If y'all've ever defenseless yourself walking around humming a familiar-merely-unidentifiable tune, and then the minute you put words to it, realized you lot were singing the Scooby-Doo theme, this list is going to resonate. These TV earworms tin can exist difficult to shake, merely that's their task: to go into your head and stay there.

TV themes can introduce you to a character (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), an origin story (The Beverly Hillbillies), or only set the mood (The Sopranos). Many of them are written by music vets with long histories of success, either on TV or on the pop charts. Sometimes it's a theme that launches a career, and sometimes it represents a fleeting moment in the spotlight. No matter what, Boob tube theme songs can go indelibly etched onto your subconscious, and most everyone has not just a favorite, but too one they wish they'd never heard. We've got both, so hither are the parameters we're going to work with.

  1. No instrumentals. That' a whole category all by itself, and deserving of its ain list, which you lot know if yous've ever let the Game of Thrones music play in your caput as yous go almost your business. It sure adds drama.
  2. No songs that were out at that place before they were fastened to Idiot box shows. That rules out some large ones, similar Smallville, The O.C., Parenthood, and even that annoying, catchy vocal from Enterprise.

That's information technology! We've included some kids' shows in here too, since they seem especially designed to haunt y'all, but left out some of the classics, like The Flintstones and The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Bear witness. No doubtfulness anybody volition accept a favorite they retrieve should be here, and so get your complaining fingers ready. Showtime, start singing along with the ones nosotros did include in our list of 20 Tv set Theme Songs You Still Can't Get out Of Your Head.

21 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt "Unbreakable" (2015)

Once upon a fourth dimension, a group of musicians chosen the Gregory Brothers (consisting of three brothers and one of their wives) thought it would be funny to utilize Auto-Tune on random news clips, turning interview subjects into singers. They added some green screen footage of themselves, played around a scrap, then put some of the videos on YouTube. Good choice: the videos started going viral and racking upwardly millions of views, allowing them all to start making more videos equally a full fourth dimension job. They chosen their serial Songify The News.

Wink forwards. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, and Jeff Richmond are working on a new show for Netflix called The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, about a woman who emerges from an underground bunker, where she'south lived with a cult for 15 years. They need a theme song that'll gear up both the story premise and the tone of the show, and wanted something that sounded like the Gregory Brothers videos. And then they called the Gregory Brothers. Fey and Carlock had already written the monologue for Walter Bankston, the "bystander" who saw Kimmy and her friends emerge from the bunker, and let the grouping accept it from there. They were relieved not to have to spend hours scouring websites for news reports; having a fake ane written for them made their job a lot more than fun.

Watch the original version, without the music, to meet what they had to work with.

20 The Partridge Family "C'mon Get Happy" (1970)

Come on at present and meet everybody / and hear u.s.a. singin' / Nothing meliorate than being together / when we're singin'

Sound familiar? Not and then much, probably. Here'southward the one everybody recognizes:

Hullo, earth, here's a song that we're singin' / C'mon get happy / A whole lotta lovin' is what we'll be bringin' / We'll make you happy

We had a dream we'd go trav'lin' together / We'd spread a little lovin' then we'd keep movin' on / Somethin' always happens whenever we're together / We become a happy feelin' when we're singin' a song

This was the REAL theme toThe Partridge Family unit, heard in the second flavor and forever after. The merely bandage members singing on information technology were Shirley Jones and David Cassidy, her real-life stepson. In fact, they were the but ones allowed to sing on any of the Partridge Family records, fifty-fifty though the whole grouping was nominated for a Grammy for All-time New Artist in 1971. (The Carpenters won.)

Jones was already a star in her own right, but Cassidy became a superstar because of the series. He toured the world, selling out stadiums and beingness literally mobbed by fans wherever he went, then would come home and detect women in his motorcar and his dwelling, often naked. Merely once a week, even after he'd posed naked on the embrace of Rolling Rock, he was clean, cute Keith Patridge, urging viewers to "c'mon become happy" and climb aboard the Mondrian-themed jitney with the residual of the gang.

19 Batman "Batman Theme" (1966)

"Word and music by Neil Hefti." That was the description of the theme song by one of the eight singers who recorded information technology for the 1960s cult Television set serial Batman, since information technology featured only i single word, "Batman." Of course that's if you lot don't count "na na na na na na na na ... " every bit words, which technically, they are non.

It took Hefti, a onetime head of A&R at Reprise and large ring trumpet role player, about a calendar month to write the simple-sounding theme, and he said he sweated more over that than whatever other piece of music he'd ever written. "I was almost going to call them and say, I can't do it. Merely I never walk out on projects, and then I sort of forced myself to end." The challenge, he felt, was that the show was a one-act, simply its characters were serious. Batman and Robin wouldn't break the law even to save their ain lives, and Hefti took their commitment as seriously equally they did, but without the technicolor outfit. And and so he struggled for a long time, fierce up one endeavor afterwards another, until he finally came up with the song that would go on to be covered by anybody from Jan and Dean to The Jam. He solved his comedy/drama problem past contrasting a driving rhythm with harmonies and horns, and in doing so, he created a cult classic.

xviii The Love Boat "Honey Boat" (1977)

Who doesn't remember the oh-so croon-y theme vocal to The Dear Boat? It promised its weekly guests adventure, romance, and nearly of all, dear, for everybody who boarded the Pacific Princess. Critics hated the show with a passion, but the ratings soared.

Composer Charles Fox had created dozens of TV and movie themes, as well as the Grammy-winning "Killing Me Softly With His Vocal." He brought his idea for the Honey Boat theme music to lyricist Paul Williams, a songwriter with a runway record of hits and an ongoing career as a singer and actor. Williams' offset major acting role had been playing Virgil, an orangutan, in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The year before The Dear Boat went on the air, he'd had a massive hit with Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen," the theme song to the remake of A Star Is Born. Williams looked over the show concept and decided it wouldn't final six weeks. It ran for 10 years.

The theme they created together was sung by Jack Jones for all of The Beloved Boat'southward seasons except its terminal 1, when Dionne Warwick'south version took over. And despite its unambiguous depiction of love and romance on the high seas, Gavin MacLeod, who played Captain Merril Stubing, would afterwards suggest that it could be reinterpreted to be a song praising Jesus. It was flexible as well equally memorable.

17 Rawhide "Rawhide" (1959)

This is the oldest vocal on our listing, and we might not accept included it at all were it not for its 1980 resurrection by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Rawhide, a prove about a group of cattle drivers in the 1860s, premiered in 1959, and ran for viii seasons. Today, it's best known as the show that launched Clint Eastwood's career.

The theme song was written by composer Dimitri Tiomkin and songwriter Ned Washington, and sung past Frankie Laine. It popularized the term "hell aptitude for leather," and managed to have a life long afterwards the show information technology was created for. It's been covered by a diverse range of artists, including Liza Minelli, The Jackson 5, and Oingo Boingo, simply it was its advent in The Blues Brothers Picture show and its accompanying soundtrack that put it back into the spotlight. In a movie total of dandy songs, information technology holds its own.

The songwriters knew their stuff. Both had long careers and won a number of Oscars for their songs. Washington wrote classics like "Town Without Pity," "My Foolish Centre," "When You lot Wish Upon a Star," and "The Nearness Of Y'all," and Tiomkin had created music for dozens of westerns. Frankie Laine would afterwards sing the theme to Mel Brooks' movie Blazing Saddles, a parody of classic westerns, complete with whipcracks. He sang it with such sincerity and heart that Brooks was sure he didn't know the movie was a comedy, and when Brooks saw the tears in his eyes, he didn't accept the eye to tell him.

16 Welcome Back, Kotter "Welcome Back" (1975)

Back in the 1970s, producer Alan Sacks was looking for a theme song for a new show called Kotter, starring Gabe Kaplan, most a guy who returned to his neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, to teach the type of slacker high school child that he once used to be. The show would launch the career of John Travolta, and create a new set of loftier school archetypes for a generation of TV viewers.

Sachs needed a theme song, and what he wanted was something that had a Lovin' Spoonful type of sound. He was lucky; his amanuensis also represented Lovin' Spoonful's founder, John Sebastian. So Sachs asked Sebastian to  create something, and what he got was "Welcome Dorsum." Sachs liked it and so much that he inverse the name of the show to Welcome Back, Kotter to match it. Initially, Sebastian just wrote one verse, but afterwards added in more forth with a harmonica solo, and released it as a single, with early pressings titled "Welcome Back Kotter" simply then tape-buyers would know information technology was the song from the striking evidence. It spent a week in the number i spot on Billboard's Top 100, selling over a million copies. (It even fabricated it to #93 on the Country chart.)

Decades later the show was off the air, the song still resonated. It'southward been sampled by Onyx in "Slam Harder" and past Lupe Fiasco in "Welcome Back Chilly." And when Mase released his get-go album after a five year suspension, he sampled it in a song called, of course, "Welcome Back."

xv Phineas and Ferb  "Today Is Gonna Exist A Smashing Day" (2007)

You don't demand to be a kid to capeesh the joys of Phineas and Ferb. Every calendar week brought inventive stories, unforgettable characters, running jokes with taglines that never got old, and a steady stream of catchy songs.  The theme vocal was performed past Bowling For Soup, who as well co-wrote it. The show'due south creators, Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh, were fans of the band and asked lead singer Jaret Reddick to accept the snippet they'd already started and create a theme out of information technology, forth with a iii and a half infinitesimal version for radio. Reddick watched a couple of rough cuts of the show, and wrote the vocal the next twenty-four hour period ... and scored an Emmy nomination for his efforts. Non bad for a song that only took him xx minutes to write.

The band has appeared on the animated  testify equally themselves, and contributed other songs, also as updating the lyrics of the theme vocal periodically for specials and holidays. Reddick too played the recurring part of Danny, the pb singer of fictional band Honey Händel. They performed in multiple episodes, most memorably to celebrate the anniversary of Phineas' mother and Ferb's male parent with a alive performance of their '80s hit, "You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart."

14 The Jeffersons "Movin' On Up" (1975)

The Jeffersons was a spinoff of All In The Family, and took George and Louise Jefferson out of the Bunkers' Queens neighborhood and on to the Upper Due east Side of Manhattan, thanks to George'due south success every bit a man of affairs. The theme song, "Movin' On Up," reflected the joy of the move with an infectious shell and a sense of celebration.

It was written by Jeff Barry and Ja'cyberspace Dubois. Barry was known for writing a string of popular hits with partner Ellie Greenwich; their work with Phil Spector helped define the "girl group" audio of the 1960s.  Dubois, who also provided the atomic number 82 vocal, was already well known to TV viewers every bit Willona on Good Times, another spinoff (of a spinoff) of All In The Family.

The song has become something of an canticle. Information technology was covered by Sammy Davis Jr. in 1978, sampled by Nelly in "Concoction Up," and often gets played at sporting events when a team that's been in a slump makes a comeback. Ludacris once told Rolling Stone that The Jeffersons was "every black person's favorite TV theme, because we movin' on up." The song, more than the show, all the same resonates.

As proof of its place in American culture, President Barack Obama toured New Orleans on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and met a woman named Wheezy, he sang her the opening lines of the song, to her delight.

13 Hannah Montana "The Best of Both Worlds" (2006)

Before she twerked, earlier she rode a wrecking brawl naked, before she smoked pot on stage at an awards show, Miley Cyrus was a sweet 13 year-old starring in a smash TV series chosen Hannah Montana. She auditioned to play i of Hannah's friends, but was asked to endeavour out for the atomic number 82, then told she was likewise immature for the part. Merely when the producers realized she could sing, they gave her the starring role anyhow and she instantly became a teen idol.

She sang the show's theme vocal herself. It was written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, and was 1 of but 2 Telly theme songs in that decade to chart on Billboard'due south top 100. (The other was the theme from iCarly, sung by Miranda Cosgrove.) When Cyrus was on tour, she'd dress upward as Hannah to perform the song, but then years later, regretted some of the effects of her superstardom, in terms of both its effect on her as a teen growing up in front of an audience, and on other teenage girls watching it. While she was singing "Best of Both Worlds" to packed concert halls and stadiums, she was full of anxiety and self-doubt.

Since then, she's taken control of her own prototype and career. She started out equally a teen idol and then became a magnet for scandal and criticism, but appreciation for her journey and her talent has come from some unexpected places. Woody Allen has cast her in the TV series he's doing for Amazon, and her godmother, Dolly Parton, is a staunch Miley supporter, remembering how she used to get criticism for her own sexy wardrobe choices. Nearly Cyrus, she said,"So I did go through that, simply I don't requite her communication. Everyone has to walk this journey according to their own rules. That'south what she's doing. And I lurve her."

12 The Brady Bunch "The Brady Agglomeration" (1969)

Written by show creator Sherwood Schwartz and veteran composer/arranger (and actor) Frank De Vol, the theme for The Brady Bunch was originally sung by a slightly obscure band called The Peppermint Trolley Visitor. By season two of the show, the producers got smart and decided they'd exist better off having the actual cast sing the song. (Interestingly, the Brady kids did a lot more real singing on their bear witness than the Partridges, who were actually playing a singing group.)

All six Brady kids sang the theme together for the second season, but when the third ane rolled around, they switched things up, and had the boys sing the first verse about the girls, the girls sang the second verse about the boys, and and so they joined upward together for the end. For a show about a composite family, this fabricated perfect sense. Decades after, at that place are multiple generations who withal remember every give-and-take.

For a dissimilar take on this squeaky-clean vocal from a squeaky-make clean testify, check out Jamie Foxx'south version, which he says he would sing to prospective dates.

xi The Greatest American Hero "Believe It or Not" (1981)

Everyone knows this vocal, and yet non everybody knows where information technology'south from, probably considering the show it was from was just on the air for ii measly seasons. "Believe It Or Not", written by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer, spent 26 weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at #two because "Endless Dear" wouldn't go out of the manner.

The show was The Greatest American Hero, and its shaky premise was that a school teacher (William Katt) met some aliens who gave him superpowers when he wore a special (and pretty dopey) superhero suit. He lost the instruction transmission, and comedy ensued as he learned exactly what special abilities it gave him. Case: It fabricated him fly, just didn't teach him how to land smoothly. Wacka-wacka!

"Believe It Or Not" was likewise a pretty silly vocal, also as a smash hit. It was sung by Joe Scarbury, who only ever released one album his whole life, back in 1981. Merely the vocal lived on. It was used in the movie The forty Twelvemonth-Old Virgin, triggering disruptive memories for thousands who couldn't place information technology, and Michael Moore put it in his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 for a montage about how the pop vote went to Al Gore in 2000, with the telling line, "Suddenly I'g on top of the world / It should have been somebody else …"

But the best encompass? Information technology's a toss-upward between its memorable high-speed version seen on Gilmore Girls, with Sebastian Bach on vocals (and Melissa McCarthy's line, "I estimate information technology sounds dissimilar live"), and the accommodation done by George Costanza on Seinfeld, every bit the outgoing message on his answering automobile. And if you're in doubt that the vocal is really a cult archetype, wait to its lyric writer, who supervised the songwriting staff on another short-lived cult archetype, Cop Rock .

ten Family Guy "Family Guy Theme Song" (1999)

When Seth MacFarlane created Family Guy, he had a hard fourth dimension convincing the Play a trick on network to allow him include an opening theme vocal. Theme songs for shows are part of a tradition that's been disappearing over time, as networks worry more than and more most keeping the audience'due south attention. Just MacFarlane pushed for it. "I recollect what [executives] don't realize is, showmanship is showmanship." he told NPR. "It hasn't inverse in hundreds of years. Information technology'due south a drum roll proverb, 'Here comes a show.' ... And it gets the audience psyched upwardly."."

Once he won the battle, he got composer Walter Tater to write the music for his showstopping opening sequence. Murphy had had an oddball #1 hit in in the mid 1970s with his disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which found its way onto the 15-times-platimum Sabbatum Night Fever soundtrack. The ii combined their efforts forth with producer David Zuckerman to create a memorable, fun-to-sing-along-with opening song.

Part tribute to the music McFarlane grew up on, and part parody of the archetype open to All In The Family, the dance sequence is matched in exuberance past the music that accompanies it. They recorded various versions in different seasons to accommodate changing cast members, and MacFarlane says he re-did his own song track to more than clearly enunciate "laugh and weep," since so many people thought it was "f'n cry".

The song's popularity made it easier when MacFarlane was developing American Dad, and effortless when he created The Cleveland Show. "I retrieve by that point, they realized it was a stylistic thing for these shows — that you need a little fleck of a drum roll. You need a piddling bit of a P.T. Barnum intro." Nosotros couldn't have said it ameliorate ourselves.

9 Sesame Street "Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street" (1969)

Who doesn't hear those beginning few notes and go transported back to their childhood? "Tin Y'all Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street" is some of the first music many of us were exposed to every bit we watched Sesame Street, learned our letters and numbers, and heavily identified with the Cookie Monster. The show was always filled with great music, but its theme is the oldest song in its history, premiering along with the first episode on November x, 1969.

The music was written past Joe Raposo, who was as well the creative force backside "C is for Cookie" and "Bein' Dark-green." The lyrics came from Raposo, Jon Stone, and Bruce Hart. The original version featured harmonica by renowned jazz musician Toots Thielemans and a children'due south choir. There was some variation on the lyrics: sometimes it opened with "Come and play …" and other times it was "Sunny day …" but the tune remained the same. It got jazzier, briefly, in 1988, when Gladys Knight and the Pips sang it on a pledge-drive event chosen The Sesame Street Special, with kids, cast members, and muppets dancing all around them.

The vocal  has been updated over the years, but no matter what changes, its inspiration ever comes from the original by Joe Raposo. In 2016, it got a make new arrangement for its 46th flavor and its motion to HBO.

P.Southward. All the kids in that opening sequence? They're all in their 50s now, at least. Probably their 60s.

8 The Big Blindside Theory "The History of Everything" (2007)

This is maybe the best theme song story of the bunch.

Barenaked Ladies lead vocalizer Ed Robertson got inspired subsequently reading a book by Simon Singh called "Large Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It." So in truthful Barenaked Ladies form, he improvised a song most cosmological theory during i of their shows in Fifty.A. Sitting in the audition that night were Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, who were developing a show chosen The Big Blindside Theory about some geeky geniuses and their friends. At that moment, they two producers decided that they had to get the Barenaked Ladies to create the theme song.

When they commencement approached Robertson, he was hesitant and wanted to know who else they were asking. Jack Johnson? Counting Crows? He did not desire to spend fourth dimension writing a theme only to discover out that there were others doing the aforementioned thing at the same time. But they reassured him that he was the only one they speaking to.

Their consignment? Create a song that encompassed everything that'southward happened since the beginning of time up to the nowadays in xv seconds. Robertson did an acoustic demo, but when they wanted to continue it, he insisted that they record it with the entire group. Fortunately, Lorre and Prady liked the new version even more than. The rest, along with everything the song describes in 24 seconds, is history.

7 The Mary Tyler Moore Testify "Love Is All Around" (1970)

If there was ever a theme song that captured the spirit of its opening montage, it'southward the theme to The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Amusement Weekly called the scene at the end where Mary tosses her hat into the air the second greatest moment in the history of boob tube for a reason: it set up the whole tone of the show. "Wasn't it great?" Mary Tyler Moore said. "Freedom, exuberance, spontaneity, joy — all in that one gesture. It gave a hint at what you were going to see."

The song that went with it was written and performed by Sonny Curtis. He got a phone call at habitation at 11:00 a.grand.  one solar day request if he was interested in writing a song for a new sitcom starring Mary Tyler Moore.  Someone dropped off a description of the show an 60 minutes after, just a basic outline of the premise. By 2:00, Curtis had a verse ready and asked his friend who he was supposed to sing it to. He was sent over to encounter James L. Brooks, the show's co-creator.

Brooks wasn't thrilled to come across him. He was busy, and wasn't ready to start thinking almost a theme vocal, just since Curtis was already there, he listened. And so he picked up the phone—the one in the room, there were no prison cell phones of grade—and started making calls to get people to come hear it. Past the time he was done, the room was full of beholden listeners who agreed with Brooks that they'd found their theme.

Brooks was heading to Minneapolis that weekend to shoot the show's opening sequence, and wanted the song with him, and then he sent out for a record recorder and Curtis, still game, sing it for the tenth time that day. When information technology came time to do the official version, Curtis told them they couldn't have the song if he didn't go to sing it, and they wanted it desperately, then they hired him. He inverse the lyrics in flavour ii to reflect Mary's newfound independence, and the vocal kicked off every episode of the testify for seven seasons, and forever onward in syndication.

half dozen Malcolm in the Centre "Boss of Me" (2000)

Malcolm in the Middle's creator, Linwood Boomer, was looking for a theme song for his new testify, he picked up the telephone and chosen They Might Be Giants. The ring, the brainchild of John Flansburgh and John Linnell , had been making music for years, but was starting to make their marker in the soundtrack globe too. Boomer gave Flansburgh a call, and got his married woman, who instantly recognized the name: Boomer had played Adam Kendall (Mary Ingalls' hubby),  on Piffling House on the Prairie,and how many Linwood Boomers could at that place be? But the one, information technology turned out.

Boomer had a very clear thought of what he was looking for in a theme song, something loftier free energy that would capture the feeling of a house total of out-of-command brothers. TMBG always had a stack of half-finished songs around, so they grabbed ane that felt right and tailored the residue to fit the show. The final product became the first Telly theme always to win a Grammy for Best Song Written for a Moving-picture show or TV Show. It was the starting time Grammy for the band, too.

v 4. Laverne & Shirley "Making Our Dreams Come True" (1976)

"Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer incorporated!"

While the memorable theme song "Making Our Dreams Come True" was written by TV theme show vets Norman Gimbel and Charles Play tricks, the opening rhyme that Laverne and Shirley recited as they skipped down the street arm-in-arm was actually a Yiddish-American hopscotch chant star Penny Marshall remembered from her childhood. "Penny, teach Cindy, 'Sclemeel, schlimazel," her brother Garry—producer and creator of the prove—told her, and thus it was likewise learned by millions of others.

The song itself followed. Fox and Gimbel didn't know much virtually the show when they put it together, merely that the two main characters were blue collar women who worked in a brewery in Milwaukee, and had big dreams. Their initial stab at information technology was a song called "Hoping Our Dreams Will Come Truthful," but the producers felt that it didn't capture the force and conclusion of the title characters. They went back to the drawing board with that in heed and came back with with "Making Our Dreams Come True," which better reflected the tone of the show.

The song was put out equally a single in 1976, the only striking for singer Cyndi Grecco, and it remains catchy as ever. Concluding year, some behind-the-scenes footage captured American Idol judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. spontaneously singing it together, with Lopez getting the words right effortlessly and Urban confessing afterwards that he watched too much TV equally a kid. (Is there such a thing?)

4 Pokémon "Pokémon Theme" (1998)

When Jason Paige beginning sang the demo for the Pokémon theme vocal, all he knew almost the show was that it had caused a bout of epileptic seizures in Japan. He certainly didn't wait the vocal to become so popular that it would be used, remembered, and sung almost 2 decades later. It's tagline, "Gotta catch 'em all," is one that provides instant flashbacks to their childhood for near anyone who grew up in that era.

Seven months after the show premiered in the United states, there were at least twoscore licensing deals in identify for related products, pulling in over 200 million dollars in acquirement. To jump on the profit bandwagon, an album was recorded, featuring a full-length version of the vocal, written by John Siegler and John Loeffler, both expert jingle writers. It went platinum within iv months. While Siegler and Loeffler fabricated jumbo amounts of money, Paige, who'd performed on multiple tracks, got a flat fee for his vocals and spent years suing to endeavor to get a piece of the Pokémonday pie. He eventually had some success, merely it was naught compared to what the song he was singing raked in for the company that endemic it.

With the arrival of Pokémon Go, the song jumped in popularity again. The game was launched on July 6th, and by the 14th, it had sold 7000 downloads, upwards 1079% from the previous week. "Gotta catch 'em all" is equally relevant today as information technology ever was.

3 Friends "I'll Be In that location For You" (1994)

How many people does information technology take to make a theme song? There were six in the bandage of the hit show Friends, and information technology took vii to create the theme song for information technology. Inside 3 days, they wrote and recorded it, a combination attempt of the testify's executive producers, and Phil Solem and Danny Wilde of the Rembrandts.  With an opening riff heavily influenced past The Beatles' "I Feel Fine," the vocal they created lasted a infinitesimal, the perfect length to introduce a Tv set show.

But information technology didn't end there. The song became popular, so popular that some DJs at a Nashville radio station decided to loop it together 3 times and play it on the air … over and over once more. They started getting requests for information technology after that, and when that defenseless on, the tape label went back to the Rembrandts and insisted that they mankind it out into a proper three-minute pop song.

The adjacent task was creating a full-length music video. They spent 3 days shooting information technology on the Saturday Nighttime Live stage, with the ring and all 6 cast members.  The original concept required the cast to hit the Rembrandts with a fish to get rid of them, but the cast quickly nixed the fish plan. They didn't demand it. The video was every bit much of a striking as the song, playing on networks similar VH1 in heavy rotation.

Blender mag may have called it the 15th worst song ever, on a list of 50, but it topped multiple Billboard charts and peaked at the Hot 100 at #17.  Information technology was the biggest striking the band e'er had by a long shot.  Years later, Solem and Wilde would perform it in NYC at the Key Perk pop-up store, joined on stage past James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther on Friends as, of grade, a guy who worked at the coffee shop.

ii Cheers "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" (1982)

In 2011, a Rolling Stone Readers Poll alleged "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" as the best TV theme song of all time. In 2013, Telly Guide fabricated the same declaration. But this incredibly popular song had a particularly rocky start.

Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart had written a vocal together for a musical called "Preppies Like Us," and a friend of theirs brought information technology to Thanks producers Glen and Les Charles. They wanted to use it for the evidence, but it was already spoken for, then they asked the songwriters to come with something else.  Their starting time 3 attempts were rejected, but when the fourth i came in, the producers started to similar what they heard. The music was right, but now the lyrics needed work.

Singing the dejection when the Carmine Sox lose It'due south a crisis in your life On the run 'crusade all your girlfriends Desire to be your wife And the laundry ticket'south in the launder

Likewise gloomy? That was the consensus. It was as well likewise specific.

They took another crack at it, and came upward with this:

Making your way in the world todayTakes everything you've gotTaking a break from all your worriesSure would help a lotWouldn't you similar to go away?

They had it. Portnoy sang the song, with a minimal musical arrangement that featured him on piano and vocals along with a drum, guitar, and bass. A clarinet was added afterward. The full version of the song did retain some of the bleaker vocals, withal, but Cheers  fans didn't hear it until it was played over a montage in the show'due south 200th episode. The lyrics are a little bizarre, probably reflective of the idea that the show is about a bunch of people who hang out in a bar all the time. Go run into a lyric video here to run across what we mean.

i Honorable Mentions

Everyone is going to to name songs that aren't on this list, and maybe fifty-fifty complain that they should've been included ahead of the ones that made information technology. So here, in no particular order, are a few honorable mentions for Television theme songs we didn't become to, that you can't become out of your head no matter how difficult you try.

WKRP in Cincinnati: This ane seems to evoke an emotional reaction in people who remember it. One of those songs that explained the testify premise, information technology tells the story of radio programme director Andy Travis, who'southward starting fresh in Cincinnati after a interruption-up and, we retrieve, a career that hasn't quite measured up to what he expected.

Dukes of Hazzard "Good Ol' Boys": When you get Waylon Jennings to sing your theme song, people retrieve it.

Liv and Maddie "Better in Stereo": Inquire any parent of an aspiring tween if they know this i. Better yet, just start bustling it until they starting time screaming.

The Monkees: Hey hey, we're the Monkees! Still spinning on oldies radio stations.

Spiderman: The one from the 1960s cartoon. I listen, and you're doomed.

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Did we forget your favorite hyper-tricky theme song? Let the states know in the comments.

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