Joey Scarbury – “Theme From The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)” – 45 Single

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic

Do you remember the TV series ‘The Greatest American Hero”? It ran from 1981-1983 and was about an ordinary guy named Ralph who was given a superhero suit from a group of aliens…you know the space aliens, not the illegal ones. The suit gave him super human abilities like a super hero. Of course, Ralph loses the instructions manual and has to figure things out on his own which is where all the fun begins. Ralph Hinkley was played by William Katt, Robert Culp played FBI Agent Bill Maxwell and Connie Selleca played Ralph’s girlfriend Pam Davidson. The first season of this show is basically an origins story and the origin stories are usually the best.

One of the really great things about the show was the theme song. Do you remember theme songs for TV shows? They don’t really do those much nowadays. This one was called “Theme From The Greatest American Hero” or better known as “Believe It or Not” as the other is just too long to say. It was written by TV theme songwriters Mike Post and Stephen Geyer, but performed by Joey Scarbury. The song appeared on Joey’s debut album which was called ‘America’s Greatest Hero’ so it doesn’t steal directly the shows name exactly.

As you can see, the back cover of the 45 sleeve is almost exactly the same as the front with the exception being the record label and producer information. I found this at an antique shop down in St. Augustine, Florida back in the Summer of 2020…yes, I travelled away from home during the pandemic. We rented a house near the beach with a pool so as to socially distance from everyone so there! When I saw this in the guys stack of 45’s, it was a no-brainer for me as I loved this show (first season at least) and I loved this song.

The song did really well going all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but missing out thanks to a duet by two semi-known artists Lionel Richie and Diana Ross with “Endless Love”. For the year, the song ended up at #11. Not too shabby.

A-SIDE:

The A-Side is the theme song and it is pure pop in both vocals, music and style. Extremely catchy, radio-friendly and is actually the full length version of the song, because the TV show only played like the first couple verses and chorus. It is weird hearing the whole song in its entirety. That chorus is so hypnotic and you can’t help but sing along. Towards the end, it has dramatic pause and slows down slightly before picking back up with that pop heavy chorus and a guitar solo thrown in. It is quite nice.

B-SIDE:

The B-Side, “Little Bit of Us”, is a power ballad but lacking the power, so I guess that makes it just a ballad!! The song was written by Stephen Geyer and is off Joey Scarbury’s debut album as well. The debut album was produced by Mike Post who wrote the A-Side. I will be honest, the song is kind of bland for me. Joey’s vocals are okay, but not as engaging as they were on the Theme song. It is very generic sounding, but it is the A-Side I bought this for anyway.

And there you have the 45 Single of “Believe It Or Not” from the TV Show ‘The Greatest American Hero’. I love the fact it still has the picture sleeve and in really decent shape for a 40 year old piece of music. It is a cool piece for the collection. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by.

34 thoughts on “Joey Scarbury – “Theme From The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)” – 45 Single”

  3. I wasn’t very old when this was first aired and we only had three channels and limited time allowance in front of the tube!, but I remember the show and the song… the song moreso. I didn’t even need to click the YT video, I could sing it in my head, so it must have been a memorable tune. Nice find!

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                1. There is one store that has some good stuff that only allows 5-7 people at a time. I’ve only been to that one once as you do have to wait. A couple of others removed some bins and spread them further apart and they haven’t been very crowded and you can take your time. But I get what your saying.

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  5. Awesome show. I was another fan. There is an emoji under “objects” on my iphone that looks like the symbol on his costume. I think it’s probably just the Chinese symbol for “center” but it looks so closely like his costume that I use it occasionally with a few friends of mine that were fans of the show. I went searching for more information on it and came across this good read that talks about the symbol as well as some other fun facts about the show and the actors: https://www.metv.com/lists/believe-it-or-not-here-are-12-super-facts-about-greatest-american-hero

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  6. Hey cool memories dude! I remember that song though I never watched the TV show that much as I was in the service at the time. For me, William Katt is best known for his role in the movie “Carrie.”

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        1. Friends had one of the best. I think it is an easy way to identify with the show. The 70’s & 80’s I thought had the most and some of the best. It started to disappear in the 90’s and is almost gone now with a few exceptions.

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          1. Yea Friends did have one of the last ones… Mary Tyler Moore, Cheers, even Taxi was cool.
            I watch mostly older shows so I still watch/hear them.

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  8. What is so cool about this is just a few months ago we found the show on one of those off channel streaming services and watched The first episode. Which I believe was a TV movie then it went as a series.

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