“The Pink Panther Theme” is an instrumental composition by Henry Mancini written as the theme for the 1963 film The Pink Pantherand subsequently nominated for the 1964 Academy Award for Best Original Score. The eponymous cartoon character created for the film’s opening credits by David DePatie and Friz Freleng was animated in time to the tune. The tenor saxophone solo was played by Plas Johnson.

The song was included on the film’s soundtrack album and issued as a single (in the United States) in 1964; the single reached the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard adult contemporary chart and won three Grammy Awards.

Various recordings of the composition appeared in the opening credits of all The Pink Panther films except A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. It has also been used in countless works in which the animated Pink Panther appears.

“The Pink Panther Theme”, composed in the key of E minor, is unusual for Mancini’s extensive use of chromaticism.

In his autobiography Did They Mention the Music? Mancini talked about how he composed the theme music:

I told [the animators] that I would give them a tempo they could animate to, so that any time there were striking motions, someone getting hit, I could score to it.

[The animators] finished the sequence and I looked at it. All the accents in the music were timed to actions on the screen.

I had a specific saxophone player in mind–Plas Johnson. I nearly always precast my players and write for them and around them, and Plas had the sound and the style I wanted.^[1]