Music
John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, "Olympic Fanfare and Theme". This piece won a Grammy for Williams and became one of the most well-known musical themes of the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream"; the latter is sometimes attached to the beginning of Olympic Fanfare and Theme. An album, The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad—Los Angeles 1984, featured both of those tracks along with sports themes written for the occasion by popular musical artists including Foreigner, Toto, Loverboy, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Christopher Cross, Philip Glass and Giorgio Moroder. The album was released on Columbia Records and the catalogue number was BJS 39322.
The famous Brazilian composer Sérgio Mendes also composed a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games, "Olympia," from his 1984 album Confetti. A choir of approximately one thousand voices was assembled of singers in the region. All were volunteers from nearby churches, schools and universities.
Etta James performed the National Anthem of the United States at the Opening Ceremony.
Lionel Richie performed a 9 minute version of his hit single "All Night Long" at the closing ceremonies.
Read more about this topic: 1984 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.... Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
—Harper Lee (b. 1926)
“Music is spiritual. The music business is not.”
—Van Morrison (b. 1945)
“Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)