Written by Renton High Grad Ron Hicklin, class of 1956, was performing with his quartet ” the Eligibles” when he recorded the very-familiar Gilligan’s Island theme song that is used in all the color seasons of the TV show.
Renton High grad Ron Hicklin, second from left, singing tenor in his group “The Eligibles” before their Gilligan’s Island recording
As I learn more about the plans to tear down our century-old Renton High School, I was preparing to write a post about the school’s incredible history and distinguished alumni.
Then I decided that one of Renton’s High’s talented distinguished graduates had such a miraculous music career that he deserved his own introduction. We’ve all heard him singing countless times, and yet many might not recognize his name because his music was often uncredited by design. Ron Hicklin, 1956 Renton High grad, and his studio singers were the voices of the Partridge Family, the Brady Bunch, and other TV and cartoon bands that we heard as we were growing up.
People that knew him in Renton say Ron Hicklin was a brilliant singer, musician, and director, but was also personally modest and was happy to avoid the popstar limelight. So he and his singers became one of the Movie and TV industries go-to studios when they needed uncredited singers for everything from prime-time TV, to Dr. Seuss Cartoons, to TV commercials.
For instance, when David Cassidy was singing “I think I love you with his TV Partridge family,” in a hit that climbed to number one on the Billboard’s Top 100, David Cassidy was lip syncing to a music performed in part by Ron Hicklin and his studio.
And when Butch and Sundance were in Bolivia, artfully running from the law in 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, it was Ron Hicklin’s singers that were singing the memorable catchy soundtrack “South American Getaway” at Burt Bacharach’s direction. (The movie won an oscar for best musical score).
Ron Hicklin and his singers also provided the back-up vocals for Johnny Mandel’s hauntingly beautiful “Suicide is Painless” for the hit movie M.A.S.H.
TV show theme songs including Flipper, Batman, Wonder Woman, Love American Style, countless others…. were all the work of a Renton High Grad Ron Hicklin and his studio singers.
He formed a quartet while he was attending Renton High, and he won a contest on King 5 TV. As a result, King 5 gave him and his high-school quartet a weekly opportunity to perform on TV, that continued until the older members of the group graduated from Renton High.
When Ron Hicklin graduated and attended UW, he reunited the singers, and they eventually got recognized by the recording industry in LA. Industry reps asked his group the “Eligibles” to record the Gilligan’s Island themes song for their new second-season color version, and Ron Hicklin moved to LA where his music career blossomed.
I first learned about Ron Hicklin and his work in a distinguished alumni celebration at Renton High in 2013. Mr. Hicklin was busy running his studio in LA and could not make it to the celebration, but I spoke with others who were there who knew him and represented him as he was being recognized. Since his work was so prolific and meaningful to my youth, I spent time enjoying their stories of Renton’s incredibly talented musician who loved making music for the world, but was happy to have a private life out of the limelight. You can learn more about his life and accomplishments from this wikipedia article, and by doing youtube and google searchers on (Renton’s own) “Ron Hicklin.”
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