The strange tale of the first US number one from behind the Iron Curtain
When rumours began circulating that ‘Winds of Change’ had actually been written by the CIA rather than Scorpion, the first question most rational minds asked was why would they do that? Why would a civilian foreign intelligence service get involved with soft-rock balladry and whistling melodies? Simply put, you can influence people and places through culture without them barely noticing—cheesy choruses are far more catchy than economic strategies in the mind of the proletariat. So, when viewed in the cold light of day, it is a tale no stranger than the bonafide first number-one hit in the US from behind the Iron Curtain.
As explained by Britannica, the Iron Curtain was “the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II.” It was essentially where siding with Russia stopped, and siding with America began. So, with the rhetoric of oppositional Cold War sentiments being firmly drilled in back in the US, it seemed remarkable that in 1985, a track could penetrate the Iron Curtain and not only claim the top spot on the Billboard charts but also go on to become a defining theme for American life—a tune just about every one of its citizens will have heard.
Miami Vice was symbolic of American ideals. Glitzy, glamorous, excessive, and above all, a giant commercial success, the show represented a clear display of how Western culture defined ‘coolness’. You wouldn’t catch Miles Davis doing a little speedboat cameo on any crumby show about stoicism and the virtues of technical proficiency in landscape painting from Estonia. America was abstract, fast, and free—even for drug dealers exercising their right to “make it” before the firm hand of the law in the sexy and sleek shape of undercover agents James ‘Sonny’ Crockett and Ricardo ‘Rico’ Tubbs, threw them in the slammer.
Personifying this pulpy liberation was a theme song so snazzy a single listen could effectively perm your hair. The imaginatively titled ‘Miami Vice Theme’ was hummed all over the world—a symbol of growing globalisation spearheaded by the States. It was catchy, kitsch and, frankly, absolutely awful. It was perfect, and the fact it topped the charts in 1985 and remained the last instrumental to top the Billboard Hot 100 until 2013 proved that it, too, was a huge success.
What was the first song from the Soviet Union to top the US charts?
In fact, there are few more epitomising examples in American cultural history than ‘Miami Vice Theme’. But hang on a minute? What about the artist’s name? Jan Hammer? That doesn’t sound all that American; it certainly doesn’t sound as American as the show’s star, Don Johnson, arguably the most American name in the history of names.
As it happens, the orchestrator of the most red, white and blue song in history, the soundtrack to one of the country’s most hegemonic exports, was born beyond the Iron Curtain. Jan Hammer was from Czechoslovakia. He was even a juvenile student in the esteemed communist institute, The Prague Academy of Musical Arts. So, how did he go from there to writing ‘Miami Vice Theme’ and sitting alongside Glenn Frey on one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time?
As it happens, his mother, Vlasta Průchová, happened to be one of the leading singers on the Czech jazz scene. While you might imagine this put her in league with the powers that be over in Moscow as a proud asset, she was actually prohibited from making recordings. This is because she drew her main inspiration from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, rendering her musical stylings far too Americanised for any sanctioned state releases. In fact, the official file on her states that she was once even so bold that she “provoked the audience to dance”.
So, she and her husband, Jan Hammer Sr, who was both a musician and a cardiologist, were rather sympathetic to the ways of American culture. And while Hammer Jr might have spent his musical youth touring around various Soviet cities, when the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he decided to flee the country. And when the Berklee School of Music in Boston offered him a scholarship, he decided to become a US citizen.
This was quite a coup for the American government. Hammer Jr had been the equivalent of a one-to-watch back in his homeland. No finer point could be made about America’s cultural superiority than to have him turn his back on the rigmarole and red tape in the USSR and play his craft in the free and welcoming United States. It was also hard to argue with his choice when his career led him out on tours with the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Sarah Vaughan, Joni Mitchell and Billy Cobham. He even made albums with Jeff Beck produced by the mighty Goerge Martin of The Beatles fame.
Slowly but surely, he established himself as not only a first-rate musician but, better than that, an American. By 1985, he was deemed ready to take on its new landmark show. Rubbing it in from thousands of miles away, the credit screen would state: theme by Jan Hammer, as would the charts and the liner notes on the four million albums that the soundtrack went on to sell.
The message was clear: Here stands a land so free that even a fellow born and raised by our sworn enemy can make it. Who was behind the decision for him to head up the theme for the new landmark series? Well, you’d be a fool to sully his name by speculating that there was nothing more to it than his own supreme talents. But then again, fools might just have been right to speculate about ‘Winds of Change’.
