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“World News Now” 2001 – 2004 Theme

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2001 19:30:19 +0000

As an overnight newscast, the tone of World News Now can be more relaxed, casual and lighthearted. This theme, composed by JOEDtracks, reflects that. It was actually not originally composed for ABC’s overnight newscast. It was composed in the early 90′s by Joe DeSanctis of JOEDTracks and was called: Blueness. To make it fit as a news theme, they went back to the studio and added some elements, such as a big drum sound at the end and an orchestral sting. Once ABC liked the theme, JOEDTracks composed additional music for the show.

JOEDtracks - World News Now theme

“World News Polka”

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 1993 19:27:52 +0000

Polka music to end a newscast. Weird. What’s the story behind it? Since the beginning World News Now plays random pieces of music leading into the weather. One day they played some polka music and anchor Lisa McRee commented on it, saying that she hated it. Offended viewers wrote in their many complaints. As compensation, World News Now asked Barry Mitchell to come on the show and perform a polka. He said he was not only willing to play a polka, but also compose one just for World News Now. The World News Polka was born and you could say that it was an overnight hit! The Polka still airs every last show before the weekend, while the full credits are shown. Over the years there have been many versions of the World News Polka – including one sung by an Elvis-impersonator – below you will find a couple of the most famous versions.

Barry Mitchell - World News Polka (1995)

Barry Mitchell - World News Polka (2000)

After some changes at ABC News, like the departure of Ted Koppel, some lyrics had to be changed. Here’s a more recent version of the polka.

Barry Mitchell - World News Polka (2008)

“World News Now” 1992 – 2001 Theme

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 1992 19:25:22 +0000

In 1992 Aaron Brown and Lisa McRee anchored a relatively new type of newscast. It was titled ABC World News Now, designed to give the network news division an overnight presence to compete with the Cable News Network (CNN). In four blocks of 30-minute newscasts (since reduced to three) viewers are given all the day’s news with the inevitable irreverence, wit and sarcasm. It features some reports that did not make World News with Diane Sawyer, shortened Nightline and 20/20 reports, Business News from the BBC and an overview of tomorrow’s papers. The theme music is composed by new-age artist Yanni. The choice for Yanni was not as surprising at it may seem. At the time another new-age artist, John Tesh – who was once part of Yanni’s band but most famous for his stint as anchor of Entertainment Tonight – composed theme music for a lot of NBC Sports programs such as NFL Live and NBA on NBC.

Yanni - World News Now theme