Music that Inspired Me #8 - "Thomas the Tank Engine theme" by Mark O'Donnell and Junior Campbell

追加: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hello everybody and welcome to my channel. My name is David. This is David K Reacts and here on this channel I ramble with articulation. I hope. About a variety of different video music and audio elements of the videos that I watch. However, today I am reviving a series that has been dormant for over a year, sadly.

[00:00:17]And that is music that inspired me. And this is going to be episode number eight. And in this series I look at pieces of music that have impacted me across the years in various ways as a musician, as a person, whatever it happened to be.

[00:00:31]And today we're going back to my childhood once more. We've already been there with Thunderbirds back in one of my original videos. And we're going back there again today. And we are looking at one of my favorite pieces of music that is so iconic, I think, and is so well known. And that is the original theme tune for Thomas the Tank Engine, written by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell.

[00:00:54]This was originally out in 1984.

[00:00:57]And it's one of those pieces of music that I hasn't lost an inch over the years. And I think it's partly because it is such a phenomenal example of a train song.

[00:01:09]And that's a little bit about what I want to talk about today.

[00:01:12]Um These videos are I'm not really going to analyze the music. I know it extremely well. This is more for you to get to know me a little bit and understand what makes me tick musically.

[00:01:22]I was releasing one of these a month at one point in time and I'm hoping to go back to doing that again cuz I just enjoy them and it's nice to talk about music that I can't really react to.

[00:01:31]Um so yeah, Thomas the Tank Engine. I don't remember the first episode of these I sat down to watch. They're of course based on the books by the Reverend is it R.W. Awdry, I think his name is.

[00:01:43]Um And I don't think I ever read them. I don't think that was something that ever crossed my path, but I did see the TV program. And the only memory I have besides the theme of actually watching the program that is.

[00:01:57]Besides the the the visual of the theme of Thomas going past the windmill pulling I think it's Annie and Clarabel.

[00:02:04]And then going under the bridge with the boy standing over the top of it.

[00:02:08]And pulling into the station at the end.

[00:02:10]I have those images. And I have there was the episode where somebody ran off the rails. Might have been James.

[00:02:17]Ran off the rails and they had to send the trucks with the cranes to pick him back up again. And the music and it was these same two, Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell wrote the music for the first seven seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine.

[00:02:32]And the music for those trucks working really freaked me out.

[00:02:48]>> [music] >> I think I had Thomas on book on tape too and I had to skip past that when I got to it when I was very young. Because it was just it was really tense and it was just it it really unsettled me.

[00:03:03]And it was the first time that music itself really set my teeth on edge and made me uncomfortable. Um And it sometimes it would do that because it was loud. Like if somebody started playing very loud music when I was young. I have very sensitive hearing and when I was young loud music and loud noises in general would scare me basically. I talked about that actually I think in the Thunderbirds episode. Um But this was the first time that the vibe and the tone and the instrumentation of the music creeped me out. Um and I I was very unsettled by it. And I think it's marvelous that the music did its job that well. It's just unfortunate that it impacted me the way it did. Didn't stop me watching this well, probably stopped me watching it for a month or two, but I went back to it because I've always had a fascination with trains. Steam trains in particular.

[00:03:50]I think there's just something very elegant about even though I I'm aware that you know, you're burning a lot of coal and it's pollutant and all that kind of thing. But there there is a there's a an elegance and a to to a certain degree these days I think a decadence to a steam train. I've ridden several.

[00:04:07]We have a lot of preserved railways in the UK and I've ridden on a few of those.

[00:04:12]And it's just magnificent and I always had a dream to go on the Orient Express and you know, be pulled across Europe by a steam train. Um I just think there's something remarkable about trains as a as a thing, you know, what a what a development.

[00:04:26]And train songs are a lot of fun. I think there's there's a lot there's you can play a lot with them.

[00:04:34]Um the Chattanooga Choo Choo is you can play around, you know, you've got the pardon me boy woo woo kind of thing. You can mess around with what the brass do to create that. The entirety of the musical Starlight Express. I know it is not particularly highly thought of. I have a soft spot for it. Um And I think they do some very good work at creating train sounds in that.

[00:04:55]There's I cannot remember the name.

[00:04:57]Is it Commencing and Chattanooga? I think it might be called. It's the opening song for the musical Kander and Ebb's musical The Scottsboro Boys is a fantastic train song.

[00:05:09]There is one other I may touch on at some point in time. I'm not sure. But I think one of the most effective train songs of all time is Thomas the Tank Engine. And I think that is in no small part from the fact that they actually use train like sounds as the percussion in the song. I think that adds a lot.

[00:05:28]There's a very strong beat to it which can kind of work with the rhythm of the train. But they use the kind of like the brake um the sound of the brakes releasing like that kind of gas vent as the high hat symbol. They have a I think it's just a triangle, but it could almost be like a train bell that rings the whole way through. Like they do a lot of work to make this sound like it's a train song. And I really appreciate that.

[00:05:57]So yeah, it's it's stayed with me ever since. It also does and I didn't I wish I'd thought of this sooner to analyze it musically when I was older. I saw Charles Cornell, who's one of my favorite musical analysts. I will put a link to this video in the description because it is such an interesting watch.

[00:06:15]Did a study as to why the Thomas the Tank Engine music is kind of wild musically. And when you think about it, one of the things I really appreciate about kids music being good and this goes for Thunderbirds, this goes for this, this goes for many series, but also the cartoon themes I recently covered in Tommy Johansson's cartoon medley goes metal. Like some of those things.

[00:06:37]This music is a kid's early introduction to music. And so when it isn't afraid to be different and there's a really good example of this I may do as one of these down the line from Sesame Street.

[00:06:53]But when it isn't afraid to do something different, it becomes fascinating and you don't necessarily understand as a kid why it is different. And the big thing with this is the opening.

[00:07:05]The da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da is in A flat.

[00:07:11]The key of A flat.

[00:07:13]And the song itself, the main melody of the tune is in the key of C. And that is such a wild unexpected shift.

[00:07:23]Um It's it's just so out of nowhere and it's almost illogical and yet it works perfectly. Um Very very cool. Watch Charles's video if you're interested in this piece or if you're just interested in understanding music theory a bit more. His channel's really good for that. He dives at it quite hard.

[00:07:41]But it's fascinating and he makes it his enthusiasm and his love for music is infectious and makes it much more easy to absorb what he's saying. But anyway, I'm not going to talk about it too much. We're just going to start listening to this and I may commentate at a couple of parts.

[00:07:56]In case you haven't seen any of my videos recently, I am in my new space. Uh there may be a few glitches with the internet. And I'm recording this on the same day I just recorded my reaction analysis video for Pentatonix's Hallelujah. And there is massive road works going on right outside my window.

[00:08:14]So there may be some outside noise for which I apologize. I can block it out if I'm not speaking, but you may hear it when I'm talking.

[00:08:21]Hopefully not too much, but anyway, I also would like to say a big thank you before I dive into this and I will link to this in my description so that you can check it out. To Sodor's Music Station, the YouTube channel Sodor's Music Station, who has uploaded this particular piece of music in high quality. And I really appreciate that because it brings forward some of the elements that are harder to hear in some of the low-fi audio that's in some of the other videos.

[00:08:47]Um so I will link to this original video in the description. Please do you know, go and check it out. And I don't know if this is what he does on his channel or they do on their channel.

[00:08:56]I realize I should probably answer that question and I didn't really look at it.

[00:09:00]Um just sharing Thomas and Friends songs from all ages. Yeah, so I think it's doing looks like there's some filtered instrument work that's going on there. There's high quality uploads, things like that. So if you like Thomas music, this looks like it's a good channel to check out as far as I can tell.

[00:09:18]But without any further delay, I'm going to start and I will probably stop this a couple of times and and just comment on some stuff as we go through.

[00:09:30]There's the A flat.

[00:09:33]And now we're in C. [music] I am actually just going to stop and go straight back to the beginning cuz the A there There's the A flat. There's the C. Which we're going to go to in just a minute.

[00:09:46]Wild.

[00:09:47]But I love I I enjoy the fact that this is an interesting mix of synthesized and acoustic instruments as well. I I didn't mention that, but I think that's wonderful like you have actual piano and stuff like that. It It It's It's a really nice blend. I think that what they did with this theme is fantastic.

[00:10:17]>> [music] [music] >> How can you get more train-like than that? So, my guess is and I don't know this. I don't know the details of this. There's the in the background which I imagine is a cabasa, which is one of those It's like the cylinder that has the all the beads around it and you rotate it to make a sound. Um the that's going on that's lower down could actually just be sandpaper. I'm not 100% certain. So, here's the thing.

[00:10:56]The couple of elements we have here and I'm not going to keep going back, but I do just want to make this point.

[00:11:01]>> [music] >> You've got this like this very strong every beat percussion, but then you have this kind of thing going on in the background and it's giving this rhythm. It's a that is kind of what a train feels like when it's running and that's where I think this succeeds so well.

[00:11:37]>> [music] [music] [music] >> And I love here where it goes and you kind of you've got these sort of train whistles in the background, but at the same time you got this chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk in the background from the piano. The percussion has double-timed all of a sudden where you got this instead of the where you had this really definitive very very slow beat that was just kind of keep Now it's kind of we've got a more of a gallopy kind of feel going on.

[00:12:33]>> [music] >> I love those slides up the Really really lovely the slide This leads to the slides in that.

[00:12:50]Also lovely bit of rhythm there, too.

[00:12:59]And then Really lovely triplet suddenly out of nowhere that completely breaks our rhythmic focus.

[00:13:09]>> [music] >> And that chord change right there, too.

[00:13:17]Charles talks about that one. Completely out of nowhere.

[00:13:21]>> [music] >> And even this with the the the metallic sound, as well. Again, so train-like. Ding ding, you know, all aboard, let's go.

[00:13:41]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Also, when you think about it, just listening to it, there's a lot going on.

[00:14:31]This is an involved piece of music.

[00:14:34]There's two or three different layers of different things happening all at once at this point.

[00:14:43]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And then all of a sudden out of nowhere we get this ragtime ending to the piece of music, which is wild.

[00:15:38]>> [music] >> Dum dum dum dum [singing] da da ga dum da. It's touching on ragtime at that point. It does that you know, it's it's a little bit cross-style, but that could be the ending of the song right there and then they threw this in.

[00:15:59]Which is such a ragtimey thing to do, but also listen to the processing, the mixing that has been done on the piano a little earlier.

[00:16:13]Like there's a little bit of reverb in it, but it's not crazy. It decays fairly fast.

[00:16:18]>> [music] [music] >> And all of a sudden this is reverbed up the wazoo.

[00:16:28]So, I'm wondering if this was added on to the end at some point in time as an afterthought. It's a really cool way to finish, don't get me wrong, but the sound production feels different to the original music.

[00:16:47]And then that ending there again. Is that a repeat? Sorry, I I've only just thought of this.

[00:16:54]>> [music] >> No, I don't think it is.

[00:17:00]No, I don't think it is cuz they roll the chord on that.

[00:17:05]Whereas the first one is just dum. It's just straight down. So, I think those are two different takes. But fascinating. I'd never actually thought of that, but it does the the the musical production is very different for that last little section. So, I wonder if that was something they added in later.

[00:17:17]Anyway, all that to say that is I'm just going to get rid of this AI-generated thing on the screen. Go away. There we go. Uh that is the Thomas & Tank Engine and Friends theme. And I just I love it.

[00:17:30]I think it's a magnificent piece of music. Um so, yeah, just sharing another little bit of my childhood, too. Not just my musical inspiration. Um and I hope that you enjoyed that. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into it.

[00:17:41]And uh maybe that brought back some memories for some folks cuz wow, what a piece of music. What a piece of music.

[00:17:47]Anyway, please do hit the like button, subscribe button, and notification bell.

[00:17:50]And if you would care to support the channel, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com/davidkreacts where you can leave a one-off donation of any amount. You can head to patreon.com/davidkreacts and sign up for two or four Canadian dollars or your regional equivalent, which will give you ongoing support of the channel and access to my Discord.

[00:18:07]And there is more coming in the near future uh to that Patreon. Or you could leave a super thanks here on YouTube and any of those very gratefully appreciated. Thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I will see you in the next video. Bye for now.