By Paulo Camacho
Television host, college athlete, musician to the stars — John Tesh has done a lot in the entertainment industry, and it has all lent to quite possibly his greatest composition: Roundball Rock.
What does a former Entertainment Tonight host and an orchestral concert in Morrison, Colorado have to do with this?
Perhaps I should start from the beginning.
It is a packed crowd at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in August of 1994. The fading applause gives way to the personality who stood in front of the main stage — five arches brilliantly backlit in purple. He was telling an interesting little anecdote about the song he was about to perform. Oddly enough, the song in question can easily be equated to the influences that made the man who composed it, who he was, as an entertainer, and as a musician.
As it were, the composer was commissioned to write a sports theme back in 1990. At the time, he was on assignment, covering the Tour de France, and a piano was not available to him in the hotel at which he was staying, to help him compose. Sparked with a note of inspiration for the theme, and not wanting to lose it, he was forced to record it for later. Remember that this was the early 1990s, where the latest recording technology was limited to VHS tapes and audio cassettes.
In that case, he did the only thing he could at the time: call his home phone and leave a message on his answering machine. The theme he hastily hummed on the phone subsequently became one of the most recognizable sports themes of the 20th century — played thousands of times for “NBA on NBC” broadcasts.
The song, crudely hummed into his answering machine, was “Roundball Rock.” The composer was 90s television personality John Tesh.
(Side note: Watch the whole video. It’s really interesting. It’s also a bonus if you’re a 1990s NBA fan.)
It is perhaps one of the greatest sports tunes in the modern music history, likely because of the vehicle with which it is associated — for many who know “Roundball Rock” best, it represents an era of NBA basketball that may never be duplicated: From the conclusion of the “Magic Johnson / Larry Bird” Era, heralding the end of two of the best to ever lace up a pair of basketball shoes, to the height of Michael Jordan’s reign as greatest athlete of the 20th century; From the Chicago Bulls Dynasty to the Ewing-Era New York Knicks; From the rise of Shaquille O’Neal as a dominant force in the NBA to the Utah Jazz’s runs at the championship that fell short to MJ’s Bulls — Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” became synonymous with it all.
And it’s no wonder that someone as talented as John Tesh would come up with such an iconic theme. Those who simply knew him as the longtime host of Entertainment Tonight only knew a small part of his “Renaissance Man”-like career. He was also an accomplished musician who had influences in both sports and entertainment. These influences would eventually coalesce into what many know today as “Roundball Rock”.
Born in Garden City, New York in 1952, John Frank Tesh started playing both piano and trumpet at the age of six. His musical talents allowed him to study with teachers from Juilliard, and helped him land with the New York State Symphonic Orchestra while he was still in high school. He went to college at North Carolina State, where he studied music and communications.
It was shortly thereafter, in 1974, where Tesh wanted to learn the ropes in the communications business, essentially begging for a part-time job with a radio station in Raleigh. The station’s program director, Pat Patterson, apparently hired him as a result of Tesh being 6’6” — they could use him for the station’s recreational basketball team. Seeing that he had an athletic background — he had been a collegiate athlete in both lacrosse and soccer while at NC State — it seemed like a convenient match.
Tesh would soon prove, however, that he was a quick study in the entertainment business, as well. His quick study, coupled with his smooth baritone voice, helped him excel as a broadcast journalist. He bounced from Raleigh to Orlando to Nashville, before settling with WCBS-TV in New York, where he stayed for 12 years. He started as the station’s youngest-ever reporter, at the age of 23. He moved on from WCBS to his most famous stint in the entertainment business — co-hosting with Mary Hart on the long-running news show Entertainment Tonight — in 1986, where he would end up staying for ten years.
Despite his success in the entertainment news circuit, music was always his passion. While working as a sportscaster for CBS Sports in 1982, Tesh produced music to accompany his coverage of the Tour de France. Viewer demand prompted Tesh to sell copies of his music — all told, more than 30,000 copies were sold out of his garage. From there, he would produce music for a number of sporting events, including The Championships at Wimbledon, the NFL, the World Gymnastics Championships, the Ironman Triathalon, the Olympics, and — of course — his most famous work, “Roundball Rock” for the NBA on NBC.
While he proved to be a talented composer, he also proved to be an exceptional performer. It started in 1987 — a year after he began his stint with Entertainment Tonight — when Tesh called up his friend and fellow musician Yanni to see if he could hop onto his tour band, promoting the latter’s new album Out of Silence, as a keyboardist. It would prove to be his first gig as an onstage performer, and would later pay dividends for Tesh’s recording career. All told, his music career would nab him six music Emmys, two Grammy nominations, three gold records, and 8 million records sold. And he would be known as both a composer and a performer for his unique blend of energetic melodies, neo-classic showmanship, and athletic themes.
And, from sports, to broadcasting, to his musical roots, all of the elements that have shaped Tesh’s adult life shine brightest in his famous NBA theme. Watch the video again — the showmanship displayed comes from a classic entertainer. The arrangement of “Roundball Rock” shows his innate sense of understanding for what a sports anthem needs to be — especially in a time like the 1990s, where a special flair for standing out was coveted. And the use of a 40-piece orchestra speaks to his talent as a composer. It’s the perfect song to encapsulate a Renaissance Man like John Tesh.