David was also an accomplished music artist.
In the 1960s, McCallum recorded four albums for Capitol records with music producer David Axelrod:
Music...A Part of Me (Capitol ST 2432, 1966),
Music...A Bit More of Me (Capitol ST 2498, 1966),
Music...It's Happening Now! (Capitol ST 2651, 1967), and
McCallum (Capitol ST 2748, 1968). The best known of his pieces today is "The Edge", which was sampled by Dr. Dre as the intro and riff to the track "The Next Episode". McCallum's version of "The Edge" appears on the soundtracks to the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV and the 2017 film Baby Driver
.
McCallum did not sing on these records, as many television stars of the 1960s did when offered recording contracts. As a classically trained musician, he conceived a blend of oboe, cor anglais and strings with guitar and drums, and presented instrumental interpretations of hits of the day. The official arranger on the albums was H.B. Barnum. However, McCallum conducted, and contributed several original compositions of his own, over the course of four LPs. The first two,
Music...A Part of Me and
Music...A Bit More of Me, have been issued together on CD on the Zonophone label. On
Open Channel D, McCallum did sing on the first four tracks, "Communication", "House on Breckenridge Lane", "In the Garden, Under the Tree" (the theme song from the film
Three Bites of the Apple) and "My Carousel". The music tracks are the same as the Zonophone CD. This CD was released on the Rev-Ola label. The single release of "Communication" reached No. 32 in the Uk Singles Chart
UK Sin April 1966.
