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The As It Happens Music

I almost never listen to the radio. When I do, it’s only in the car, only the CBC, and generally only in the evening, when the compelling programming is on. If I’m in the car at 6:30pm, though, I always turn it to the CBC and crank up the volume. Why? Because the As It Happens music plays.

As It Happens is a popular radio show (it’s syndicated by several US networks) hosted by the husky-voiced Barbara Budd and Mary Lou Finley. It follows the 6:00pm news, and is generally a news magazine program.

The content is good, but the intro theme is awesome. It’s a song called “Curried Soul” by Moe Koffman, and has kicked off the show since 1969. Koffman died in 2001. I searched the Web and file networks high and low, but couldn’t find an actual recording of the song. Suffice it to say, it’s a funky, bass-heavy jazz piece with this crazy flute solo in the middle of it. If you’re Canadian, you’ve probably heard it at least a few times in your life.

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Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

29 comments

  1. I like how they play As It Happens nightly in the states… keeps the Yanks a little more enlightened to their neighbors up north… not many themes still sound cool and timely after 35 years…

  2. Saw him at Truro High in 1980 when I was 17. My folks used to go to the Old Spagetti Factory (?) in Toronto in the 50s/60s to see him. We looked for CDs bvut there do not seem to be any. The lps, now sitting in a closet at the cottage, were under Nimbus publishing.

  3. What I am about to say may be blasphemous; but I always hear that theme and think to myself ‘Time to update that’. It just has such a 70’s feel to it.

  5. Thanks for the info! I had always wondered who wrote that song (I get it on NPR in the DC area at 10pm every evening).

  6. Are you kidding? That is the most ridiculous theme song ever!

    I love it when the show comes up three minutes short and they just let the song fill in the dead air at the end of the show.

  7. that theme sure sounds alot like buddy miles or the stones or
    something. bitch?

    cool that it’s from 69!

  8. i agree that theme song is awesome. i live in the dc area and hear it every night. i have heard it for years and always wondered if there was a cd…thanks for the info

  9. I love the AIH theme song. Rather that seeming dated, to me it sounds raw and real amongst the more white-bread generic theme songs of today. I hope they never change it.

  11. I stumbled upon this blog when doing a search for the theme song. This song rocks. I love that flute blasting away. Kind of Jethro Tull like. I wish we could purchase the tune some place. The address listed above appears to be an entire DVD for $25 bucks. Anyone else have any luck finding just the tune?

  12. I wasn’t a huge fan of the theme for a while (not a fan of the flute, in general), but it has grown on me. It even inspired me to play ‘air-flute’ for my wife one punchy evening. She was very amused (and a little frightened) at how well I knew that song! Caution: do not play ‘jazz air-flute’ if you have back problems.

    Anyway, after much searching, she found this link to a download of Koffman’s Curried Soul album. (click the album cover to download. You’ll need something like WinRar to decompress it.)
    http://headfonehaus.blogspot.com/2007/06/moe-koffman-moes-curried-soul-kama.html

    I wouldn’t normally advocate downloading copyrighted material, but sheesh, can they possibly make it any more difficult to find a song??

    The song at the end of AIH is actually “Koff Drops”. I could only find it on this “Best Of” album:

  13. hey.. thanks for the link.. however i tried to download it.. and it says i need a password to unlock the encryption..
    help please..

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  15. Does anyone else think “Curried Soul” sounds remarkably like “25 Miles” by Edwin Starr (listen to the background)?

  17. It was ripped off from a Wilson Pickett tune called Mojo Mama (1967) on the album :The Sound of Wilson Pickett”

  19. I was just listening to Bach’s flute Sonata in E flat major #3 Allegro and I am thinking what CBC theme music is this from? Then I realize it’s the “As it Happens” theme song. Moe Koffman lifted the melody note for note.

    1. Choosing Moe as the voice of the CBC is inteesting and opportunistic. His original composition SWINGIN SHEPHERD”S BLUES is a classic so it’s funny that his blatant instrumental copy of the hit Edwin Starr ripoff of Wilson Pickett’s tune was bought as the longtime theme of AS IT HAPPENS. It’s exactly what you;d want for a hip catchy theme, it’s instrumental, it was a Cnadian artist PLAYING it, if not responsible for WHY it was catchy. He was very populistically hip at the time, he was Canadian and he had classical and jazz chops for days. He had done an album (or 2?) wrapping jazz stylings around teh classical rep.

  21. Curried Soul. I still get goosebumps when I hear it… I associate it with growing up in the 80s and having my dad turn on CBC every night after dinner from 6-8… we got excited when the song came on at 6:30… usually while one of us was finishing up the dishes. I think the association is that my parents cared about what was going on in the world and wanted us to figure out that learning can and should take place outside of school. Pre-internet of course, so that kind of journalism with authentic interviews and witty stories was still glamorous and deserved to be framed by funky music.

  22. I agree, love the song, but where can I find that great drum bit that used to come in at the end of the show? I miss that so much.

  23. I heard that “As it happens” once had listeners submit lyrics (prolly via the Talkback segment) for the “curried soul” theme song. If anyone ever finds a link to that, please post it! I’ve been searching the CBC’s site with no luck. I heard it was pretty amusing (well, for AIH listeners, anyway!)

  24. Thanks everyone for all the great information on this page. I am looking for a high-quality version of Curried Soul. Unfortunately the link to buy at the CBC store no longer works. I’ve called them but have had no luck. I would love to buy this track if anyone knows where to find it. Cheers!

  25. Absolutely AWEFUL music theme. As It Happens is a world-class quality show the equal of anything produced in the English speaking world but that silly, amateurish ripoff of a ‘song’ has GOT to go. 40+ year old hipster trash should not be on the air any longer, especially with show this good….it is hurting the syndication efforts of the show and I am in a position to know. Please update and modernize, and no…white-bread generic theme music need not be used, find the middle ground…

  26. This is maddening! I can’t download the album because I don’t have the right program and the song we are talking about is clearly not “Koff Drops”, but is “Curried Soul”!! Koffman’s name is not even recognized on the CBC website.

    Love the song and the show, but I too question its dated sound for the show’s opening.

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  28. I remember hearing a synthesized version of this flute sonata as the “as it happens” theme music decades ago. I think it was note-for-note accurate, but there were some changes to timing; some reductions in tempo, and pauses were added at the end of some of the major themes, and I found it made the music incredibly emotional, to the point of tears.

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