Vic Mizzy got married to The Addams Family theme song

What other song would his bride walk up the aisle to?

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In 1965, The Addams Family aired a popular episode called "Lurch the Teenage Idol," where the towering butler became a pop sensation overnight.

The humor of the episode comes from seeing Lurch surrounded by screaming teens, but that extreme level of fame that Lurch experienced always eluded The Addams Family composer Vic Mizzy, who in the Sixties never gained the household name status of his equally prolific composer peers.

For the majority of Mizzy’s career, he penned hundreds of songs for hit artists like Dean Martin, Doris Day and Billie Holiday, but for decades upon decades, the only song he ever recorded under his own name was The Addams Family theme song.

Of course, if he was going to pick one of his songs to lay down on vinyl, he picked the most popular one. It’s said that the only song played more frequently than The Addams Family theme song is the "Star-Spangled Banner."

Over the years, the theme song became very close to Mizzy’s heart and there’s no greater proof of his bond with the song than the fact that when he married his third bride in 2001, he had his wife walk down the aisle to his most famous song.

The story goes that Mizzy fell in love with Shirley Leeds and they decided to get married when he was 85 years old. When they got hitched at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, The Addams Family theme song chimed as Leeds approached Mizzy at the altar – a resoundingly different way of hearing wedding bells.

Three years later, one of Mizzy’s friends tried to convince him to record more of his own songs.

In 2004, he released Songs for the Jogging Crowd to appease his friend, the same year he was tapped to compose the theme song to the hit movie Spider-Man 2.

Through the years, he never stopped composing and for Mizzy, singing his own songs was certainly familiar. He’d been meeting up with his old friend Eddie Albert frequently for decades to sing songs and share meals together. But recording the songs still felt strange after all that time.

"I’m just a new fella to this," Mizzy told the Quad-City Times in 2005.

He said he decided to follow through with his friend’s idea after waking from a particularly disturbing dream.

"I had a nightmare a year and a half ago where Ringo Starr recorded an album where he sings the songs of The Sound of Music," Mizzy said. "I woke up in a cold sweat. If he can do the songs of The Sound of Music, I can do my own songs."

We might think it’s strange to think that anyone might not know Mizzy by name today, but it’s clear despite his immense talents, the composer never really sought the spotlight in his life. He had a much simpler goal when writing his memorable tunes.

"When a songwriter writes a song, all he’s hoping is that someone will really like it," Mizzy said.

We bet after it became their wedding song, he and his bride had a new reason to love The Addams Family theme song.

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25 Comments

eddiecantorfan 32 months ago
Vic MIZZY did a fantastic job
composing The Green Acres
Theme Song and The Addams
Family Theme Song.
TheDavBow3 33 months ago
Vic composed "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" soundtrack. Very talented guy.
Jeffrey 33 months ago
Hello. This is my first time reading this article and comment about it. I think it was very informative. A lot I didn't know about Vic Mizzy. Thank you MeTV.
MrsPhilHarris 33 months ago
I could have sworn I commented on this story yesterday.
vinman63 33 months ago
I guess his estate is still making money.
He never had an agent and has always negotiated his own contracts. He still holds the publishing rights for his work.
Per IDMB
Richard 33 months ago
Mizzy was my idol after he composed the theme for Green Acres. The accordion, xylophone and other offbeat sounds made for a unique blend of cornball, rural based humorous background. I realize Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction have their admirers. But I'll take Vic Mizzy, Green Acres and the Addams Family any day but Sunday.
Runeshaper 33 months ago
Props to Vic Mizzy! The guy created an AWESOME theme song + he know how to ring in a wedding! (-:
SallyBrown 33 months ago
My favorite Vic Mizzy score is from The Ghost & Mr. Chicken😂
See Wikipedia info below:
He also wrote the scores for five Don Knotts films, including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968) (released on CD by Percepto in 2007), The Love God? (1969) and How to Frame a Figg (1971),[2] releasing scores on a Compact Disc companion to some of their DVD releases.[7]
JosephScarbrough 33 months ago
This article fails to mention that Vic Mizzy also did the music for GREEN ACRES.

Also, sometime during the 2000s, TV Land (when it was still good) had some kind of a sweepstakes viewers could enter, in which the winning family would get their own theme song written and composed by Mizzy.
True this article doesn't mention the Green Acres theme, but MeTV has done 2 stories on
Vic Mizzy.

https://www.metv.com/stories/watch-the-composer-of-the-green-acres-theme-song-play-and-sing-his-famous-tune

https://www.metv.com/lists/6-things-you-never-knew-about-the-green-acres-theme-song

The 6 things story mentions Vic Mizzy several times. (not the entire article but worthy mentions).
Funny you mention the Sweepstakes TV Land did. MeTV in its earlier days did Sweepstakes with prizes.

https://www.metv.com/sweepstakes/
There was also a specific piece of music Mizzy composed that's famously associated with Wednesday Addams teaching Lurch how to dance that has also been heard on GREEN ACRES a few times, such as a time where Eb and some local high schoolers were supposed to be picking apples for Oliver, but were instead dancing to the tune on the radio.
AgingDisgracefully 33 months ago
I knew a pair of Talking Heads fans who walked down the aisle to Road To Nowhere.
LoveMETV22 33 months ago
Interesting story .The Addams Family Theme song endures to this day, so there's a success story to itself.
Certainly a unique song choice for his nuptials LOL, but to each their own. It sounds as though he was satisfied at 85, so we were fortunate for his added contributions.
Catman 33 months ago
Dear Sir Richard,
If you ever record the songs from "The Sound Of Music" I'll be the first in line to buy the album. However, if you don't get around to it, I'll still always remember the other records.
Love,
A Fan
eugenebelvinandmoosefan8 33 months ago
Ellie's Theme for The Andy Griffith Show is a very beautiful instrumental
song .Does anyone know who wrote
Ellie's Theme for TAGS.
I wonder who had the worst temper-Ellie Walker or Peggy MacMillan or
Helen Crump .
Andy Taylor also dated nurse
Mary Simpson(Sue Ann Langdon)
but Mary Simpson never got mad
at Mary Simpson who was also played by Julie Adams.
All the music for The Andy Griffith show was composed by Earle Hagen, whose longterm connection with the Danny Thomas/Sheldon Leonard/Andy Griffith organization lasted over twenty-five years:
Griffith, Thomas, Gomer Pyle, Mayberry RFD, I Spy, Mod Squad, and on and on ...
Not to mention Harlem Nocturne, aka The Mike Hammer theme ...
Versatile music man, I'd say.
eugenebelvinandmoosefan8 33 months ago
Did Vic Mizzey write the theme Song
for Green Acres or was he connected
to Green Acres . I think that I Saw
the name Vic Mizzey in the closing
credits for Green Acres.
I also like The Munsters Theme Song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Mizzy
daDoctah 33 months ago
What else would he play at his wedding? How about the theme from "Green Acres", or some of the music he composed for "The Ghost and Mr Chicken"?
Mike daDoctah 33 months ago
You can find much of Vic Mizzy's music (Addams and otherwise) at YouTube.
For use at a wedding, I might have chosen Morticia's Theme ...
... but hey, that's me ...
The final scene of "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" has Don Knotts getting married to this church organ music (at 02:08): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxJjKnzCk3M
Zip 33 months ago
When I first saw the title, I thought he married the song. Dragging a record player(or a cd player since it was 2001) down the aisle.
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