Keith Mansfield is a British composer and arranger known for his creation of prominent television theme tunes, including the Grandstand theme for the BBC. Other works include "The Young Scene" (the original 1968 theme to The Big Match), "Light and Tuneful" (the opening theme for the BBC's coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships), "World Champions" (the closing theme for NBC's coverage of the same tournament), and "World Series" (used for the BBC's athletics coverage). One of his library music recordings, "Teenage Carnival", was used as the theme to the cult 1960s ITV children's television series Freewheelers. He has also composed film scores for British movies such as Loot (1970) and Taste of Excitement (1970), and the western Three Bullets for a Long Gun (1971).
Mansfield is probably best known by American audiences as the composer of the tune "Funky Fanfare", used for underscoring in the Astro Daters series of snipes produced by the National Screen Service in the late 1960s. That song is currently used during the opening credits of the show Pit Boss on Animal Planet, as well as backing music for the "Quick Hits" segment on the Sklarbro Country podcast.
I've been traveling all these years,
Just barely getting by.
The road can be your friend
Or the devil in disguise.
When the tough get going,
The muses visit me.
Yet in soft, low tones,
They always say to me,
Say to me,
"It ain't no groove thing,
It ain't no country twang,
It's a simple refrain;
It's a soul thang."
Where the city street meets the county road,
Where the sun is nice and warm,
No matter how long I may roam,
This song still takes us home,
Takes us home.
Now we'll tell you about these times,
When the blues come out to play,
And jazz leaves her number...
It's funny, she always says:
"It ain't no groove thing,
It ain't no country twang,
It's a simple refrain;
It's a soul thang."
Now I'll tell you about these times,
When the blues come out to play,
And jazz leaves her number...
It's funny, she always says:
"Well, the city lights fly by me,
As their eyes are getting heavy.
We're sending our love over telephone wire.
These days getting lonelier by the mile...by the mile."
It ain't no groove thing,
It ain't no country twang,
It's a simple refrain;
It's a soul thang.
It ain't no groove thing,
Yeah, ain't no country twang,
It's a simple refrain;