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The Top Ten Best TV Theme Songs EVER!
Jun. 6th, 2006 08:11 pmBeen a while since I did a top ten list and doing these always grabs me once in a while. I don't think I'll do a top ten worst list for this although I may just list a couple of really awful theme songs at the end.
What makes a good theme song? For the most part the music itself is a biggie but an even bigger part of what makes a theme great it how well the on-screen images blend in with the music. Obviously there are going to be a lot of cartoons on this list for that reason.
10. Justice League Unlimited. The theme itself is catchy enough but what makes this opening so memorable are the changing spoiler pics the producers always put at the beginning and end of the episodes. They were all action packed and blended in with the music perfectly.
9. Alf: The Animated Series. Lord this was a forgettable cartoon but the theme was the best part of it. I felt the same way about A Pup Named Scooby Doo which deserves an honorable mention.
8. Red Dwarf. So cheerfully sunny it's painfully bitter. The end theme for the show is absolutely brilliant.
7. Teen Titans. This would be up higher but the images that are shown on-screen are both Static and lifeless. The theme song is easily the catchiest for any DC cartoon though.
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Technically not made for TV but blending Jerry Goldsmith's from The Motion Picture theme with Alexander Courage's original theme was a work of genius. Immenseley hummable.
5. Tale Spin. The best Disney Afternoon Theme EVER. I still have the Disney Afternoon soundtrack on cassette and the extended version is even better. Great mixture of images too.
4. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. ZOOM! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Another ridiculously catchy theme that is part barbershop and part opera with wild images flashed on the screen at exactly the right points. Love it.
3. Freakaziod. I have never been that crazy about the Steven Spielberg Warner Bros cartoons but I still watched this show because of the theme song. The images shown during it (Freakazoid getting a haircut, a live-action chimpanzee jumping up and down, the cast wearing barrels after becoming unemployed) line up with the words perfectly and give me a rush every time I see it. It's just phenomenal.
2. Grand. Obscure eighties sitcom/soap about a town with different classes of workers run by a Piano company. Co-created by Bill Cosby it had the most memorable lyrics and catchiest song I have ever heard.
Let me ask a question.
You can take a guess.
Who holds the keys to your happiness?
Is your life up to you
Or does fate have it planned?
Don't think to much
just do it Grand.
Some were born to make it
Everything they touch turns gold
Others try to fake it but their luck is always cold
See, we're all different drummers
playing in the same big band
So if you're gonna play it, play it Grand.
Awesome.
1. Twin Peaks. Easily the best theme song ever written, the melody is not only beautiful but the images of the waterfall and river are so melancholy and breathtaking it defies words. I listen to this theme song as often as I can and it always gets me (as does Laura Palmer's Theme) every dang time. Too bad the show went out with a whimper but the theme is a classic. Julee Cruise's Vocal to Falling on the soundtrack is beautiful too.
Honorable Mentions: King of the Hill, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, House of Mouse, Pinky and the Brain, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Duck Dodgers, Garfield and Friends (first season version), Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Fraggle Rock.
The worst theme song ever written? I've discussed on Toon Zone a couple of times how the new Ninja Turtles theme always made me embarrased to watch the show (since the show IS actually halfway decent.) Imagine that horror and fear of seeing somebody seeing you watch a show with a theme song that bad and multiply it times a thousand for the theme from Boy Meets World. Technically this show has had three or four themes but the last one from it's last couple of seasons is SO horrid that I have to change the channel in case spy satellites catch me watching it. Seriously awful tune that makes the series seem about a billion times worse than it actually is.
What makes a good theme song? For the most part the music itself is a biggie but an even bigger part of what makes a theme great it how well the on-screen images blend in with the music. Obviously there are going to be a lot of cartoons on this list for that reason.
10. Justice League Unlimited. The theme itself is catchy enough but what makes this opening so memorable are the changing spoiler pics the producers always put at the beginning and end of the episodes. They were all action packed and blended in with the music perfectly.
9. Alf: The Animated Series. Lord this was a forgettable cartoon but the theme was the best part of it. I felt the same way about A Pup Named Scooby Doo which deserves an honorable mention.
8. Red Dwarf. So cheerfully sunny it's painfully bitter. The end theme for the show is absolutely brilliant.
7. Teen Titans. This would be up higher but the images that are shown on-screen are both Static and lifeless. The theme song is easily the catchiest for any DC cartoon though.
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Technically not made for TV but blending Jerry Goldsmith's from The Motion Picture theme with Alexander Courage's original theme was a work of genius. Immenseley hummable.
5. Tale Spin. The best Disney Afternoon Theme EVER. I still have the Disney Afternoon soundtrack on cassette and the extended version is even better. Great mixture of images too.
4. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. ZOOM! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Another ridiculously catchy theme that is part barbershop and part opera with wild images flashed on the screen at exactly the right points. Love it.
3. Freakaziod. I have never been that crazy about the Steven Spielberg Warner Bros cartoons but I still watched this show because of the theme song. The images shown during it (Freakazoid getting a haircut, a live-action chimpanzee jumping up and down, the cast wearing barrels after becoming unemployed) line up with the words perfectly and give me a rush every time I see it. It's just phenomenal.
2. Grand. Obscure eighties sitcom/soap about a town with different classes of workers run by a Piano company. Co-created by Bill Cosby it had the most memorable lyrics and catchiest song I have ever heard.
Let me ask a question.
You can take a guess.
Who holds the keys to your happiness?
Is your life up to you
Or does fate have it planned?
Don't think to much
just do it Grand.
Some were born to make it
Everything they touch turns gold
Others try to fake it but their luck is always cold
See, we're all different drummers
playing in the same big band
So if you're gonna play it, play it Grand.
Awesome.
1. Twin Peaks. Easily the best theme song ever written, the melody is not only beautiful but the images of the waterfall and river are so melancholy and breathtaking it defies words. I listen to this theme song as often as I can and it always gets me (as does Laura Palmer's Theme) every dang time. Too bad the show went out with a whimper but the theme is a classic. Julee Cruise's Vocal to Falling on the soundtrack is beautiful too.
Honorable Mentions: King of the Hill, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, House of Mouse, Pinky and the Brain, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Duck Dodgers, Garfield and Friends (first season version), Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Fraggle Rock.
The worst theme song ever written? I've discussed on Toon Zone a couple of times how the new Ninja Turtles theme always made me embarrased to watch the show (since the show IS actually halfway decent.) Imagine that horror and fear of seeing somebody seeing you watch a show with a theme song that bad and multiply it times a thousand for the theme from Boy Meets World. Technically this show has had three or four themes but the last one from it's last couple of seasons is SO horrid that I have to change the channel in case spy satellites catch me watching it. Seriously awful tune that makes the series seem about a billion times worse than it actually is.
