Top Cat Theme (Tab)
With the hat, the class, the relaxed air of mischief, if Top Cat had lived in the 30s he’d certainly have been a uke player. But he was around in the 60s when no-one played the uke – there’s not even one in the Hawaiian episode. Nevertheless, the theme tune is crying out for a ukulele arrangement. A lot of jazzy turns in there – which do make it quite tricky to play.
There’s a lot of switching between picking, melody strums and supporting strums (in brackets in the tab) – which is probably best picked up by watching the video.
Top Cat – one of the highlights of my misbegotten and rapidly being forgotten youth. T.C., Benny the Ball, Fancy Fancy, Spook, The Brain, Choo Choo, and of course, Officer Dibble, or was it Dribble, T.C. had different names for him. It’s true, ukulele was off the radar in 1961-’62, but T.C. was indeed a uker at heart. And he even lived in a
tin pan alley. TV theme music was important then, and often was quite jazzy and quite good.