The Pink Panther

"accessible jazz"

In 1964, a movie came out about a jewel theft. The jewel in question was a
diamond that had a flaw in it that resembled a leaping panther. The opening
credits featured an animated pink panther interacting with the names & titles.

Peter Sellers, who played the detective who investigated, stole the show, which led to an
array of sequels. The original film and four of the sequels have been packaged together.

Here is another of the sequels in VCR format.

Our definition of "accessible jazz" is "jazz liked by people who say they don't
like jazz." The theme music for the Pink Panther movies is a classic example.
Here's the original soundtrack album, with liner notes written by Peter Sellers.

Henry Mancini's tune is arguably one of the most recognizable movie themes in
existence. Here it appears in a jazz fakebook, but without the bridge included!
Notice that when arranging it, I added chord changes for the bridge at the top.

I've arranged this for many different combinations of instruments.
Here's an excerpt from the flute part of a trio version I've done.

Naturally, the movie franchise has also given rise to plenty of merchanding.
Here's a bulletin board and a stuffed toy in costume (which was a nice jester).

There were also over a hundred animated shorts made, with Mancini's theme as backing music. In one favorite, Pink learns to play violin, then sneaks into an orchestra concert and interrupts Beethoven's Fifth with his melody. After such interruptions on a couple of other instruments, he gets rid of the conductor and directs the entire orchestra playing you-know-what!

~ FURTHER READING ~

To illustrate the timelessness of Mancini's famous tune:
One day at Allegro Music Academy, a junior high trumpet player was working on learning this melody. He overheard
a girl in the neighboring room playing a song that was four years old at the time. He exclaimed, "Oh, I've heard
that! It's an old song!" Then he went back to playing something that was written over fifty years before!