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If television shows are a gift, then a good theme song is like the color-coordinated bow on top.
While the long history of television is brimming with amazing theme songs, only few deserve recognition as iconic.
From cartoons to prestige dramas, these are the 35 greatest TV theme songs of all time.
Its so characteristic of the X-Men, it has followed them all the way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
That was just a boatload of work because there was a lot of involvement, Wasserman said.
A lot of, Lets tweak this, make this bigger, redo this.
We ended up with 80 or 90 tracks for that thing.
They just kept trying to get more and more energy out of it.
It was on and off for weeks.
Recalled Hammer in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone: I met Michael when they were still casting.
I had some sketches that I played him and that turned out to be the theme for the show.
I had already recorded most of it.
That the tension only keeps building illuminates the shows main thesis of living a never-ending nightmare.
You hear the main title music before the main title begins, so you know it’s coming.
Sex and the City
Its not easy for any one song to epitomize metropolitan sophistication.
It was also composed for an animated-style sequence, but that idea was scrapped without Cuomo knowing about it.
Beverly Hills 90210
How can California rock sound so emotional?
It was also a rushed job.
Cowboy Bebop
3, 2, 1…
This ones for all the space cowboys out there.
He wanted the music to be dark and abstract.
He asked me for music that would tear the hearts out of people.
I had Davids words and his descriptive moods in my mind.
I used guitar and piano inunison, playing what is known in music as anostinato, which means obstinate.
The piece has one chord throughout and a super-simple top line.
The Jeffersons
Theyre moving on up.
(DuBois provides vocals.)
DuBois coincidentally wrote the theme based on her own aspirations working towards the American dream.
Star Trek
What music can inspire anyone to go where no man has gone before?
It was seemingly only so that he could be an accredited lyricist and thus claim royalties.
(The song even predates Biggie Smalls Juicy by four years.)
We dont know were living the best days of our lives until theyre over.
Thats what The Wonder Years is all about, with a little help from Joe Cocker.
Its theme song mixes the classical compositions of Marche Et Cortege De Bacchus Act III No.
14 fromSylviabyLeo Delibeswith modern drums, bass, and synthesizers.
(The synths were mandated by the connection to emphasize the shows science fiction elements.)
Next time youre driving late at night on an open highway, play this at full volume.
Youll feel like the coolest person on Earth.
Hence why its lyrics have nothing to do with vampires living in politically divided Louisiana.
America and China are the remaining two superpowers whose cultures have reached into the stars.
But when Saban and Fox execs heard what Wasserman recorded, they were floored.
Full House
What ever happened to predictability?
(Series creator Jeff Franklin was involved in its production.)
Friends
We have R.E.M.
to thank for Ill Be There For You, performed by The Rembrandts.
The only band contracted at Warner Bros. Records at the time - and whose style was similar to R.E.M.
- was The Rembrandts, who balked at the opportunity at first.
Cheers
Weallwant to go where everybody knows our name.
The producers then enlisted Portnoy and Hart-Angelo to write new music.
Eventually the musicians arrived at the final version.
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad doesnt really have a themesong.
More like theme notes, really.
But the animated institution’s theme alone is worthy of recognition.
“It was such a weird show,” Elfman told ClassicFM in a 2015 interview.
“I thought it was going to run two or three times and disappear forever.”
But The Sopranos defied all expectations, especially in its music soundtrack.
Succession
Hip hop meets classical in the arresting theme song to HBOs award-winning drama Succession.
Is there a kind of dark, courtly classical music that might feel its related to them?
That they would think of themselves?
And what if we mixed that with hip hop beats?
After more experimentation, he landed on what would be one of the scariest TV themes of all time.
Game of Thrones
No TV show defines the 21st century like Game of Thrones.
A political high fantasy based on George R.R.
Djawadi, along with the shows creators D.B.
