For the first time on KZread in widescreen and SHQ Stereo Audio is the main theme for the tv series "The Adventures of Black Beauty"
The theme tune, "Galloping Home", was written by Denis King and performed by the London String Chorale. In 1973 it won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Theme Tune. It was also released as a single and peaked at number 31 in the UK charts in the week of 2 February 1974.
It was later used at the climax of the first series of Absolutely Fabulous, with Edina Monsoon dreaming of running through a field as Black Beauty does in the series' title sequence. The theme tune was also featured in the series Brainiac: Science Abuse. It actually has lyrics by Dick Vosburgh as revealed by Denis King at a memorial concert for Vosburgh in July 2007.
Denis Andrew King (born 25 July 1939) is an English composer and singer. He is best remembered as a member of a family ensemble, The King Brothers.
King was born in Hornchurch, Essex, England. He began his musical career at the age of six as a banjolele-playing singer at children's matinees and, by the age of thirteen, with his two older brothers, Mike and Tony, was a member of one of the most successful pop groups of the 1950s and 1960s, The King Brothers - considered to be Britain’s first boy band. Denis played the piano, Mike the guitar, and Tony the double bass.
By the time King was thirteen, The King Brothers were touring around the U.K. in what was known as twice-nightly variety (the equivalent of America's vaudeville), performing two shows a night in one town before moving on to the next the following week. For two years King attended a different school in a different town almost every week. Along with concerts and tours around Europe, The King Brothers did summer shows, and television appearances, played the Windmill Theatre and, in 1956, became the youngest variety act to play the London Palladium. Within a year they were in the UK Singles Chart. "A White Sport Coat" and "Standing On The Corner" were their biggest successes. They appeared with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Frankie Vaughan, Roy Castle, Shirley Bassey, Alma Cogan, Ronnie Corbett, Bruce Forsyth, Morecambe and Wise, as well as American stars Bobby Darin, Howard Keel, Sammy Davis Jr, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Sophie Tucker and Frank Sinatra.
With the disbanding of the group in 1970, Denis studied orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music in London and got his first break in television writing the music for The Adventures of Black Beauty ("Galloping Home"), which won an Ivor Novello Award. To date, he has created themes and incidental music for over two hundred television series including Within These Walls, If It Moves File It, Dick Turpin, Two's Company, Lovejoy, We'll Meet Again and Hannay, as well as written over one hundred jingles for radio and television advertising. He has also worked on films, writing the scores to Simon, Simon (1970), Not Tonight, Darling (1971), Holiday on the Buses (1973), Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1973), Sweeney! (1977), If You Go Down in the Woods Today (1981) and Privates on Parade (1982).
As a musician he has performed with Dame Edna Everage, Albert Finney, Benny Green, with Maureen Lipman (in her successful stage show Re: Joyce), and with Dick Vosburgh in the comic revues Beauty and the Beards and Sing Something Silly, as well as on the BBC Radio comedy series Hello, Cheeky! from 1973 to 1979; he appeared in the TV version of the latter, produced by Yorkshire Television in 1976.
A much-loved tv theme, Galloping Home takes me back in time like it was just yesterday.
Hope you'll enjoy the clips I've put together for the tune from the actual tv program.
Love & Peace.