The Pink Panther Theme The Pink Panther Theme "The Pink Panther Theme" is an instrumental composition by Henry Mancini written as the theme for the 1963 film "The Pink Panther" and subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 37th Academy Awards but lost to the Sherman Brothers for "Mary Poppins". 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
Henry Mancini albums and film soundtracks. (Relatively little of his music was written for recordings compared to the amount that was written for film and television.) Beginning with his 1969 hit arrangement of Nino Rota's "A Time for Us" (as his only "Billboard" Hot 100 top 10 entry, the #1 hit "Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet"") and its accompanying album "A Warm Shade of Ivory", Mancini began to function more as a piano soloist and easy-listening artist primarily recording music written by other people. In this period, for two of his best-selling albums he was joined by trumpet virtuoso and "The