CHiPs Vol. 2: Season Three, 1979-80

Volume 1 of the CHiPs soundtrack album (FSMCD Vol. 9, No. 10) featured music from the show’s second season (1978–1979), the first for composer Alan Silvestri. Volume 2 features Silvestri’s best themes from season three (1979–1980), the heyday for the television classic starring Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox. Years before Back to the Future, Forrest Gump and his dozens of other famous feature film scores, Silvestri was a young composer cutting his teeth with disco music for NBC’s hit series. Silvestri wrote a new melody for each weekly installment, making the scores translate well to a compilation due to the variety of themes. Notable entries on this volume two include Silvestri’s arrangement of John Parker’s “CHiPs” theme for season three’s main and end titles—although essentially the same as that of season two (presented on our earlier volume), these recordings were replaced by the aforementioned year two versions and have never been heard outside a few NBC promo spots. Sure to bring smiles to the faces of disco and CHiPs fans are the discovery of vocals for the first three produced episodes of season three: “High Octane,” “Counterfeit” and “Valley Go Home!” Silvestri wrote and recorded vocal versions of several score cues at the behest of executive producer Cy Chermak but the network nixed the idea. Nearly three decades later, the song versions make their premiere on FSM’s CD. Like Volume 1, FSM’s second CHiPs CD is entirely in stereo from the first-generation 1/2” master tapes and features liner notes by Lukas Kendall along with a Ponch-a-riffic package designed by Joe Sikoryak. Seven-Mary-Three, report to headquarters to pick up your copy today!