“Secret Agent Man” (Johnny Rivers)

Today’s classic song about a particular kind of man is about a “Secret Agent Man.” As recorded by Johnny Rivers, this single was released in March of 1966 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box Top 100.

“Secret Agent Man” was written by the team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who wrote so many hits for the Grass Roots and others that it’s hard to keep count. This one was written as the theme song for the British spy show called Danger Man, and P.F. Sloan’s original demo was titled “Danger Man” and had lots of danger men in the lyrics. (“Look out Danger Man… Think fast Danger Man,” and such.)

Danger Man was a show produced for British television starring Patrick McGoohan as John Drake, an operative for a secretive NATO intelligence organization. The first series consisted of 30-minute black & white episodes that all started with the following exposition:

Every government has its secret service branch. America, CIA; France, Deuxième Bureau; England, MI5. NATO also has its own. A messy job? Well that’s when they usually call on me or someone like me. Oh yes, my name is Drake, John Drake.

(Note that the “NATO has its own” line wasn’t always present; the NATO affiliation was played down in later episodes.)

That first 39-episode series of Danger Man aired from 1960 to 1962 and was a global success, even here in the U.S., where it aired on the CBS television network. ITC Entertainment couldn’t immediately secure financing for a second series, however, and the show was effectively cancelled. When the show was revived in 1964, to play off the success of the James Bond movie series, the episodes were expanded to an hour in length and the show got a new theme song called “High Wire.”

Here in the United States, the second series of Danger Man was renamed Secret Agent and was accompanied by Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” as the theme song. That theme song only appeared in U.S.-aired episodes; the rest of the world got the “High Wire” theme. The second and subsequent third series were aired as a summer replacement program on CBS in the U.S.

Let’s let Johnny Rivers himself tell the story:

“We were approached by the producers of a television show called Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. It was huge in Europe, but hadn’t been brought over to North America yet. They only had an instrumental theme song with a harpsichord, and asked if we would be interested in putting together a little theme song for the American version. So when we were back stateside [from Europe], I got together with P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, whom I had been working with and recording some of their songs, and we came up with something. I just stole that opening [guitar] riff from “The James Bond Theme,” and they wrote the lyrics and melody. Then we went in and recorded it for the show—just a verse and chorus with the little instrumental part. People started calling the radio stations, and the stations started calling the record companies saying, ‘You’ve got to put that out, it’s a big hit.‘ So we had to go back in and record it again with more lyrics, and that became the song that eventually became the hit.”

I’m a huge fan of the Danger Man/Secret Agent series. Patrick McGoohan’s John Drake was a thinking man’s spy, seldom resorting to gunplay and even less seldom romancing the lady of the week. I think I like the half-hour episodes the best, although the hour-long shows had more room to breathe and throw in more characterization and more intricate plots.

By the way, there are some who believe (with justification) that the character of John Drake became the character of Number Six in McGoohan’s next series, The Prisoner. The thinking goes that Drake resigned his commission then got hijacked to a mysterious island where the powers that be used various nefarious means to get him to divulge his secrets. The Prisoner is a cult favorite, even if McGoohan himself denies the association with his previous series.

And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the intro and theme song for McGoohan’s second series, The Prisoner. It’s a favorite, too.