This is a fan video that someone made regarding Jack Lord and the TV series, Hawaii Five-O. The visuals are of no consequence but the audio's worth a listen. It's a recording of the theme with lyrics, performed on a old record by Sammy Davis Jr. It's an example of the kind of work he did that led to a famous roast line — I forget who uttered it but it was so spot-on that it was hilarious — "You know, Sammy…you're allowed to turn things down."
I don't know the entire history of this song. A gentleman named Morton Stevens, who did music for the show, composed it, including the words I believe. I'm not sure if he wrote it for the series or if it was something he already had around and used for that purpose. But there were a number of recordings of it, including this one by Sammy and another one with the lyrics as performed by Don Ho. It sure was a great TV theme…as an instrumental. Most TV show themes have lyrics even if they were never used on the air.
The Mission: Impossible lyrics are pretty awful, though not as bad as the Odd Couple lyrics. At one time or another, Sammy Davis probably performed them all. Somewhere here, I have a recording of him doing the theme from My Mother, the Car, including the second stanza, which was never heard on the show. (It begins, "Well, everything my daddy never was / That's what she wants me to be / She's taken her place / As the fifth member of my small family.")
Every so often, I catch an old Hawaii Five-O in rerun. Some of them are quite good in spite of their repetitive nature. Years ago, I wrote this article about that. Here's Sammy…