It was produced originally for the De Wolfe Music Library and selected by Thames Television to be the theme tune for their Netherlands-based detective series Van der Valk.
The work was originally intended as library music,[2] and was loosely based on a German/Dutch nursery rhyme called Jan Hinnerk (in German)[3] or Catootje (in Dutch), which in its turn took the opening bars of Non più andrai from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.
Dutch composer Jan Stoeckart adapted the original tune and wrote a new top line under the name of Jack Trombey, while Simon Park arranged it for his own orchestra and conducted the recording.
The track was fully entitled "Eye Level (Theme from the TV series 'Van Der Valk')".
The tune became popular with audiences and Columbia Gramophone Company issued it as a single (catalogue number DB 8946) with the theme to Granada Television's drama series Crown Court, entitled "Distant Hills", on the B-side.