Superheroes were big when I was growing up. I watched the Batman 1966 TV show, on Saturday morning my brother and I would watch the Superfriends cartoon, and on the Electric Company, there used to be a segment with a live action Spiderman.
Hollywood is forever recycling ideas and it is no surprise that Superhero movies have been very prominent over the past couple decades. I saw the first Toby McGuire Spiderman movie and thought it was ok. It did well at the box office, so naturally Hollywood had to make a sequel.
I didn’t see any of the sequels. I’m not sure why, other than they trailers didn’t peak my interest. This was probably at a time where Superhero movies were saturating the box office.
In 2004, my iPod was fairly new to me and I was adding music from iTunes regularly. When you opened it up, there were always “new” songs on the home page. One of them caught my eye.
At first, I wasn’t sure what to think when I saw “Theme From Spiderman” by Michael Buble’. You could listen to a thirty second preview before you bought a song, and that’s all it took for me to love it!
I don’t recall if the 1967 Spiderman cartoon was something I watched on Saturday mornings or if it was something that came on after school. What I do remember was just how cool it was! That, and it had one of the coolest theme songs!!
According to Wikipedia, the theme song was written by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris. The original song was recorded at RCA Studios in Toronto (where the cartoon was produced) featuring 12 CBC vocalists who added to the musical backing track supplied by RCA Studios, New York.
The vocalists were members of the Bobby Van Singers, and Laurie Bower Singers. The singers were paid only for the session and have had no residuals from its use since then.
The theme song contains one of my favorite lines: “Is he strong? Listen, bud, he’s got radioactive blood!”. Isn’t that awesome?!
The 1967 version was featured at the end of the first Spiderman movie in 2002. The Michael Buble’ version appears at the end of the 2004 sequel.
Let’s listen to both, just because!!
Here’s Michael’s swinging take on the theme. His band is so good!!!
Spiderman Theme
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size
Catches thieves just like flies
Look out
Here comes the Spider-Man
Is he strong?
Listen bud
He’s got radioactive blood
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Spider-Man
In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
Wealth and fame
He’s ignored
Action is his reward
Look out
Here comes the Spider-Man
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
Wealth and fame
He’s ignored
Action is his reward
Look out
Here comes the Spider-Man
In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size
Catches thieves just like flies
Look out
Here comes the Spider-Man
Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
Wealth and fame
He’s ignored
Action is his reward
Look out
Here comes the Spider-Man
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
I never knew the cartoon was Canadian. Cool eh!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Honestly, I didn’t either!!
LikeLike
I loved that cartoon! I would watch that and Speed Racer….also Jonny Quest…I could only see them at my cousins house…they had cable.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love Spiderman Keith. That was my obsession as a kid. My oldest brother is an artist and had a buddy who was a cartoon artist that worked on the original show. He wasn’t the Spiderman artist but he drew me a fantastic black line Spiderman poster. Had that on my wall for ten years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I grew up on that cartoon and the Nicholas Hammond TV show.
The song I fell in love with was “Hero” with Chad Kroeger from Nickelback & Josey Scott.
I didn’t know the Spiderman cartoon was out of Canada but, it tracks. Canada has provided us with wonderful series & movies thru Lionsgate. They still run Air Disasters (Air Crash Investigation up there). The best Sci-Fi comes from Canada.
LikeLiked by 1 person