"Movin' On Up;" the Background!

Deacon Greg Kandra–who is due to move The Deacon’s Bench over to Patheos on December 13–is busy hanging up bookshelves and making the place ready. As evidence of his excitement he’s posted the greatest TV-Theme song ever written.

An interesting background story on that memorable song. If you remember the series Good Times, you may recall Ja’net Dubois being cast as Florida’s friend and neighbor, Willona.

What most don’t realize is that Dubois, was an dis an accomplished musician and singer. When she learned that The Jeffersons would be spinning off from All in the Family, she asked producer Norman Lear if she could write the theme song.

Lear was not interested and gave her a flat-out “no.” He had used known composers for other sitcom themes and wanted to stick with what he knew.

The persistent Dubois nagged at him, again and again; finally, just to get her off his back, Lear agreed that she could at least submit a theme for his consideration. She co-wrote “Movin’ On Up” with composer Jeff Barry and then sang the theme herself, backed by a gospel choir.

The rest, as they say, is history.

And the lesson here–it’s the same one Churchill gave us: Never give up. Never, never, never give up.

That’s how you get the de-luxe apartment in the sky-high-high.

If you haven’t seen Deacon Greg’s new digs yet, go take a look!. He’s sort of got a piece of the pie-highahhhhhhh