Believe it or Not: Remembering the Theme from The Greatest American Hero

It was such a good song, I not only recorded it directly off TV, but it was one of the first singles I ever bought on a .45 record.

It was just like John Sebastien’s “Welcome Back” from “Welcome Back, Kotter” before it, and B.J. Thomas and Dusty Springfield’s “As Long as We’ve Got Each Other” from “Growing Pains” after it.

“Believe it or Not” by Joey Scarbury from “The Greatest American Hero” was much more than just a theme song from a TV show. It was a bonified chart success.

The song
The creators of “Believe it or Not” were a blend of experience and youth. The song was composed by Mike Post who was legendary in TV anthem circles for shows such as “The Rockford Files”, “The A-Team”, “Hill Street Blues”, “Magnum P.I.”, “L.A. Law”, “Quantum Leap”, and “NYPD Blue”.

It was sung by Joey Scarbury (although I heard it mis-pronounced often as Joey Scarborough), after he began working for Mike Post.

Together, they created an unforgettable song.

Chart success
“Believe it or Not” was recorded both as a full length single, which I bought on .45, and cut down to about a minute for television.

The song benefitted from the exposure the show gave it. “Believe it or Not” entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 countdown on June 13, 1981 and went all the way to number two for two weeks in August. It could just not displace from the number one spot that powerful ballad “Endless Love” by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. It spent 18 weeks in the Top 40 and ended 1981 as the number 11 song of the year. It also hit number 1 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and number three on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.

The time after
“Believe it or Not” would also be part of 1981's “America’s Greatest Hero”, Scarbury’s first and only studio released album. That album had some heavy hitters with songs written by Bruce Hornsby and Dan Seals.

Scarbury would team up with Mike Post again in 1984 to perform the song “Back to Back”. It was the theme song for part of the second season of the drama “Hardcastle and McCormack”, another Stephen J. Cannell Production. "Back to Back" had replaced “Drive”, which was the initial theme song for the first season. “Back to Back” was the theme song for the first 12 episodes of the second season but, because of fan backlash, “Drive” returned for the 13th episode, and remained through the second and all of the third and final season.

I have another odd memory. There was this comedy called “Jennifer Slept Here”, starring Ann Jillian as the ghost of an actress. I noticed Scarbury sang the theme song for that show as well, but that was the last I ever saw of him.

Personal memories
I loved “Believe it or Not” so much, I recorded the song off the TV, using this old tape recorder my brother left me, with the microphone it came with and a blank tape I bought at Radio Shack. I listened to it over and over to try and learn the words. The recording was not the best, so I actually taped it again off TV. It was better, but not the best. So, one Saturday when I went to Lethbridge with my parents, my Mom and I paid a visit to Anglo Stereo and Photo. It was the premiere music store in Lethbridge, with a massive selection in the basement. It was there I bought “Believe it or Not” on .45.

I took it home and used my Mom’s old record player to play that song over and over until I could sing along when “The Greatest American Hero” started.

Everyone at school knew I loved the song. We had a little dance in our classroom in Grade 7 or 8, when Mrs. Ober was our home room teacher for both years. Some of my classmates pushed aside all the desks and I heard my friend Tony Curtis call my name.

I looked up just as Tony started dancing, with his partner Michelle, to the sounds of – “Believe it or Not”.

Resurgence
What prompted my memories of “Believe it or Not” was hearing it in a commercial for State Farm insurance on TV. Earlier this year “Believe it or Not” was also in a Tide detergent commercial, which ran during the 2021 Super Bowl.

Parting thoughts
The other night I decided to watch one of my favourite episodes of “The Greatest American Hero” on demand. The minute I saw the space ship approaching Earth and “Believe it or Not” starting to play, I was taken back all those years ago. I could still sing along, because the words are still in my head.

Then an interesting thing happened. I couldn’t get the song out of my head the whole next day.

That just shows the power of that song.

It still remains one of my favourite all-time songs – believe it or not.