Hawaii Five-O

A good TV show is one that is so popular that it lives on in syndication, watched by different generations over different decades. It pervades into our pop-culture, and easily recognizable. Like Happy Days. Or Chips. Or X-Files. Or the Simpsons.

One step above is a show that is has all of the above qualities, plus a memorable theme song. A song that is people remember forever, pay tribute to it, cover it and parody it.

Like Hawaii Five-O.

Who can forget the catchy intro music?

I watched it as a very very young kid (probably pre-school) on SBC5 (what is now known as Singapore’s TCS5), my dad and brother were fans of the show, so the whole family followed. I remember waiting for 10pm waiting for it to start (I believe it was on a Tuesday night). If you watch the clip of the intro below, you’ll notice the first scene show crashing waves. Back then there was a Pepsi ad with an almost similar scene, so each time the Pepsi ad came on, we’d become excited but then it turns to disappointment… (at least until the actual show starts)

Honestly i was much too young to remember much of the show, except Jack Lord uttering the famous line “Book ’em, Dano” (then I’d go ‘who’s Dano?!’) until i caught back with it a few years ago when Astro started re-running the series.

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Was reminded of the song last Sunday at my daughter’s kindy graduation concert when another class used it as a soundtrack. It’s amazing how excited some parents can get at the sight of their kids shaking their bums in unison to music.