Gurney Slade

I was wandering around the house doing a few jobs the other month when a tune came on the radio that I'd not heard in years!

It took me right back to being a child in the 70's but I couldn't recall where I knew it from.

I listened to the end and discovered it was "Gurney Slade" by Max Harris.

Now this rang no bells with me whatsoever so I turned to Google to help me out. It transpires that the tune was the theme to "The Strange World of Gurney Slade" a six part TV series broadcast on ITV in 1960. 

Clearly my memories of the tune could not be from that (it predates me by 10 years), a few clicks later and I discovered that the tune had also been used in "Vision On", a series that I remember well and defines a particular era of my childhood, so mystery solved.

Anyway, it's a great piece of flute jazz music, I do love these "Jazz" theme tunes from the 60's (see also my post for Johhny Dankworth's "Tomorrows World" theme here)

There have been a few versions recorded over the years and I've started to buy the original 7" singles, this download includes a rip straight from the original Max Harris 7" as well as a 7" released by Steve Stannard in the same year. The original version is the smoothest and classiest but the Stannard version is faster and swings a bit more during the solo, leave you to decide which is the best. 

I'm still looking out for other versions and will post them as I find them....links in comments (24Bit 96KHz & 320K MP3)

Max Harris

Steve Stannard