"Miami Vice Theme" | ||||
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Japanese release cover
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Single by Jan Hammer | ||||
from the album Miami Vice soundtrack | ||||
Released | August 1985 | |||
Recorded | 1984 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:26 | |||
Label | MCA | |||
Producer(s) | Jan Hammer | |||
Jan Hammer singles chronology | ||||
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"Miami Vice Theme" is a musical piece created and performed by Jan Hammer as the theme to the television series Miami Vice. It was first presented as part of the television broadcast of the show in September 1984 and released as a single in 1985, peaking at the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the last instrumental to top the Hot 100 until 2013, when "Harlem Shake" by Baauer reached number one. It also peaked at number five in the UK and number four in Canada. In 1986, it won Grammy Awards for "Best Instrumental Composition" and "Best Pop Instrumental Performance." This song, along with Glenn Frey's number-two hit "You Belong to the City", put the Miami Vice soundtrack on the top of the US album chart for 11 weeks in 1985, making it the most successful TV soundtrack of all time until 2006 when Disney Channel's High School Musical beat its record.
According to Jan Hammer's manager Elliot Sears, the missing guitar lead hook was the result of the sound elements not being mixed together as Hammer intended.
The music video of the theme is a mini-episode of the TV series with Hammer as a fugitive on the run from James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Throughout the majority of the video, Hammer performs the theme in front of a projector screen playing footage from the TV series – including scenes of the Vice duo chasing him. In the end of the video, he boards a helicopter and escapes from Crockett's sight. The video also shows shots of Fairlight CMI screens including the page R (sequencer) page and the waveform page.
Alexi Laiho and Alexander Kuoppala of Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom did a short cover version of the theme on their 1997 album Something Wild. The cover is a hidden track within their song "Touch Like Angel of Death".