Oct 012013
Coming This Fall on ABC!
The other day my older son and I were driving around when Queen‘s “Best Friend” came on the radio. He asked, “What was this, a TV sitcom theme?”
It does sound like it was written for a sitcom. We laughed as we imagined the opening montage of turned, smiling heads; pratfalls; and brightly colored credits.
What other songs sound like they were written to serve as original TV theme songs? What kind of show/opening clips would accompany this would-be theme song?
I always thought that TMBG’s “Hi, We’re the Replacements” would make an excellent theme for a Hannah-Barbara animated Sat AM show about the ‘Mats.
When I’m 64 is from some British show that never aired here, right? It can’t be a real song or anything.
I thought this was a pretty good match of song and show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nJGRnobXE
CAKE has other tunes that would work as TV themes like “Arco Arena”.
Pretty much the complete oeuvre of Fountains of Wayne.
I don’t know about sitcom themes, but I reckon 99%of popular songs are merely advertising jingles for record companies.
“Heavenly Pop Hit” by the Chills always reminds me of the theme song to “The Facts of Life.” Sorry if that ruins it for anybody.
I don’t even know that theme song, but I can definitely hear the Chills’ song used as a sitcom theme.
I remember much collegiate speculation that My Heart And The Real World by the Minutemen would be an excellent theme for a game show.
As for me, I would probably buy a Subway jingle album.
Marshall Crenshaw wrote a song called The Theme from Flaregun, which was an imaginary tv show.
I’m not familiar with XTC’s catalog but the Fireman Sam theme makes me think someone more knowledgeable could cherry pick a few theme songs from their back catalog.
Here’s the most recent version (how many theme songs have weird time signature shifts like this):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRRSfE-Z8g8
And here’s the original which sounds like English pop from the late 80’s to em:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mye9cPJBA5o
Does Andy Partridge have anything to do with those them songs? I do hear a resemblance to XTC’s music. “That’s Really Super, Supergirl” comes to mind as an obvious would-be theme song.
Another song that I always thought would have made a great TV theme is “Step Inside” by the Hollies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPyDAFoZUto
According to the internets, it’s a couple of guys named Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GxXRbSFDg
Andy Patridge: I wonder why the wonderfalls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt03LM7PYys
In agreement.