[The latest installment in my not-quite-annual series of whatever-the-hell-I-want posts on this month and day.]

Like probably 90% of the (rational) US population, The Missus and I have recently spent most of our free time together watching television. Among our guilty pleasures: the complete run of the old Perry Mason series, with Raymond Burr in the title role. I may write more about this later, but for now I wanted to mention that the theme song — all those classic late-1950s dramatic, jazz-infused horns — heavily reminded me of some other show’s theme song… but I couldn’t remember which other show that was.

Well, as things happened, I didn’t have to wonder about that for long. While scrolling through Amazon Prime’s back catalog, I came across the entire run of the Peter Gunn show. That series lasted only three seasons, vs. Mason’s nine. But its noir-drenched look-and-feel stamped itself much more indelibly in my mind.

Anyhow, finally recalling the show with the Perry Mason-like theme song, I felt compelled to track its theme down, too. And that — plus a rewatch of the show’s first episode — reminded me of how much the sound of Peter Gunn, as well as its look, profoundly affected my mind. Accordingly, here’s the album of selected music from its first season… an album which, as it happens, won the very first Grammy for “album of the year.” (Having listened to both quite a bit lately, the Gunn theme song itself is — I think — a head or two taller than Perry Mason’s.)

(Aside: I see now that I actually posted about the Gunn theme before, regarding TV crime-series music in general. Some minds think alike, even when they’re really just the same mind in two different time frames!)

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