“I don’t know if you have children,” Barrett says over the phone. Try asking the man who authored the title song, David Barrett, which version - he sang the first Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, Jennifer Hudson, Ne-Yo performed others - is the best, and you’ll hear a hearty laugh. “If it didn’t happen five minutes ago on Twitter, they could care less.” Villanova coach Jay Wright says the videos showing his team’s two trophy-winning performances come in handy as a recruiting tool.ĭoes Bryce Drew show his team his own claim to “Shining” fame? Iona guard Asante Gist says “some people got emotional” when his team’s coach, Rick Pitino, played the well-known music “every single day before practice.” Now that they’re both head coaches themselves, they use the edited-to-match-the-lyrics recaps to motivate their players. Scott Drew was an assistant to his father with Valparaiso in 1998 when Bryce earned a couple of cameos in that year’s tournament-closing video by hitting “The Shot” for the Crusaders against Ole Miss. His younger brother, Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew, talks about sneaking out of his room to check out past-bedtime title games and the highlights that followed. The Associated Press asked players and coaches participating in this tournament - along with the man responsible for the famous ditty - about a phenomenon that’s been around for more than 30 years.īaylor coach Scott Drew calls the video “one of the things you grow up on.” Twelve months ago, there was no “One Shining Moment,” or tournament at all, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Usually filled with big 3-pointers - like the one Kispert’s teammate Jalen Suggs banked in at the end of overtime to beat UCLA in the Final Four - and rim-rattling dunks, hugs and hand slaps, celebrations on court and in locker rooms, tears on the sidelines and in the stands, the video was set to make its return to March Madness on Monday night after unbeaten Gonzaga vs. The most recognizable version of “One Shining Moment” and the one that is still used for the montage to this day was performed by the late Luther Vandross.“The dream,” he says, “took off from there.” There have also been versions from Jennifer Hudson and Ne-Yo. There have been many iterations and performers of the song, starting with Barrett himself for seven years before Teddy Pendergrass performed it for five years. It was actually initially supposed to be used at the conclusion of the Super Bowl but broadcast complications forced CBS to push it to the NCAA Tournament. “One Shining Moment” was written by singer-songwriter David Barrett in 1986. Some might consider this the theme of March Madness to some degree as it is played at the end of the National Championship Game as the soundtrack for a montage of the tournament that just concluded. However, the other NCAA Tournament song that often gets mentioned is, of course, “One Shining Moment”. It has been updated several times in the 30 years since, but the essence of Christianson’s original work remains intact and the result is one of the most wildly recognizable songs in sports. Bob Christianson won the contest with the first version of the theme was used the following tournament. This song does not have a name, but it debuted after a contest was held by CBS back in 1992 for fans to compose the March Madness theme.

The first of those is CBS March Madness theme that we hear so often throughout the tournament on every channel. There are two answers to this because, well, there are two different things fans could be referring to with NCAA Tournament song.

March Madness: What is the NCAA Tournament song? You could start a TikTok trend playing the song and seeing which college hoops fans come running at the sound.īut where did the NCAA Tournament song come from? Who wrote it and when did it start? We’ve got the answers for you. It’s an iconic melody that is played relentlessly (which is for the better, to be sure) and is an iconic fixture of tourney time. Whether you realize it or not, the NCAA Tournament song is in your head whenever March rolls around for college basketball fans. What’s not to love about March Madness? The atmospheres, the cinderellas, the unexpected heroes, the emotion of every game, bucket and second, the…music? What is the song, who wrote it, and more? March Madness has so many great things but one of them is the NCAA Tournament song.

One shining moment history