When still working out the theme song, Schwartz initially dabbled with a calypso sound and was working with an upcoming composer named John Williams. It seems that Williams’ calypso tune was wrong for what Schwartz wanted and turned to Wyle to help out. Williams incidentally, also wrote some incidental music for the series but was quickly replaced by a more experienced composer named Gerald Fried. When Schwartz and Wyle got together, they settled on the sea shanty sound the theme song currently has. It was Wyle who knew the Wellingtons, and he was able to get them into a recording studio quickly to get a track recorded ASAP.
It needed to be done ASAP, as it seems that Schwartz was working under a deadline. The Wellingtons were able to come over that day … but it was a Sunday and none of the local recording studios were open. Schwartz, however, did know an industry bigwig who just happened to have a recording studio at his home. As he explained:
“So one Sunday, on this particular day they came over to my house and rehearsed it a few times, they all played guitars and that’s how it was done, the song. And so they said, ‘Well, how can we get it recorded?’ I don’t have a recording facility and it’s Sunday, nobody does. Well, my friend Mel Shavelson […] has as complete recording facilities as anybody. He is very much into technical stuff, which I am not.”
The next step was getting permission to use Shavelson’s studio. It came with a few stipulations: record fast, and stay out of the way of the massive, catered charity event Shavelson had agreed to host. The crunch had begun.