Nadia's Theme

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"Nadia's Theme" is a piece of music composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr. that serves as the theme music to the American television soap opera The Young and the Restless.

The melody, originally titled "Cotton's Dream", was written by De Vorzon and Botkin as incidental music for the 1971 theatrical film Bless the Beasts and Children. Two years later, Botkin wrote a rearranged version of the piece for The Young and the Restless; the show debuted on March 26, 1973. The melody was later renamed "Nadia's Theme" after the ABC television network lent the music for Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci's performance during the 1976 Summer Olympics.^[1]

About one month after the 1976 Olympics, the song was released as a single by A&M Records, with its B-side containing an instrumental of De Vorzon's song "Down the Line". It soared up to number 8 on the Billboard Music Charts by December of 1976, in part because of its association with Comaneci. However, A&M Records failed to credit De Vorzon as the co-writer on the first pressings of the single; he successfully sued the record label for $241,000 USD. The single has never been released on CD.

Other versions of "Nadia's Theme" have been recorded, including a semi-rock version by The Ventures, and David Hasselhoff's rendition for his 1987 album Lovin' Feelings.

A sample of "Nadia's Theme" is the musical accompaniment to the verses of Mary J. Blige's single "No More Drama" from her album with the same name. In the tune, Blige's persona describes her former self as "young and restless".