The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk

Music Composed and Conducted by Joe Harnell

Orchestrations by Joe Harnell & Don Davis

Produced by Joe Harnell & Ford A. Thaxton

Release Date: 1999

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Of all the different superhero TV adaptations, the live-action ones that is, The Incredible Hulk was one of the best. For one thing, the producers didn’t have to contend with tights that, while appearing incredibly cool in the comic books, look extremely cheesy in real-life. Also, the show didn’t rely on some archnemisis that would take several shows for the hero to ultimately (and thoroughly) defeat. Instead, the approach was taken that David Banner would view his condition as some kind of disease, and seek to rid himself of it.

Joe Harnell was the composer hired to provide the music for this revolutionary, at least for the genre, TV series. In addition to the original themes and music provided for the show, there are also selections from another television production, Cliffhangers, which was also utilized for The Incredible Hulk.

Though the number of players is small, and there are some of those obnoxious late 70’s/early 80s instrumentations (read: bad synth stuff), the music does manage to succeed rather well at some parts. The pilot episode music is generally good. It relies on a lot of synth, but that fits the overall plotline of the show and it’s really not that bad. The only terribly dated music is that from the Cliffhangers (although there are some good parts even among those sections). The Lonely Man theme gets some interesting performances throughout, including an orchestral rendition in the Homecoming suite. Being from the 80s, the sound suffers from small to moderate amounts of analog hiss. Despite that, the quality is often acceptable, although parts of The Secret Empire suite sound like they were ran through an MP3 decoder multiple times at varying bit rates. Finally, included “for the sake of posterity,” there is a completely laughable disco mix of the main theme. Posterity or not, I’ll be dead before that track gets over ten seconds of playing time.

Frankly, the television music during the 80s was not great at all, especially compared to some of the music that came out in the 60s (and let’s just forget about the 70s). The heavy experimentation with synth and all was just a bad idea. Still, while The Incredible Hulk contains those aspects, it is one of the better television show scores. If you’re a fan of the series and want to get your hands on a copy of the soundtrack album, or if you like other Joe Harnell scores, you’ll probably want to add this one to your collection. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and give it a test listen before purchasing. ***

Track Listing

1 - The Incredible Hulk: Main Title - version #1 (1:34)

2 - Love Theme from The Incredible Hulk (3:06)

3 - Gamma Ray Treatment (5:52)

4 - Growing Anger (3:19)

5 - First Hulk Out / Second Hulk Out / Transformation (7:36)

6 - Growing Tension / Explosion / Hulk Rescue and Susan's Death (8:42)

7 - The Lonely Man Theme (1:35)

8 - The Incredible Hulk: Main Title - version #2 (1:13)

9 - Married: The Wedding (2:50)

10 - Prometheus: Arrival at Project Prometheus (5:15)

11 - Ricky: Montage (2:21)

12 - Stop Susan Williams: Suite (6:37)

13 - Homecoming: Suite (2:12)

14 - The Secret Empire: Suite (7:50)

15 - Prometheus: Through the Floor / Hulk on the Rampage (3:50)

16 - Married: Prelude to Tragedy / Death Scene (3:12)

17 - Pilot: Graveyard Farewell / Lonely Man Theme Reprise (3:15)

18 - Theme from The Incredible Hulk (Disco Version) (3:31)

Total Running Time: 73:50