Spirit of Troy remakes iconic television theme

Not much should impress Arthur Bartner. In the 40 years he’s stood on the ladder as the director of the USC Marching Band, The Spirit of Troy, he and his band have appeared in Oscar-winning movies and on platinum albums — not to mention performances at the Grammys and Academy Awards.

Aloha · The USC marching band visited the set of Hawaii Five-0 on the North Shore and met cast members Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim. - Photo courtesy of the USC Marching Band

But when George Schweitzer, president of marketing at CBS and USC parent, called and proposed the idea of having The Spirit of Troy star in a promotional video for the new incarnation of Hawaii Five-O, he presented something new for the marching band.

“The thing that really perked my interest is that this is a music video where the band’s really the star,” Bartner said. “This is the band playing this iconic theme that everybody knows. The idea of doing a music video featuring the band, I’m going, ‘This is pretty cool here.’ This is really something the band’s never done.”

Brett Padelford, a USC alumnus and current Spirit of Troy member, said the video fits into a new corner of media for the band.

“It’s a hybrid. It’s a music video and a TV promo and it’s an iconic theme song. It was unique,” Padelford said.

Bartner said yes, and The Spirit of Troy prepared for a shoot that took the band from Cromwell Field to the beaches of Hawaii.

Just four days before band camp started, Bartner and 40 members of the band set up shop in one of the recently completed sound stages at the School of Cinematic Arts. There, they recorded a new version of the Hawaii Five-0 theme, specifically arranged by Tony Fox, the associate director and arranger for the band.

For Fox, the new arrangement meant a chance to put a new spin on a personal favorite.

“Mort Stevens, the fellow who wrote it, to us arrangers and composers, he’s like a god,” Fox said.

The original Hawaii Five-O ran 12 seasons on CBS between 1968 and 1980. With each season, the theme changed slightly, so Fox searched through the different recordings and picked the one he liked the best — the standard version Stevens wrote.

Fox then translated the music from an orchestra piece to one better suited for a marching band.

“There’s a lot of woodwind leads in the original, a lot of clarinet stuff, and that doesn’t work that well for marching band because the brass dominates the marching band,” Fox said. “There’s a couple licks in the original that are really, really difficult. So I modified it down slightly so you’d still get the flavor of what the lick was, but the band would be able to negotiate it better.”

The next morning, CBS and its promotional team brought their cameras to shoot a portion of the band performing the song on Cromwell Field. At the end of the day, as they spelled out a “5-0,” a helicopter flew overhead, capturing it all.

“Everything was first class,” Bartner said. “They were the best guys at CBS.”

When the seniors in The Spirit of Troy traveled to Honolulu for the Sept. 2 game against the University of Hawai’i, they filmed for two more days. At 7 a.m. on the morning of the game, the band donned USC Hawaiian shirts and met the CBS crew on Waikiki Beach, where they marched through the water and sand playing the tune.

On Sept. 3, while some of the band enjoyed a free day in Hawaii, a handful of members drove to the North Shore. Generally regarded as one of the best surf spots in the world, it was home to the set of Lost, meaning it was familiar location for one of the Hawaii Five-0 stars present that day — Daniel Dae Kim. Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), who plays Kim’s cousin on the show, also joined them to shoot a comedic opening for the video.

“They had to take a day off just to come do this promotional thing,” Padelford said. “But they were really cool. They talked to us for a little while and met us.”

The video has appeared on local news stations and on The Early Show, and has spread thanks to YouTube.

“When you get into these things, you never know what kind of legs it has,” Bartner said. “Now it’s all over the world.”

Now Bartner and the band are trying to bring it back home to USC. Given they can find the right theme for the half time show, they hope to play the song during the Nov. 6 game against Arizona State.

Hawaii Five-0 seems to have benefited from the help of The Spirit of Troy. On Sept. 20, it premiered to an audience of over 14 million viewers.

“I guess we did our job,” Bartner said.

The Spirit of Troy benefited from the video as well. Those who hire the band for appearances must donate to its scholarship fund. CBS and Schweitzer gave $25,000 for the promotion.

“People say, ‘Why do you do all this stuff?’ You do it because it’s fun, ’cause the kids like it, you think you’re rock ‘n’ roll stars or something. But the bottom line is, you make money for band scholarships,” Bartner said. “It all goes back to the students.”