The Simon Park Orchestra is a group best remembered for performing "

Eye Level "Eye Level" is a 1972 single by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was produced originally for the De Wolfe Music Library and selected by Thames Television to be the theme tune for their Netherlands-based detective series ''Van der Valk (1972 TV series) ...

", the theme tune for the television series ''

Van der Valk ''Van der Valk'' is a British television crime drama series produced for the ITV network by Thames Television. It ran from 13 September 1972 to 19 February 1992, with the first three series produced between 1972 and 1977, and two more being c ...

'' composed by

Jan Stoeckart Jan Stoeckart (3 November 1927 – 13 January 2017) was a Dutch composer, conductor, trombonist and former radio producer, who often worked under various pseudonyms such as Willy Faust, Peter Milray, Julius Steffaro and Jack Trombey. In the UK ...

, which spent four weeks at the number one position in the UK Singles Chart in September 1973. The song also peaked at number 13 in Australia. Simon Park was born on 13 March 1946 in

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...

, England, the son of architect Ronald Stewart Park (1921–1985). He learned to play the organ as a child and went on to study at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in music. Park began composing and conducting orchestral music for the De Wolfe music library from the early 1970s, and over the years has produced some 1,400 tracks for them. He also composed under the name Simon Haseley.De Wolfe Music.
Behind the Music: Simon Park
', YouTube interview, 18 April 2021 Following the success of "Eye Level", (which was arranged and conducted by Park but not one of his own compositions) Columbia released two mainstream Simon Park Orchestra albums: ''Something in the Air'' and ''Venus Fly Trap''. However, no other tracks achieved the success of "Eye Level". In 1988, Surrey House Music released two more albums, ''Simon Park & His Orchestra, Volume 1'' and ''Simon Park & His Orchestra, Volume 2'', which contain instrumental versions of pop hits.

Library music

With

Cliff Twemlow Cliff Twemlow (14 October 1937 – 5 May 1993) was an English actor, film screenwriter, producer, composer and novelist. He is notable for pioneering, in the early 1980s, the production of independently-made low-budget films made for the home vi ...

and Peter Taylor, Park co-wrote "Distant Hills", which was used as the closing theme tune to the television series ''

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

'' (1972–84). He wrote the music for the 1972

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

mystery quiz '' Whodunnit?'', for ''Cross Country Go'', a

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

made by

British Movietone News Movietone News was a newsreel that ran from December 1927 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Spain in the early 1930s a ...

in 1974, and incidental music for the wartime TV series ''

Danger UXB ''Danger UXB'' is a 1979 British ITV television series set during the Second World War. It was developed by John Hawkesworth and starred Anthony Andrews as Lieutenant Brian Ash, an officer in the Royal Engineers (RE). The series chronicl ...

'' in 1979. As Simon Haseley he contributed incidental music to the TV series ''

The Sweeney ''The Sweeney'' is a British police drama television series focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective ...

'' (1975–78). He has continued to produce music for the De Wolfe music library, some of which was used in films such as '' Eskimo Nell'' (1975), and he composed the score for the film ''

Nutcracker A nutcracker is a tool designed to open nuts by cracking their shells. There are many designs, including levers, screws, and ratchets. The lever version is also used for cracking lobster and crab shells. A decorative version, a nutcracker doll ...

'' (1982). His music has also been used by

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...

in football highlight compilations. His library music has also been heard in more recent productions, such as ''

Ever After ''Ever After'' (known in promotional material as ''Ever After: A Cinderella Story'') is a 1998 American romantic period drama film inspired by the Charles Perrault fairy tale "Cinderella". It is directed by Andy Tennant and stars Drew Barry ...

'' (1998), ''

Spun ''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon drug subculture. I ...

'' (2002) and ''

Shaun of the Dead ''Shaun of the Dead'' is a 2004 zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden London salesman who is caught alongside his loved ones in a zombie apocalypse. It also star ...

'' (2004).Simon Park. IMDb entry
/ref> The 1972 piece "Great Day" (credited to Simon Haseley), which was scored for large orchestra, has been sampled many times, including by Beyonce in A Woman Like Me, as used in the 2006 film ''

The Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Clouseau, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the fil ...

''. Park appeared in an episode of ''

Bargain Hunt ''Bargain Hunt'' is a British television programme in which two pairs of contestants are challenged to buy antiques from shops or a fair and then sell them in an auction for a profit. It has aired on BBC One since 13 March 2000 in a daytime ...

'' which aired in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Simon, Orchestra British orchestras Easy listening musicians People from Market Harborough Production music