"The Third Man" Theme (Karas) by Anton Karas Among the very biggest of 1950 (11 weeks atop the best-seller charts), this iconic zither solo, also known as "The Harry Lime Theme," was played under the opening titles of Carol Reed's acclaimed 1949 film "The Third Man." Stalled at #2 on the national sales listings right behind Karas was the million-selling version by Guy Lombardo (also posted), which did, however, spend many weeks at #1 on the jukebox charts. Note about the Karas recording: because this main theme ends abruptly at 85 seconds into the actual movie soundtrack, and because 1:25 would have been unusually short in length for a commercial record release, the familiar hit version we hear was achieved simply by tacking on to the end a repeat of the first 45 seconds. THE 1950 HITS ARCHIVE - here in one place, a good-quality library of original-release-version best-sellers and songs that made an impact that were either released or enjoyed a major chunk of their popularity within the calendar year 1950 (some were recorded in 1949). . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The three* MusicProf channels are home to The HITS ARCHIVES, YouTube’s most comprehensive collection of U.S. ‘popular music’ recordings from 1925 thru 1975. Discover thousands of original hit versions, conveniently arranged in year-by-year playlists and sorted alphabetically in your choice of either song title or artist name. Simply visit this channel’s home page (here: https://www.youtube.com/@the78prof72 ), scroll down the rows of playlist categories, choose a favorite year, click on “view full playlist,” and then pick out the songs that you want to hear. Enjoy the music! * The78Prof The45Prof AnotherProf