NOTE: This is part of a week-long series on the future of the Southeastern Conference.
In a small Manhattan apartment, Lloyd Landesman tried to compose a piece of music appropriate for a football game. He used a synthesizer and a drum machine, and in about five hours one day in the fall of 1986, he recorded what became the Southeastern Conference’s most recognizable tune on quarter-inch tape.
Channeling his progressive rock roots, the track He mixed triumphant brass and driving percussion to create something that sounded like a gladiator to his ears. Landesman, a writer at a production company, hoped CBS would use the song as an intro to its upcoming Super Bowl XXI broadcast. He sent the demo and waited.
The network called a week later, and Landesman recorded a full version for the 1987 Super Bowl between his favorites, the New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos. Having his song aired on national television seemed like a major accomplishment in a life spent around music. One airing would have been enough.
“I watched the Super Bowl and I was thrilled,” said Landesman, 71. “It was still a new experience for me to see my work in the media. The game happened and the Giants won. I was happy and that was the end of the story.”
Something I learned late last night. The CBS SEC/CFB theme was actually written for the Super Bowl XXI intro. It was later reused as the CFB theme in 1987. https://t.co/qwAPY1qx7u pic.twitter.com/loT78yxcO9
— 𝙇𝙚 𝙡𝙚́𝙡𝙚́𝙩𝙚́𝙩 (@HelmetAddict) February 13, 2023
But 36 years later, the song lives on. CBS has since used the theme for its college football broadcasts, and the energetic notes have led to the network’s SEC game every fall Saturday afternoon since 1996. Landesman’s music has thus become closely associated with the league, although the song is played for every college football game on CBS Sports, including Army-Navy.
Soon the well-known melody will move to another conference. SEC-CBS Partnership Ends Next Yearand CBS is airing seven Big Ten games this season. The network will continue to use the song as it airs another league in its 2:30 p.m. CT time slot next fall as the SEC begins a 10-year exclusive deal with ESPN, one of several changes coming to the sport in 2024.
“This music is so associated with Saturday afternoons and college football,” CBS Sports president Sean McManus said. The Athletic Last year, a CBS spokesperson declined an interview request for McManus. “I think associating this music with the Big Ten will be great for both the conference and CBS Sports.”
The song’s association with SEC football made the adjustment difficult, especially when CBS paired the theme with a assembly Big Ten football clips to help advertise the new rights deal. Some fans around the league reacted with disgust, protecting the music they’ve heard for so long every time they watch their team.
“There’s an emotional dimension to watching a football game, and it’s not just watching a football game,” said David Saccardi, assistant professor of music education at LSU. “It’s a football game. It’s watching it with your family and friends… I think this idea of emotional attachment to music is part of this whole culture.”
Saccardi explains that this happens thanks to associative memory, a term that refers to the ability to remember relationships between concepts or elements. Music stimulates the brain more than any other activity, he explained, and in this case, the song is often associated with happy memories for a generation of fans who grew up with the tune.
“There are songs that connect you to a certain time in your life, when things were really easier or you had a really positive moment while listening to that song,” Landesman said. “When you hear it again, it takes you back. I think there’s a whole psychological connection that people make when they hear those songs.”
SEC Football is back tomorrow! I can’t wait to hear the classic SEC intro music on CBS! Here we go!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/NQ6DegDugg
— kofodfsu (@kofodfsu) September 25, 2020
Long before writing this song, Landesman grew up in Queens and attended high school with the Ramones. He signed a record deal at 18, and went on to open for artists like Jethro Tull, Rod Stewart and The Faces. His record didn’t chart, but he continued to play music, trying to make a living in a competitive industry.
At age 30, Landesman looked for another path. A friend suggested he do musical arrangements for a new record division at Sicurella and Smythe, which produced music for television themes, commercials, film scores, and more. The owners liked his style and gave him more work.
Two years later, Landesman was writing and arranging music for advertising campaigns when the opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl arose. The assignment was to compose a sports theme. Landesman said he had “always been pretty spontaneous” as a composer and quickly developed the melody.
“The interesting thing about writing for a client is that when you’re given a deadline, you tend to not dwell on your decision-making and go with your gut,” Landesman said. “Everything has to be done much more quickly, because it’s usually done overnight or two days. In some cases, I’ve gotten a call hours before. We’re kind of winging it.”
After CBS selected his demo, Landesman recreated the song in the studio, this time with live musicians. He added a guitarist, a nine-piece horn section, and a percussionist who played snare drum. They recorded six different lengths to fit the show’s different situations, from two minutes to five seconds.
“I was very fortunate that everything went well,” Landesman said. “Things like this don’t happen very often.”
Landesman continued to compose throughout his 35-year career. He wrote the music for “Every Kiss Begins with Kay” for Kay Jewelers, among other advertising campaigns. In retirement, he has a home studio with guitars and keyboards where he writes songs. Three years ago, he recorded a new version of the college football theme for a solo album.
“Sometimes I’m a little naive and distant about the success of certain things,” Landesman said. “I can’t believe it’s still working.”
As the familiar sound he created moves to the Big Ten, Landesman understands the frustration some fans feel in acknowledging CBS’s point of view. After all, the league was never part of the SEC.
More than anything, Landesman is happy that people are enjoying his music decades after he mixed the demo. He gets an annual royalty check, and while he said it’s not much, he recently joked to his daughter, “You might get some money after I’m gone.”
For him, the song marked a powerful moment that still endures today.
“What you hear on the air,” Landesman said, “is pretty much what I heard when I first started in my apartment in 1986.”
