Well, it is a Monday so who couldn’t use a quick pick-me-up in the form of a catchy song? We like to keep our Melody Mondays balanced with music from all genres and eras, but this one might take the metaphorical cake. This week features a little tune by the name of “The Unknown Stuntman” by the pride of Middlesboro, Kentucky – Lee Majors. Yes, you may know it as the theme from the television show The Fall Guy and, yes, I am seriously posting this.

Now, I am known near and far as Lee Majors biggest fan but I found the backstory to the song to be interesting as well. Two of the co-writers on the song, Glen Larson and David Somerville, had both been in a vocal group known as The Four Preps – but they weren’t in the band at the same time. Larson left to pursue a career in television – he went on to develop several popular shows of the era including Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, and Magnum P.I. – and was replaced in the band by Somerville.

For his part, Dave Somerville would go on to fame as a member of another popular vocal group known as The Diamonds. The Diamonds had a smash hit with “Little Darlin'” that spent eight weeks at #2 on the charts – they were kept out of the top spot by the one and only Elvis Presley. The song would end the year 1957 as the third best selling single of the year despite never making it to #1 on the charts.

Flash forward, Dave Somerville composed a song to be pitched for a television show about an unknown stuntman – which wasn’t The Fall Guy and wasn’t picked up by the network. A year later, Somerville brought the song to the attention of Glen Larson who, oddly enough, had an idea for a television show about a stuntman. The two pitched the show and song to ABC and the network agreed to consider picking up the program.

Lee Majors was chosen to star in the pilot (he had previously worked with Larson on The Six Million Dollar Man) and the decision was made to have him sing the song himself, rather than farm it out to a more accomplished singer. The end result was the iconic version of “The Unknown Stuntman” that we know and love (or hate, in some cases) today. The Fall Guy would go on to be a hit show and the theme song became very popular, they even released an extended version for radio airplay but it didn’t make a lot of noise on the charts.

“The Unknown Stuntman” is consistently listed on charts of best/most recognizable television theme songs, mainly powered by the lyrics “I’m not the kind to kiss and tell but I’ve been seen with Farrah” (an obvious tongue-in-cheek reference to Majors marriage to Farrah Fawcett) and “when I wind up in the hay, it’s only hay, hey-hey.”

Almost as unforgettable as those lyrics is the image of Lee Majors portraying Colt Seavers smoking a cigar in a bathtub while playing with a rubber duckie. On the show, Majors’ character Colt Seavers was a Hollywood stuntman who also did side work as a bounty hunter. The show aired from 1981-1986 but the theme song lives on to today.