Well, it’s all looking a bit fraught across the pond today with the election result in the balance and the votes still being counted (very legally). All a bit tense here in the UK too, with a new lockdown due to start at midnight. As an antidote to all that real world nonsense, let’s head back in time to a country that doesn’t even exist any more, and spend some time with Julia and her beautiful Lipizanner horses.
I started a new series recently called Balm For The Soul and I think this next song fits that category perfectly. If like me you were born at the start of the ’60s, you will remember kids telly featured many European dramas, such as Belle and Sebastian (the Scottish indie band took their name from it) and the wonderful White Horses. It was made by a Yugoslavian television company and followed the adventures of Julia and the Lipizanner horses raised on her Uncle Dimitri’s stud farm outside Belgrade. It came to our shores in 1968, dubbed into English, and soon became a firm favourite with horse-loving girls. The best bit of the show however was the theme song, White Horses sung by Jacky. Some pieces of music just can’t help but make you feel good and this is most definitely one of them, often coming at the top of polls for the best TV theme song ever.
Looking at my trusty Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, it seems White Horses reached the No. 10 spot in April 1968. Jacky was actually Jackie Lee from Ireland who had another hit in 1971 with Rupert, the song from the show based on the famous cartoon character, Rupert Bear. She certainly seems to have cornered that sector of the market.
I remember once feeling incredibly stressed ahead of a particular set of exams. One morning, rather than hitting the books, I took myself along to the only television lounge in our student Halls of Residence and spent a good few hours watching kids telly. By lunchtime I felt refreshed and ready to pick up my revision timetable again (as you expect, I had many). Of course I can’t now remember if White Horses was one of the shows I watched, but it is highly likely as it was repeated often, right through the ’70s. That theme song, and the whole nostalgia aspect, would have got me right back on track I’m sure. Let’s hope it does the same for us now.
Until next time….
White Horses Lyrics
(Song by Michael Carr/Ben Nisbet)
On white horses let me ride away
To my world of dreams so far away
Let me run
To the sun.
To a world my heart can understand
It’s a gentle warm and wonderland
Far away
Stars away
Where the clouds are made of candy floss
As the day is born.
When the stars are gone
We’ll race to meet the dawn
So when I can only see the grey
Of a sad and very lonely day
That’s when I softly sigh
On white horses
Snowy white horses
Let me ride away
What's It All About? 
60’s kids telly..magic. I recall Flashing Blade…well I say recall, it seemed that whenever I caught it during the school holidays it always seemed to be the same episode..maybe they only made one hahaha.
It consisted of two dandily dressed musketeer type fellows arguing in a castle then laughing manically whilst lackeys in uniforms fired canons at some distant foe, and lets not forget another dandy riding around on a horse. This was all dubbed and seemed to be fantastically exotic to me….simpler times indeed.
Oh and it had a fantastic theme tune…well i hope it did.
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I don’t have such clear memories of that one but it seems it was French, dubbed, and there were only four 75-minute episodes originally. The BBC cut them into 22 minute episodes, but not that many all in all. We didn’t have much in the way of entertainment back then compared with the kids of today so understandable that we still remember them fondly today.
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No mention of my favourite from that era,Robinson Crusoe (I now have the DVD set of that fantastic series).
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Oh yes, Robinson Crusoe had a great theme tune too. I’m going to have a look for it. Ah, sublime.
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An interesting notion: What is the best ever theme song for a TV show? I always liked the one from Bonanza. It’s pretty rousing.
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Yes, a great idea for a new series maybe. My favourites are Hill Street Blues and Taxi, both American. I’ve just revisited the Bonanza theme and yes, very rousing as you say. The tempo of the music fits the scene where they are riding towards us on their horses. Lorne Green and a young Michael Landon. Great stuff.
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The Banana Splits!
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It is, quite simply, the aforementioned Robinson Crusoe
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George won’t be budged but yes, very happy memories of the Banana Splits and a great theme too.
The Banana Splits was a live action affair by Hanna-Barbera. It played host to Danger Island, The Three Musketeers and Arabian Knights. We still quote lines from those shows in our house – ‘Size of a lion’, ‘size of a mouse’. Happy memories, yet again, there were only 31 episodes in total over two years.
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So evocative. Who remembers Piper btw?
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No. But I can remember the tune to Rupert the Bear (and make up my own words to it)
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Yes, I can imagine!
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No I don’t remember about Peter and his magic horn. Was it one of your favourites?
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Ahhhh…. yes, definitely balm for the soul! Indeed I remember White Horses, Flashing Blade, Robinson Crusoe and the Banana Splits and their fantastic theme tunes – all so evocative – but I don’t remember Piper or Rupert the Bear (other than the Rupert annuals with their magic picture pages where you just added water and the colour appeared!)
How about the wonderful and often quite weird/dark Tales From Europe, including of course The Singing Ringing Tree? Very much a part of my growing up. I’d go back there in a flash right now (as long as I didn’t have to have school dinners again).
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Yes, a bit of nostalgia from childhood never goes wrong. I wanted to write about Tales From Europe too but it would have got too wordy. Great Medieval locations.
Magic colouring books! They didn’t require much skill but they were fun. Rupert’s checked trousers would have come up beautifully.
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The closing theme from “The Littlest Hobo” from 1963. Loved dogs then, and love dogs today.
The words are: “Traveling from town to town, sometimes I think I’ll settle down, But I know I’d hunger to be free, ramblings the only life for me. Stop over, the world is my friend. Stop over along the road without end.”
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Sorry about the post above. someone has to teach this old man how to operate around the internet. I was supposed to edit that clip down to the point at 25:05, that is where the end theme is. I hope you enjoy it. (BTW this was a weekly, half hour program for kids. give it a watch if you have the time.)
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Nice end credit song, and yes easy enough to scroll to 25:05 for it, but worth a watch all the way through too. I don’t remember watching The Littlest Hobo but can see how it would have been popular. It has been mentioned around the blogs before I’m sure. Animals seem to feature heavily in kids telly – Lassie, White Horses, the chimp & lion in Daktari and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (now that was another great song).
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How about the hand clapping song from “Dot and the Red kangaroo?” I’m (retired) American Military, and was stationed for 5 years in the old West Germany. Rented lots of videos for the kids 3 1/2 and “going on” 5 when we arrived. I cannot remember the words, but, oh, that tune! Drives me nuts at times, but in a pleasant way.
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That’s definitely a new one for me but a very beautiful theme (if I’ve sourced it correctly). Think it must have come around after my time of watching such things but too early for my daughter – nice mix of live action and animation. Thanks for sharing.
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Alyson,
As I am a Male (or “stupid man” according to my daughters at some point in their lives) and am big and awkward, I did not jump rope in my younger days, but the “hand clapping song” from “Dot and the Red Kangaroo” is one that I am sure the girls in our neighborhood used as a jump rope rhyme.
BTW, it seems that the movie title has changed from what it once was. It is now listed on YouTube as “Dot and The Kangaroo,” (without “Red” being in there.) I KNOW that was the name of the movie 35 years ago. “Am I getting old?” “Oh, no, not you.” (from Gigi)
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I’m trying to find the one you refer to but not too sure – Is this it?
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Here is the link for the entire “Dot and the Kangaroo.” https://youtu.be/d9CEQmpBblg
I don’t know if you and Mr. WIAA have grandchildren, but this entertained my two little ones for several afternoons.
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Gosh thanks. No grandchildren for us yet but if it ever happens I’m sure it will be well documented around here!
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Jacky’s ‘White Horses’ stirs deeply buried memories of a dramatic performance I was involved in sometime around 1968 or 69. Looking back, I was quite the thespian from the age of four, when I put in an appearance in my infant’s school nativity play, up until 1975 when at 15 my family moved from London to Suffolk. ‘White Horses’ was used as incidental music for a long forgotten school production and although the exact details have faded from my memory, the song itself lights a nostalgic, melancholic spark somewhere deep inside whenever I hear it.
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As you can see from the many comments left on this post, we all seem to have fond memories of kids telly and the theme music takes us right back to more innocent times. Nostalgia on a grand scale. Look at you being the star of the school nativity play. I can’t quite imagine how the White Horses theme fitted into the stable scene but perhaps it was another production.
You have definitely shared a cover of White Horses over at your place at some point because that’s when I first alerted you to my love of the song. A fair few years ago now, but I have a good memory!
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