AIRWOLF THEMES Official Television Soundtracks MP3 Music Downloads and Previews

Airwolf Themes is a 2CD soundtrack album (now about to be joined by the sequel EP called 'Airwolf Main Themes' and a further 2CD sequel in late 2009 called 'Airwolf Extended Themes') for the high-flying, mid 1980s American action television series series Airwolf (1984-1986) which starred Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, Jean Bruce Scott and Deborah Pratt.

The Airwolf TV series
The show concerned an iconic, shark-like, supersonic, military helicopter, codenamed AIRWOLF (or known affectionately as 'The Lady' by the characters on the show ) and her crew as they undertook various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme. The series ran for 55 episodes on CBS in the United States in 1984 through 1986, and an additional 24 episodes, with a new Canadian cast and production company, aired on the USA Network in 1987, for a total of 79 episodes.

An enhanced version of the first episode was also released as a motion picture (Airwolf: The Movie) in several countries as well as on home video and DVD. The series was broadcast in many international markets where it was immensely popular, especially in Western European and Japanese markets (was the No.1 show in Japan in the late 1980s).

The Music of Airwolf
But it was the amazing music on Airwolf that has stayed with the show's fans to this day and especially the memorable main theme tune used in both the opening and closing title sequences and during the aerial battle sequences between the real-life aircraft used on the series, which to many people nowadays symbolizes anything to do with helicopters!

What made the episodic music so different to other peer television shows of its day like 'Knight Rider' was that both Sylvester Levay and Udi Harpaz utilized a more "tune-of-the-week" approach to their episodic scoring for Airwolf rather than the bland, background, orchestral score traditional to shows of the 1970s + 1980s by their contemporaries, that today are very difficult to listen to in their own right without all the dialogue, visuals and foley sound effects layered on top.

Airwolf's legacy is that the music stands out simply due to that tune-of-the-week approach which transports you to specific scenes, in specific locations, in specific episodes, from specific seasons giving a very unique quality and selling point that makes the collection of Airwolf Themes such an enjoyable escape to both synthesizer and orchestral music aficionados.

The Airwolf soundtrack music score
The soundtrack was created over a five year period by "Airwolf" Superfan, Northern Ireland-based graphic designer, Mark J. Cairns in collaboration with original composer Sylvester Levay, with a Foreword by the series' creator, Donald P. Bellisario (Tales Of The Gold Monkey, Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap, J.A.G., N.C.I.S.).

The soundtrack's creation
After the original CBS series was cancelled in 1986, Mark J. Cairns headed the International Airwolf Appreciation Association for nearly 10 years (from 1988-1998) so he had an in-depth knowledge of the series including its music cues. There had been other cover versions of the distinctive Levay-penned main theme over the years but these tended to be quite different from the sound and feel of the original score. Due to various licensing issues at the time, Cairns decided in early 1994 to produce his own high-quality soundtrack for the series using the episodic scores from the first three seasons of the series to create the first 22 synthesizer-based tracks on the soundtrack, including various medleys and character themes. This was produced entirely by ear on Yamaha and Korg synthesizers and sequenced on an Apple PowerMac computer.

Finding original composer, Sylvester Levay
But by early 1997, Cairns had felt there was something lacking in the production - the mainly orchestral themes, so a search was made (in the very early days of the Internet) for both the show's two main original composers, Sylvester Levay and Udi Harpaz. Levay had left Hollywood in the early nineties to move to Germany and Harpaz had moved back to Israel, so tracking them down had proven difficult to this point until Cairns found an on-line discussion fan forum for the first of Levay's musicals, 'Elisabeth', allowing him and fellow producer, Gerry R. Forrester to finally make initial contact.

They subsequently contracted Levay to create three special bonus medleys which would be mainly orchestral-based scores, composed and arranged from his character-driven 1st Season works from the Airwolf series. Levay then used the 80-piece Munich Philharmonic orchestra during a recording session on 29th November, 1998 at SL Studios in Neuhausen, Germany. The tracks were subsequently mastered by Bernie Grundman in Hollywood, California (the engineer responsible for Michael Jackson's best-selling album of all time, 'Thriller' and later 'Bad'). Cairns' CD1 was engineered and mastered by Frankie McClay at Einstein Studios in Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition
Once production of the two separate CDs was completed, including a 20-page liner booklet containing an exclusive Levay interview, the 'Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition' finally shipped during February 1999 to those who had reserved them six months beforehand, mostly Airwolf Appreciation Association' members although afterwards remaining copies shipped to many other countries purely from direct sales over the internet. Only 1000 copies were ever made.

World Record soundtrack with the eBay phenomena
By the turn of the Millennium the 'Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition' had become very collectible gaining regular eBay bids (being sold by people who'd reserved and bought more than one copy) in the region of $350 - $510 per set. On the 18th March, 2000 the bids culminated in a new world record for a television soundtrack when a set sold for $715.03 on eBay. This was subsequently broken on 25th March, 2004 when a Washington-based seller sold his spare 2CD set for $765.03, and then for a third time $981.74 on the 10th March, 2006 remaining the 'Most Expensive Television Soundtrack of all Time'.

Re-Release for Digital Downloads
Having vowed that the original 2CD Special Limited Edition set would never be re-released in its disc format again, a compromise was reached for the new fans who were only finding out about 'Airwolf Themes' years after it had long sold out and it was subsequently re-released on 20th December 2007 as a digitally-remastered, downloads-only version through Pinnacle-Digital.com, Apple iTunes Store, Napster and Amazon.com. It has been released in AAC, MP3 and Windows Media Audio/WMA audio formats.

There will be two future sequel Airwolf soundtracks released. The first digital-only release 'Airwolf Main Themes' is to be made available from selected online retailers by the end of 2008 and will contain four tracks based on variations of the series' Main Theme. The second release 'Airwolf Extended Themes' will be a 2CD limited edition release currently scheduled for the end of 2009.

Polish-born musician Jan Michal Szulew (his name in English is pronounced similarly to Yann Shoo-leff) will be the main arranger and orchestrator this time with Mark J.Cairns producing episodic-based bonus tracks for the second CD release only whilst maintaining an overall Producer's role.

Original 'Airwolf Themes: 2CD Special Limited Edition' Tracklist

'CD1 by Mark J.Cairns'

Main Theme -- 3rd Season Opening titles (1:01)
'THE AMERICAN DREAM' (5:26)
'ANNIE OAKLEY' (4:36)
'DAMBREAKERS' (3:24)
'DESPERATE MONDAY' (4:43)
'DISCOVERY' / 'HAWKE'S RUN' (3:33)
'FALLEN ANGEL' (3:54)
'FIGHT LIKE A DOVE' / 'BITE OF THE JACKAL' -- "Coming Down" (1:30)
'FORTUNE TELLER' (4:37)
'HAWKE's RUN' / 'KINGDOM COME' -- "Try and cut 'em off!" (2:23)
'THE HUNTED' (2:41)
'HX1' (2:37)
'INN AT THE END OF THE ROAD' (3:37)
'MAD OVER MIAMI' / 'PRISONER OF YESTERDAY' -- "South America" (3:42)
'PILOT' / 'MOFFETT'S GHOST' -- "Moffet's Theme" (6:13)
'NATURAL BORN' (2:09)
'ONCE A HERO' (2:38)
Main Theme -- 1st Season Closing titles (1:26)
'SHORT WALK TO FREEDOM' (6:19)
'SINS OF THE PAST' (2:16)
'SWEET BRITCHES'--"Opening Chase" (1:34)
Main Theme -- 2nd/3rd Season Closing titles (3:02)

'Special Bonus CD2 by Sylvester Levay'

Main Theme -- Extended Aerial ("Red Star Test Run" -- 'PILOT' Film Version) (3:35)
'ECHOS FROM THE PAST" -- Medley ("St John's Theme" / "Gabrielle's Theme") (3:33)
1st Season – Medley ('ONE WAY EXPRESS' / 'MIND OF THE MACHINE' / "Moffet's Theme" / "Eagle's Serenade") (4:50)