Deep Dive: Somewhere in the Night

The theme song most people know best for Naked City, a popular TV police-drama series that aired from 1958 to 1963, was called Somewhere in the Night. But it was referred to most often as the Naked City Theme, largely because there already was an older and completely different pop song called Somewhere in the Night that Frank Sinatra and others had recorded. That wasn't the only bit of confusion. The original song for the series from 1958-'59 was This is the Naked City, composed by George Duning.Then arranger-composer Billy May wrote Somewhere in the Night for the 1960-'62 season. Nelson Riddle was next with The New Naked City Theme for the 1962-'63 season.

Confused? Don't be. The only song that matters for this post was Somewhere in the Night, which has been covered by jazz and pop artists over the years. First let's give a listen to the three themes:

Here's the George Duning theme...



Here's the Billy May theme...



And here's Nelson Riddle's themes, his update on Billy May's and then his own twist...



Now that you know the song, here are my nine favorites plus a bonus track:

Here's Grant Green...



Here's Maynard Ferguson...



Here's Ahmad Jamal...



Here's Sam “The Man" Taylor...



Here's Teri Thornton...



Here's the Rob McConnell Tentet...



Here's Eric Alexander and Grant Stewart...



Here's Laurindo Almeida's Bossa Nova All Stars...



And here's Bobby Hutcherson, with Joey DeFrancisco playing Larry Young's original opening on Grant Green's version...



Bonus: Here's Bobby Scott singing “Eight Million Stories (in the Naked City)," by Eddie Snyder, who used the pseudonym of C. Colatral and J. Tansey on the song, with Scott as the arrangers and Torrie Zito conducting...