Doctor Who: Theme From the BBC TV Series (Delia Derbyshire version) @ The TARDIS Library (Doctor Who books, DVDs, videos & audios)


Doctor Who: Theme From the BBC TV Series (Delia Derbyshire version)
 

No. 2 of 66 in the Miscellaneous music & sound effects series
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Starring: Delia Derbyshire
By:Ron Grainer
Rating:   7.7  (3 votes)  Vote here
Review:  None yet  Add a review
Editions:  UK (1st 7" single) | Australia (7" single) | New Zealand (7" single) | UK (2nd 7" single) | UK (3rd 7" single) | UK (4th 7" single) | UK (5th 7" single) | UK (6th 7" single)
Description:  Single release of the “original” version of the Doctor Who theme music, as created by Delia Derbyshire in 1963.

No cover available
Edition: UK (1st 7" single)
Released:  February 1964
Publisher:  Decca
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Catalogue number: F 11837. This is the original mono version of the theme tune as used on the programme from 1963 to 1967. The B-side was, bizarrely, a cover version of the 1938 Rodgers & Hart musical number “It Can’t Be Love”, sung in a quasi-Merseybeat style by “Brenda and Johnny”, an act whose sole appearance seems to have been on this single.

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Edition: Australia (7" single)
Released:  March 1964
Publisher:  Decca
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Catalogue number Y7147. Same track listing as the UK release.

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No cover available
Edition: New Zealand (7" single)
Released:  December 1965
Publisher:  Decca
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Catalogue number: DEC 343. Same track listing as the original UK edition.

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Edition: UK (2nd 7" single)
Released:  April 1972
Publisher:  Decca
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Same catalogue number and B-side as the 1964 release.

Cover blurb:
None.

Cover image for Doctor Who: Stereo Version of T.V. Music
Edition: UK (3rd 7" single)
Title:  Doctor Who: Stereo Version of T.V. Music
Released:  April 1973
Publisher:  BBC Records
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Catalogue number: RESL 11. This was the first release of the Doctor Who theme tune in stereo and features a “remixed” version of the Delia Derbyshire theme — however, not the same version as used on the programme from 1967 to 1979. The B-side was an instrumental track called “Reg” by Paddy Kingsland. Appears to have been released in both a picture sleeve (as in photo) and a plain sleeve.

Cover blurb:
None.

Cover image for Doctor Who: Theme From the BBC TV Series (Delia Derbyshire version)
Edition: UK (4th 7" single)
Released:  June 1976 (Exact date unconfirmed)
Publisher:  BBC Records
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Same catalogue number and track listing as the 1973 release. Again this seems to have been available in both a picture sleeve (as shown) and a plain sleeve.

Cover blurb:
None.

Cover image for Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Edition
Edition: UK (5th 7" single)
Title:  Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Edition
Released:  December 2013
Publisher:  Harkit Records
Format: 7" single
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Note:  Catalogue number HRKS 8469. Limited edition 7” single on blue vinyl.

Cover blurb:
Since Doctor Who began fifty years ago, there have been twelve incarnations of the Doctor but only five incarnations of the theme music written by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The original Decca Records single (F.11837) “Dr. Who” credited to “Radiophonic Workshop” included here is the longest serving theme to date (1963 - 1979) and remains the blueprint for all new arrangements by Peter Howell, Keff McCulloch, Dominic Glynn and Murray Gold today. We like the idea that the themes last longer than the lead actors...

Just a year earlier another BBC Radiophonics technician, Maddalena Fagandini collaborated on “Time Beat” using the pseudonym “Ray Cathode” which was used as an interval time signal on BBC Television (we now have trails!). This space-age-pop tune was actually produced by George Martin!

Track listing:

  1. "Doctor Who" Theme (Original 1963 version)
  2. Time Beat — Ray Cathode

Cover image for Doctor Who: Theme From the BBC TV Series (Delia Derbyshire version)
Edition: UK (6th 7" single)
Released:  November 2019
Publisher:  Unknown
Format: 7" single
Owned:
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Note:  Limited edition release on yellow vinyl. Produced to accompany issue 59 of Electronic Sound magazine, which includes a profile of Delia Derbyshire — however, the vinyl was also available to purchase by itself. The B-side is a new track, Strange Lines And Distances, which has been compiled from elements of Derbyshire’s post-Radiophonic work and features the actor Matt Berry reading from Francis Bacon’s utopian future fiction New Atlantis.

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