Guiding Light - Ritounelle - Closing Credits (1980)

[adelgado75]

Back in the day before the soaps had so many stories going on at once you felt like you were escaping into a small town for a while. You were drawn to characters. But the shows became so fragmented and too many scenes. It was exhausting to watch after a while.

[BigSingh]

The Procter & Gamble Productions interlocking rings logo was only for AW and Somerset. It didn't apply to their other soaps.

[RivemontXCI]

Nice job there, marking my(IchigoMontgomery's) earlier comment as spam.

[soap1919jt]

Interesting that the announcer was still using "the" in the title as late as 1980. Such a beautiful and haunting theme.

[east215]

Good Night to "The Guiding Light"

[SteveSparx]

Jesus-Like going back in time!

[wildmanchris200]

Oh my god! This music used to make me cry when I was 4 and 5 years old.

Such a sad theme song even today, but how I LOVE it, just don't play it for me if I've lost someone or something sad has happened to me

[IchigoMontgomery]

This is faked, he used a WMM effect to make it look older.

[kgrueschowjr2009]

the best version ever! So long GL you will be missed.

[firmingitup]

This is the best theme song GL has ever had in all of its 70 plus years on the air.

[Soapking1965]

The interlocking rings were only used on ANOTHER WORLD, which used the 'rings' from 1966-1981.

[lorden88]

Does anyone have any info on how get this music on cd or mp3? Or anything? Thank you!

[scarletfever2302]

if you have a mac you can download the files from youtube with a program. i think there's a similar one for windows too tho...

[maxineweiss]

Charles Paul was French and he founded Mi Voix productions, but he was such a musical genius....and I can't tell you how much I wish there were more information on him and his gifted work. I'm thinking about putting this version of Ritounelle on my ring tone. I think it would be very soothing, and less annoying than other ringtones.

[WhatsAYak]

Yeah, his themes were just beautiful...I especially like this one and the one he did for Somerset.

[kbirdusa]

These are not original - this is a recreation (i.e. a fake).

You need to stop lying, and try to be more honest.

[gymnastix]

Do you have or does anyone have the two opening 7 closing sequences of "The Guiding Light" from just before this period (1970-75)?

[gymnastix]

One used a blue-hued shot of lighthouse at nighttime, the other of a lighthouse at dusk (orange hue). It was the same theme music for both (titled "La Lumiere"), except the music for the nighttime shot was played on organ, while the second one (used just before ths sequence here, begun in 1975) had a pre-recorded, orchestral version of the same theme music.

[gymnastix]

This is a visual re-creation (albeit a nice one!), because the actual visual was of a ray of light through tree leaves, as I recall.

[gymnastix]

Actually, the original version of this beautiful harp & strings theme music (begun in 1975) had a feamle voice chanting softly in the background, replaced in 1977 by this semi-muted violin version, which was used until 1981.

[Yesimustbestupid2]

But gymnastix is also correct because Holly would have been Holly Thorpe, not Holly Norris in the credits, Rita Stapleton would have been Rita Bauer in the credits (Holly still had Roger's last name through most of 1980 & Rita had Ed's last name) & Blake was still known as Crissy at this point (she wouldn't be known as Blake until the character's return in 1988). Plus there would have been more characters listed in the closing credits than just what was listed, here.

[soap1919jt]

The female vocal was heard in the closing version of the original Ritournelle, whereas the opening version featured a flute solo.

[bhickman6]

@soap1919jt You know your stuff about these themes. They were all so sad in the '70s, but simple and beautiful. And to think this theme was replaced by that awful disco theme for a year.

[gymnastix]

This was known as "network syndication," where one network would air the programs of another--a practice also done summers in prime time, when networks didn't have always have a summer replacement series for program, in the days before they just ran reruns of the same prime-time series.

[gymnastix]

I also recall daytime network reruns of "December Bride" and "Make Room For Daddy"/"The Danny Thomas Show." In the case of the Danny Thomas program(s), they were on NBC, even though were originally broadcast on ABC & CBS.

[gymnastix]

In those days, networks would give a different title to their daytime reruns so as not to confuse viewers with the prime-time episodes of the same program, until that program was off prime time (or out of production), at which point the shows would revert to their actual title, thus becoming, in the heretofore mentioned examples, "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

[gymnastix]

Re: network airing of off-prime time reruns mentioned here--yes, I recall CBS mornings would air "I Love Lucy" (then "The Lucy Show"), "Pete & Gladys" (then "The Real McCoys" & then "The Beverly Hillbillies"), "Andy of Mayberry" and "The Dick Van Dyke Daytime Show."

[fairnorth]

This was an EXCELLENT "Guiding Light" theme, which brings back great memories of this show, and my college days! They should bring this theme song back! I remember the hard to kill villain Roger Thorpe(The late Michael Zaslow) and the beautiful actresses Lenore Kasdorf, Denise Pence, Marsha Clark,etc. All of this should be on a DVD collection!

[60sThru80s]

fairnorth, I agree. I'm a maniac for that period. Nothing in prime-time drama could match that Roger Thorpe storyling of late 79 through early 80. The expression "on the edge of your chair" doesn't do it justice!

:)

[jess4metoo]

This has always been my favorite theme to the Guiding Light and always will be. Thank you!

[gymnastix]

It's a good one, that's for sure. Personally, I'm torn between this one ("Ritournelle") and the theme music used just before this ("La Lanterne/La Lumiere"), of which there were organ and orchestral versions used between 1970-75. I'm not a speaker of French, but by inference I think "Lanterne" is "lantern" and "Lumiere" refers to light, as in luminous/luminance, which would make sense.

[gymnastix]

Actually, part of "La Lumiere" in the mid-show bumper and closing theme included "Rue d'Or," which was also theme music (used in the context of the show) for the character of Nurse "Peggy Scott Fletcher Dillman Fletcher Thorpe," who was the first wife of the infamous "Roger Thorpe."

[gymnastix]

If you hunt through a site called "wavethemes" with an "org" extension, you can find a lot of theme music for nearly all the daytime soaps and of TV generally. Let me know what you think of "La Lumiere" after you've heard it, especially the organ version. Send me a private message to my Tube inbox.

[jess4metoo]

Wow...I love that site! I never know Ritounelle once had a soprano singing it.

Thanks!

[sexymama1966]

ahhh, the days before "the insider", OPRAH and syndicated version of jeopardy. the networks must have made a killin' of loot, reairing reruns of shows..of course, abc and cbs have been doing that for years:)

[bfluellen1]

Did you download this tune? If so where please?

[scboy28]

The show dropped the "The" when Jerome & Bridget Dobson were writing it in 1977, but someone neglected to tell anybody, so the announcer kept including the "The".

As recently as 2007, CBS's online schedule (at least in the Los Angeles market) still referred to the show as "The" Guiding Light. I just moved to the San Francisco area and haven't had a chance to see how CBS lists the show here yet...

[jess4metoo]

I've lived here my whole life. As far back as I can remember the dropped "The" in the seventies. Cheers!

[davemock]

That was dropped only in the title cards. The show and network publicity referred to it as "The" until "Ritournelle" was replaced by the disco theme in 1982.

[east215]

I think GL was the last touse an actual endin voice over. Until the new theme, even the crappy one before, they always said "this has been Guiding Light" I like that they brought back the lighthouse, but does anyone else agree that "Only Love Can Save the World" really stinks?

[kgrueschowjr2009]

i do for one!

[staytunedfor]

I think they officially dropped "The" from the title graphic when they started using Ritournelle in 1976 or 77, but longtime announcer Allen Berns ("This is CBS") still used "The Guiding Light" until at least the 1982 "disco' theme was introduced.

[gymnastix]

You are correct.

[mbavon107]

I guess I am wrong I thought they changed it from The Guiding Light to Guiding Light in 1979...I see by the copyright this is from 1980.

[mbavon107]

This has to be before 1980...It was still called The Guiding Light,,they dropped the "The" in 1979.

[glsoap52]

One Day at a Time used to air after Guiding Light.

[puppyshoes]

I remember when One Day At A Time Use To Air After Guilding Light

[jmsweat]

@glsoap52 One Day at a Time would have been a good title for a soap lol.