The work was originally intended as
library music, and was loosely based on a German/Dutch nursery rhyme called
Jan Hinnerk (in German) or
Catootje (in Dutch), which in its turn took the opening bars of
Non più andrai from
Mozart's
Le Nozze di Figaro. Dutch composer
Jan Stoeckart adapted the original tune and wrote a new top line under the name of Jack Trombey, while Simon Park arranged it for his own orchestra and conducted the recording. The track was fully entitled "Eye Level (Theme from the TV series 'Van Der Valk')". Total sales were 1,005,500, gaining the award of a
platinum disc and becoming one of the 12 best-selling singles of the 1970s. In Ireland, the song was also a hit, reaching No. 3 in the charts there. In 1974, Stoeckart released his own version under the name Jack Trombey's Brass. In the US, it was used as theme music in 1970s TV and radio commercials for
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It was also used for TV advertisements for
Alton Towers, in its pre-
Luna Park mode of gardens, fronted by
Frank Muir and in the 1980s for
Oranjeboom lager using "tulips" for "your lips" as "wrap tulips around a pint today". "Eye Level" was issued as a single in the United States on
Vanguard Records (catalogue #35175). Though it failed to chart on the Hot 100, it did make No. 29 on the
Billboard Easy Listening chart in January 1974. == Track listing ==