that inspired the “Have
a Coke and a Smile” ad campaign. He later started his own TV jingles company,
NJJ Music, which expanded beyond jingles and ended up producing most of the
music for ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
Schreer played among some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time on the Cosby Show, and had long been accustomed
to hearing his music on TV, but he had no idea what was in store for him with
the NFL on FOX music.
The Early Years At FOX
In 1993, Rupert Murdoch’s FOX network got serious about
putting itself on par with NBC, CBS and ABC. FOX scored a major coup by signing
a deal to televise NFL games, and at the same time luring top on-air football
talent away from CBS -- including Madden and Summerall.
"It felt as if they had a blank check to get the best of
anything and everything they could," Schreer said of the early years at FOX. "Whether it was equipment, directors, producers, music, whatever, they were
just hiring the best. It felt when you were there like you were amongst special
people."
On one fateful Friday evening, Schreer received a phone call
from an old colleague of his from ABC, George Greenberg, who was launching FOX
Sports. Greenberg asked if Schreer would give him some music to pitch as the
new NFL on FOX theme music. Greenberg said he needed to bring it out to Los
Angeles by Sunday.
Schreer got to work quickly with his musical partners, Reed
Hays and Phil Garrod, and sent Greenburg on his way to California with three songs
to try out. As it turned out, FOX liked all three of them.
The iconic song that you now recognize was actually written three
separate pieces of music, all in the same key and the same tempo.
"They liked the front of one of the piece and the body of
the other two," Schreer said. "They seamlessly put them together."
Listen and you can hear where the first break is, after the
first four measures – or eight seconds – of this recording:
The Making Of A Big Song
"The NFL on FOX theme set the bar as far as bigness," said
Schreer. "Up until that point the closest thing was Monday Night Football."
FOX liked the music so much, the network had Schreer, Hays
and Garrod produce new music for all of FOX’s sports broadcasts, including
hockey (remember the FOX hockey robots?), baseball, NASCAR and boxing. Schreer
reached deep into his bag of music-production tricks to unify the songs – he used
the same snare drum sample on each one, and believes that unique snare sound was
integral in branding the music.
"It was creating a
uniqueness that was a part of what everyone was reacting to," Schreer said, though
at the time he didn’t even reveal the snare secret to FOX. "If you listen to
that theme, the drum sound, even today, is amazing. They’re just fantastic
sounds that have stood the test of time. That’s always been my secret weapon in
that theme."
The NFL on FOX song hasn’t been altered since its creation,
but last year, in the fall of 2010, FOX started using the NFL theme for its
other sports as well, replacing the other unique songs that Schreer had written
years ago. Schreer was sad to see the other songs go – as were many baseball
fans. And while the iconic football anthem does sound out of place on a
baseball broadcast, there’s no doubt that the song screams "FOX."
Straightening Out The Music Royalty Business
With royalty payments coming his way every time the song is
played on television, Schreer could have retired off the song, but he’s
far too active for that. Schreer still writes and produces music, but he now
devotes his energies towards reforming the way television music royalties are
reported and distributed.
"It’s not an exact science – in fact it’s a terrible science," Schreer says. "It’s based on manual reporting and is riddled with
non-compliance issues."
Due to a crude manual reporting system, Schreer said that up
to 80 percent of television music royalties are misallocated. To combat this, Schreer
founded TuneSat, a company that helps musicians keep track royalties using digital
technologies that identify and track every piece of music that is played on
television.
As someone who has had so much good fortune in the music
industry, Schreer wanted to do something to improve the royalty system for
those who came after him.
"I made it my mission to devote the rest of my
life to make that better," he said.
Taking Over The World
For more than three decades, Schreer has gotten used to hearing
his music in commercials, television shows and sporting events. And even though it blows his
mind that the NFL on FOX song has reached billions of people, he’ll still
occasionally have small, personal moments when he feels the full effect of his
music out in the world.
A few years ago, Schreer and his wife were doing some
last-minute Christmas shopping on a snowy, blustery day in New York. They were descending
on an escalator just before closing time when Schreer heard a maintenance
worker whistling his NFL on FOX song while mopping the floor. It nearly brought
tears to his eyes, Schreer said.
We’ve all gotten a little weepy at times while hearing that
song – though for the rest of us it was because our team just lost. More often,
however, when we hear it we feel like we’re ready to take over
the world, just like the song did.
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