Composer of ‘Car 54’ Theme

There’s a holdup in the Bronx,
Brooklyn’s broken out in fights.
There’s a traffic jam in Harlem
That’s backed up to Jackson Heights.
There’s a scout troop short a child,
Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild.
Car 54, where are you? 

The lyrics, by Nat Hiken, the show’s creator, capture New York in all its frenzied geography. But they would never have been as singable — or as enduringly etched in public memory — had they not been set to John Strauss’s jaunty march-time tune.  Melodically, the opening bars of Mr. Strauss’s theme song recall the start of the second movement of Mozart’s G major Piano Trio (K. 564). As the song ends, the title question hangs in the air in plaintive treble.