Songs written just for Miami Vice

[Lar]

That's interesting never knew that. That would explain why it fitted into MV and that episode particularly well.

Extraordinarily well!

[airtommy]

Smuggler´s Blues was definetely not written for the show either. MM had heard the song on his car radio while driving around and asked Miguel Pinero (the actor who played Calderone and was a writer) to write an episode around it.

 

Yes, indeed.  So this doesn't hang out there as a mere rumor, I wanted to post the actual Michael Mann quote from Rolling Stone:

 

"This show is a ball. It's absolutely a blast. I mean, how else do you get to tell twenty-two stories a year? Or hear a song like 'Smuggler's Blues' on the radio and say, 'Wow, those lyrics are fantastic. Let's do an episode on it.' Think, Who knows this s*** better than anybody? Mikey -- you know, Miguel Piñero [the ex-convict who wrote Short Eyes]. Get him to write a script, have lunch with Glenn Frey two days later and ask him if he wants to play Jimmy, the pilot. Bang, it's on the air in four weeks."

 

http://miamiviceonline.com/index.php/topic/12169-rolling-stone-inside-miami-vice-march-28th-1985/