Nadia's Theme

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"Nadia's Theme", originally titled "Cotton's Dream", is a piece of music composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. in 1971. It was originally used as incidental music for the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children, and is better known as the theme music to the longest-running television soap opera The Young and the Restless since the series premiered in 1973. "Cotton's Dream" was renamed "Nadia's Theme" after it became associated with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci during and after the 1976 Summer Olympics.

The piece was originally released on the original 1971 Bless the Beasts and Children soundtrack, then a 1974 cover version by easy listening group Sounds of Sunshine was produced. After it became associated with Comăneci during the 1976 Olympics, the piece was later released as a single in August of that year. Other versions of "Nadia's Theme" have since been recorded. The piece has also been sampled by other artists, and has been used regularly by other radio and television programs.

Origins[]

De Vorzon and Botkin Jr. composed this piece of music, originally titled "Cotton's Dream", as incidental music for the 1971 feature film Bless the Beasts and Children. The instrumental version was commercially released on that film's soundtrack album on A&M Records. The soundtrack also included "Lost", a song set to this melody, performed by Renée Armand.

Botkin Jr. later composed a rearranged version of the instrumental theme for the longest-running television soap opera The Young and the Restless, which premiered on March 26, 1973, on CBS. Although a soundtrack album for the television series was released by P.I.P. Records in 1974, the LP only contained a cover version by easy listening group Sounds of Sunshine, rather than the original recording by De Vorzon and Botkin.

Association with Nadia Comăneci[]

In late July or early August 1976, ABC's sports anthology program Wide World of Sports produced a montage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's routines during the 1976 Summer Olympics^[1] and used "Cotton's Dream" as the background music. It was this national television montage that cemented the association of the tune with Comăneci in the public mind. (Comăneci herself never performed her floor exercises using this piece of music, however. She used a piano arrangement of a medley of the songs "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" and "Jump in the Line".)

On May 18, 1997, Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner guest-starred on the Season 3 finale of 'xTouched by an Angel where they performed a brief floor exercise within a montage scene to Nadia's Theme.

1976 releases[]

Viewer inquiries about the music from the Wide World of Sports montage prompted a commercial release of the 1971 version of the song as a single through A&M Records on August 28, 1976. This recording was identical to "Cotton's Dream," with a repeat from the bridge to the end edited in to lengthen the piece. The single was titled "Nadia's Theme" and was a commercial success, charting for 22 weeks and peaking at No. 8 in the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending December 11, 1976. A&M Records failed to credit De Vorzon as the co-writer on the first pressings of the single. He successfully sued the record label for $241,000.

In October 1976, as the De Vorzon & Botkin version on A&M climbed the charts, P.I.P. Records released a single containing the Sounds of Sunshine's vocal and instrumental versions under the title "Nadia's Theme". The label also re-released the 1974 soundtrack LP, now stickered to say it contained "Nadia's Theme", although it still only contained the cover version. That same month, Barry De Vorzon capitalized on the success of the song by releasing it on his first album, Nadia's Theme. Soon after, Sounds of Sunshine released their own Nadia's Theme album.

On November 23, 1976, CBS further entrenched the song's association with Comăneci by using the melody in its broadcast of "Nadia—From Romania with Love", a one-hour television special hosted by Flip Wilson, co-produced by CBS and Televiziunea Romana. The De Vorzon & Botkin version of the song was not released on CD until Eric Records included it on the 2003 compilation Hard to Find Orchestral Instrumentals II. An extract from the tune is used regularly as a jingle by BBC Radio 2 disk jockey Steve Wright on his Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs.

Chart history[]

Alternate versions[]

Other versions of "Nadia's Theme" have been recorded, including easy listening renditions by such artists as Ronnie Aldrich, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, the orchestra of The Lawrence Welk Show, Roger Williams and James Galway; a semi-rock version by The Ventures; and David Hasselhoff's vocal rendition, which incorporated De Vorzon's and Botkin Jr.'s lyrics, for his 1987 album Lovin' Feelings. There was also a vocal version by The Sounds Of Sunshine released as a single on p.i.p.(Pickwick International Production) records.

The Young and the Restless began using a light remix of "Nadia's Theme" in 1988, then switched to a jazz arrangement during a three-year stint in the early 2000s before returning to the 1988 version.

The song was sampled in a piece of music from the 1993 video game, Aero the Acro-Bat

Cuban Link samples Nadia's Theme in their song Flowers For The Dead.

R&B musician Mary J. Blige included the instrumental version as a backdrop in her 2001 single, "No More Drama". Botkin, who had never heard of Blige prior to this was delighted to get a writing credit, saying: "I woke up one morning and I'm on the cutting edge of R&B,” says the composer, who now specializes in electronic music. ”These days, I'm completely removed from pop music — except when [royalty] checks arrive.".^[9]

Sonshine Media Network International in the Philippines used the piece as background music following a series of montages for the Glory Mountain in Mt. Apo, Davao City.

A alternate arrangement was used for the series premiere promo in 1973.

Awards[]

Grammy Awards:

• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement, 1978 ^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• "Rings ‘n’ Things: 10 Best Facts About the Olympics in Pop Culture." Time, August 2, 2012
• "Did Nadia Comaneci compete to 'Nadia's Theme' in the 1976 Olympics?." Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2012.