David Browning (Born 1936) is a musician and cornet player who some accounts state was hired in 1960 to play the melody of the theme tune to Coronation Street written by Eric Spear and titled Lancashire Blues.
Browning is a former music professor at Salford University who has worked with many world-famous groups and musicians as a session musician and also played the theme to The Archers, Opportunity Knocks, New Faces, The Golden Shot, Nearest and Dearest, and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club (the latter two being Granada productions).
Browning states that his total payment for playing the theme was a one-off payment of thirty-six pounds and he recorded the theme twice, once for the original version in 1960 and a slightly revised version in 1964. A report by Ron Simmonds in Jazz Professional in 1994 stated that Ronnie Hunt actually played the 1960 theme and that a later version was used that was played by Stan Roderick but it was decided to revert to the earlier version (It should be noted that the theme used in the earliest version of the first colour title sequence in 1969 is subtly different to the normal theme but reverts to the earlier version in early to mid-1970 and it is possible that this is where the story emanates from).