The famous theme song from the Lone Ranger was written by Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (1792–1868)…

an Italian musical composer whose most known works include The Barber of Seville and William Tell. The Theme from the Lone Ranger is actually the fourth and final part of Rossini’s William Tell Overture.

The Lone Ranger began as a radio program in 1933 and aired until 1954 with several cast changes during its twenty-plus year run.

“A much more well known and influential adaptation of the Lone Ranger was the (1949-1957) television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action TV series featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator. He was also narrator for seven episodes of the radio series in 1949, 1950 and 1952. Fred Foy served as announcer of both the radio and TV series from 1948 to 1954. The series was popular enough to spawn two feature films, The Lone Ranger (1956), and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). —Wikipedia

The popularity and longevity of the Lone Ranger is no doubt responsible in part for the familiarity of the William Tell Overture.

The song was further popularized in two famous 1960s television commercials, one for Lark cigarettes and a subsequent spoof of the Lark commercial for Jeno’s Pizza Rolls.

SIDEBAR: Famous voice actor, comedian and advertising man, Stan Freberg, created the Jeno’s Pizza Roll spoof of the Lark commercial, to great success. No doubt, the idea sprang from his love of parody and his disdain for cigarettes. Throughout his career, Freberg repeatedly refused sponsorships for his programs from alcohol and cigarette manufacturers.