APM Swings for the Fences with Latest Monday Night Football Theme

ESPN and APM Music create Monsters, Inc.-themed version of the iconic “Heavy Action” for Monsters Funday Football 

The team was so close to getting it, but something just wasn’t right. 

“I literally was hitting my chest to keep time while I was on the phone humming the theme, but in a swing feel,” says Robert Navarro, APM Music’s creative director. “From that moment on, we were on a roll.”

Navarro, producer Jeff Rona, and others were trying to figure out how to mash up two legendary theme songs: the jazzy score from Disney’s and Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. and “Heavy Action,” the longtime intro to ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

“Not just the “dun dun dun dun” opening statement [the first four notes of “Heavy Action”], but how do you take the little middle bits of the song and make them swing?” says Navarro. “That’s a whole different world and it sort of threw our creative team for a loop for a minute.” 

To give it a real sense of authenticity, Navarro and the team returned to Esplanade Studios in New Orleans to record the song, enlisting some of the most accomplished jazz and swing musicians in the country.

Rona and Ben MacDougall of Rival Music worked with orchestrator and conductor Jay Weigel and engineer James Hill to assemble a dream team of talent to work with. 

Concert Master Hannah Yim and members of the Louisiana Philharmonic joined forces with sax soloist Tony Dagradi, clarinet soloist Greg Agid, trombone soloist Charlie Halloran, and trumpet soloist David McKiffick to create a truly unforgettable theme song.

The song will air during the Monday Night Football alternative broadcast on December 8^th (airing on ESPN2, Disney Channel, Disney XD and the ESPN App), branded as “Monsters Funday Football.”

“Of all the clients, I have the most fun working for ESPN. I'm sorry, who would you rather work for in the world than Claude Mitchell (Coordinating Director, Music) and Joanne Strange (Music Operations Supervisor)?” joked Navarro. “It’s always a mixture of the most wild, creative challenges I've ever been given in my career and it’s so fun.”