Vic Mizzy - "The Addams Family Theme"

Some days you just need a little spooky camp in your life.

Victor Mizzy (January 9, 1916 – October 17, 2009) was an American composer for television and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres and The Addams Family. Mizzy also wrote top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.

Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended New York University. As a child, he played accordion and piano, and was largely self-taught as a composer. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy where he wrote some of his hit songs.

In the late 1930s, while based in New York City, Mizzy began composing a string of popular songs. These included Doris Day's 1945 hit "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time". Other Mizzy compositions were "There's a Faraway Look in Your Eye" and "Three Little Sisters", both co-written with lyricist Irving Taylor. The latter were sung by The Andrews Sisters on Decca Records and in the 1942 Universal film Private Buckaroo, in which the sisters appeared with Harry James' big band.

Dinah Shore also recorded "Three Little Sisters"; "Take It Easy" (also with lyricist Taylor), "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes", "The Whole World Is Singing My Song", "Choo'n Gum" (recorded by The Andrews Sisters, as well as Teresa Brewer), "The Jones Boy", which was a 1953 hit for The Mills Brothers, and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho".

Mizzy broke into television circa 1959, composing music for Shirley Temple's Storybook and the themes for Moment of Fear, Klondike and Kentucky Jones. During the 1960s, he wrote themes and scores for the hit shows Green Acres and The Addams Family, as well as for other sitcoms, including The Pruitts of Southampton, The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Captain Nice, The Don Rickles Show, and Temperatures Rising, and the 1964–1965 comedy drama Kentucky Jones.

So today, with spooky little smile, I choose Vic Mizzy’s “The Addams Family Theme” as my, go on and giggle, being scared can be fun, being fun can be scary, song for a, keep your secrets well, hold your hearts carefully make promises wisely, Monday.