Soundtrack
The original score was composed by Lalo Schifrin. An edited version of the musical cue from the Tar Sequence (where the inmates are on the road paving project) has been used for many years as the news music package on several television stations' news programs around the world, mostly those owned and operated by ABC in the United States. Although the music originated from this film, to this day many people associate the tune with television news as opposed to the film itself, in part because its melody is similar to the sound of a telegraph. ABC's flagship station, WABC-TV in New York, first used it in 1968 for their Eyewitness News newscast, and it was subsequently imported to ABC's other television properties. Frank Gari, who created many news music packages, recorded an arrangement of the Tar Sequence in 1983 as News Series 2000 for WLS-TV in Chicago; this version was gradually imported to ABC's other owned-and-operated stations as well.
Schifrin significantly increased the royalties for his score in 1994, effectively pricing it out of the American news music market. However, in Australia, Nine Network's Nine News WIN Television's WIN News and NBN Television's NBN News in Northern NSW all still use an edited version of the music, as does Radio Tonga in the Kingdom of Tonga and RPN's NewsWatch in the Philippines.
Wes Montgomery recorded the main theme as Down Here on the Ground which was nominated for a Grammy in 1968.
Read more about this topic: Cool Hand Luke