All about the history behind the Airwolf Themes CD soundtrack music project

MARK J. CAIRNS is a huge AIRWOLF fan, having been Head of the International AIRWOLF Appreciation Association for over 10 years during the late 80s and early 90s, he worked hard in the late 1990s to recreate the show's music for an officially-licensed, double CD soundtrack release.

This is his story and the history of the Airwolf Themes CD project...

Introduction

The project started about 1986 after the AIRWOLF TV series' cancellation on CBS. I was in love with that helicopter and that music! I searched worldwide (with no World Wide Web back then) for the official soundtrack from the show's two original composers -- Sylvester Levay and Udi Harpaz -- but no, nothing... just three horrible renditions on "television albums" -- one by the Britsh Power Pack Orchestra, the second arranged by Daniel Caine, again in England (used on about four albums since!) and the third was probably the strongest incarnation with the Japanese Airwolf / Knight Rider CD. but none of them were original arrangements. Just don't mention the two German-based so-called Airwolf soundtracks - "Airwolf: The Wonderweapon" (an insipid excuse for the composers to do their OWN synth music NOT based on the original episodic score from the show at all) and a CD simply entitled "Airwolf", which was another pitiful excuse to release a collection of pop music from the time (which didn't even include the stuff used on the 3rd season of the show such as Dire Strait's "Money For Nothing" or Animotion's "Obsession" -- both from 'Birds of Paradise').

I felt nobody understood the show's Main Theme as well as I did, probably as well as Sylvester Levay himself. I remember finding Lukas Kendall's (then running the 'The Soundtrack Club' newsletter, now Webmaster of the huge Film Score Monthly) address in the early 1991 asking him how I could contact Sly Levay.

He gave me his agent's address in Los Angeles (then Gorfaine-Schwarz), where I eventually got a letter off to him, asking things about the music -- i.e. 'when will we hear the original stuff you did on the show?'

I got a reply from Sylvester in June 1992, but he'd obviously moved on to other projects, and basically nobody had come up with the required huge licence fees for MCA / Universal to release the original Airwolf soundtrack. I've since learned that at least two separate parties had expressed interest in releasing the original works many years ago but MCA's fee and the production costs would have just made it too high to make it a commercial reality. I thought: "some day though!

AIRWOLF™ is a Trademark of, and licensed to NBC Universal Television Studios © 1984. All images and multi-media content of this website are Copyright Mark J.Cairns © 2007. Under NO circumstances must any images or digital content be used from it on any other websites or media without the express written consent of the Copyright / Intellectual Property owner. All MP3 theme tune files remain the Copyright of Mark J.Cairns and Sylvester Levay © 2007. The Airwolf Themes soundtrack is the officially licensed score based on the original CBS episodes of the Airwolf TV series. The Replica Helmet is Copyright Steven. W. Stull © 2007 and is only marketed and promoted in good faith on his behalf within this website, but neither Mark J.Cairns nor anyone on the project team receive any benefit whatsoever whether fiscal or otherwise thus any and all communication must go directly to Steven W. Stull. The Wolf's Lair magazine is owned and published by Clark Van Hoten and is marketed and promoted in good faith on his behalf within our Magazines section, but again neither Mark J.Cairns nor anyone on the team receive any benefit whatsoever whether fiscal or otherwise and any and all communication must go directly to Clark Van Hoten at www.airwolf.tv