1959: Two songs "Johnny's Theme" began life as "Toot Sweet", a
pop instrumental composed in 1959 by Paul Anka and recorded by Tutti's Trumpets.
"Tutti" Camarata, who was
Annette Funicello's producer at the time, asked Anka to write some songs for Funicello's first album to follow her work on
The Mickey Mouse Club. and the song was released as part of
Annette Sings Anka. He recorded his own version of "It's Really Love" that same year for the French film
Faibles Femmes;
1962: Johnny Carson When
Johnny Carson, a fan of jazz music, was preparing to take over as the permanent host of
The Tonight Show starting in October 1962, he recognized that he would need a theme song. Carson and Anka had worked together in England on the television special
An Evening with Paul Anka in 1961; when they happened to meet up again in
New York City the following year, Carson manager Al Bruno mentioned needing a theme. Anka said he then offered to let Carson write and publish new lyrics in order to claim a songwriter's credit along with half of the royalties every time the song was played The song was retired along with Carson in 1992; his iteration of
The Tonight Show was called "the last widely public big-band forum." Incoming bandleader
Branford Marsalis composed a more "funky" theme for successor
Jay Leno because "a swing tune doesn't reflect Jay at all [and] jazz doesn't come to mind either." ==Releases==