Guiding Light - Early 80s Opening Theme

This is the opening credits from the early 1980s for the soap opera The Guiding Light.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• soap
• opera
• opening
• theme
• credits
• guiding
• light

[mthivier]

This was my favourite GL opening, perhaps because it was from my favourite GL time period (1975 - '81). The writing was at its peak, and the actors and characters were wonderful (As soap heroines go, I'll take Rita over Reva any day).  No mystery as to why GL won the "Best Soap" Emmy that year.

[gablefan01]

This is from when I loved GL. It was on just as I got home from school, and it was much classier than it is now. Remember the summer of Kelly and Morgan?

[Soapluvva]

Charlie Paul wrote this theme, "Ritournelle," but I liked his piano-organ version of "La Lumiѐre" best. Check out my tribute channel to Charlie Paul, and to my organ teacher, Eddie Layton.

Regards from NYC!

[softwater88]

I can't even begin to state how stinkin' much I loved and miss this theme. It brings back too many lovely memories. The user "mthivier" said it best when that user stated that the years '75-'81 were the best years. And they were!! It was when The Dobson's/Bridget & Jerome, were the writers. She is the daughter of General Hospital creators Frank & Doris Hursley. I totally miss the user "eonsftfan"'s closing version of Ritournelle. I was very inconsolable when this theme ceased in late 1981!!

[GenXorcist1976]

Ahhhh, the GL opening of my childhood. I love it - THANK YOU!!

[nflannery59]

Even someone my age (26) appreciates the history of these soap openings and closings. My grandma and I used to watch guiding light, young and the restless, bold and the beautiful, and as the world turns. It was like a summer noon time religion when mom and dad was at work. I was always like what will go on next?

[TimothySEnglish]

@TheWhatsinaname I actually met John Wesley Shipp during the summer of 1982 in downstate Illinois where he was performing Oklahoma at the local theatre on the square (Eileen Fulton and Don Hastings also performed there back in the 60s and 70s). We were in the restaurant next to the theater and my aunt and grandmother pointed to the booth where he sat and said "That's him". I got his autograph, he was a very nice man.

[TheWhatsinaname]

@TimothySEnglish Kelly and Morgan's big summer storyline (with John Wesley Shipp & Kristen Vigard in the roles) was in the summer of 1980. They got married in August 1981, though. I was in high school at the time, junior going into senior year.

[marctheark]

Great Summer Episodes from 1980 - 1983.

[davemock]

The "The" departed in late 1981, at the time this music ("Ritournelle") was shelved in favor of the "disco opening." PR announcements to the newspapers until then still referred to the show's full title. Getting rid of the "The" made and makes no sense to me.

[rockhopper10r]

I'm guessing this is the point that the announcer stopped referring to it as "The" Guiding Light, which had not been the on-screen title for several years. It was referred to as "The award-winning Guiding Light" until 1983 when the announcer went to just "Guiding Light". I started watching in 1982 and, though I remembered it being "The Guiding Light" when I was little, for my own watching, I only remember without the definite article.

[sara31tx]

1983-1998 were the best years too me..I watch soaps for the trials and tribulations anyway.. it's what makes a Soap Opera