—Matthew Oshinsky, (Ron Grainer)

Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. There are 192 reviews 192. Listen to them all in MP3 format. Cheers is an American sitcom that ran for eleven seasons between 1982 and 1993. Help improve this list of the best TV theme songs of all time. Barney Miller is an example of a show whose theme music might have actually had a more lasting impact than the show itself.

Batman is a 1960s American live action television series, based on the DC comic book character... Crime Fiction, Action/Adventure, Police procedural, Crime, Drama. 1. —Matthew Oshinsky, (Harry Nilsson, “Best Friend”) The show followed the exploits of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, a pair of FBI agents investigating supernatural cases. —Josh Jackson, (Waylon Jennings, “Good Ol’ Boys”) —Josh Jackson, (John Williams, “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”) The jazzy number that followed suggests a kind of beatnik dread. Kudos to Mizzy, who also wrote the theme to Green Acres, for forcing rhymes like “they’re altogether ooky” and “they really are a scree-um.” How did this show get canceled after only three years?

For the record, it’s “Schlemiel (“a habitual bungler”), schlemazel (“an extremely unlucky or inept person”), Hasenfeffer (“rabbit stew”) Incorporated,” and that’s one-hit wonder Cyndi Grecco singing. But we’re going back to the beginning here, when the air was actually clean. Who knew that the same composer responsible for Peter Gunn also wrote the music to accompany Rerun dribbling a basketball? This website is a library of theme songs. —Josh Jackson, (Joey Carbone) Here are the 50 best TV theme songs as determined by Paste writers and staffers.

The first verse simply rhymes “horse” and “of course” four times. But the second verse throws in such curveballs as “source,” “endorse,” and… uh… back to “horse” and “course.” But for a TV show about a talking horse and his beleaguered human friend, there’s nothing wrong with simple.

Lazlo Bane’s “Superman” is another example of a pre-existing song that got new life in TV. On the other hand, the advent of a) forward-thinking streaming series, like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflx, and b) great shows suddenly appearing on formerly anonymous networks (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on The CW) has opened the floodgates to anyone who wants to nail a theme song and set their show apart. One of the few TV themes that counts as a real-life hit for the characters in the show, who were fictional renderings of real musicians paying themselves. But really, to paraphrase Chandler Bing, could there be a more perfect song about the friends you make your family? Totally.” I have no idea why I still remember that scene, but I do.
A lifetime of personal etiquette has folded back on itself and bitten you in the ass in a way you could never have expected. 4.4 5. —Jon O’Brien, (Jim Henson, Sam Pottle) This category has the following 160 subcategories, out of 160 total.

—Josh Jackson, (Sonny Curtis, “Love Is All Around”) —Josh Jackson, (Jeff Richmond, the Gregory Brothers) —Josh Jackson, (Stu Phillips, Glen A. Larson) Help keep this site free. The iconic kids show devises new versions year after year, but the foundation is always there, and it never fails to put a smile on your face.

The perfect representation for a show that forever changed television. They should be put into their appropriate theme subcategories.

—Josh Jackson, (Henry Mancini) The spiraling “A Beautiful Mine” pulled viewers into the 1960s and the duplicitous world of Don Draper. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Theme Music, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Quite simply, this wonderfully playful intro shows that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a lot more nuanced than that. There’s only one song that can play now, before the credits roll, and you know it’s “Frolic,” the Luciano Michelini composition that is the calling card for HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and the million-and-a-half creative ways it’s been able to make Larry David lose. For The Sopranos, that’s “Woke Up This Morning,” which is still the song we expect to hear every time the HBO title card fades out. —Matthew Oshinsky, (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans) If you think The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song was the coolest or you loved the Friends intro song...by all means, vote! —Josh Jackson, (Earle Hagen, Herbert Spencer, Everett Sloane, “The Fishin’ Hole”) —Josh Jackson, (Tom Waits, “Way Down in the Hole”) Think of it as a precursor to Friends’ theme I’ll Be There For You: before you find the support group you need to get through your bad day, week, month or year, you need to be brave enough to set out on your own and accept that, despite life’s hurdles, “you’re gonna make it after all.” —Whitney Friedlander, (Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle, “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle”) —Josh Jackson, (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart) The first of Bassey’s three Bond theme songs and arguably still the most iconic, this was Bassey’s only song to break the US top 40, and was named the 53rd best film song …

It’s a sea shanty with foreshadowing (“A three-hour tour”), suspense (“The Minnow would be lost”), a key change when they make it through the storm and a convenient way to introduce the characters—though the original reduced The Professor and Mary Ann to “the rest.” The Simpsons has been on so long—now in its 28th season—Elfman’s orchestral theme with the brief saxophone solo has probably been heard by more television watchers than any in history. But that world (and, therefore, the song) always stuck with her, as we saw when everything came full circle in the series’ end. If you can't find a theme song, please contact me. The show was a spin-off of Happy Days—a theme song that could have made this list in its own right—and the theme was composed by the same team of Gimbel and Fox. Subcategories. Let us know what you think of the Last.fm website. A paen to the perils of adolescence and young adulthood, the melancholic “We Used to be Friends” pretty much sums up how friendships change as we grow up. The original single reached at No. The genius of this song is baked into its concept—a remix that goes viral in the first minute of the pilot episode, right along with the strong females it’s about. Find the latest tracks, albums, and images from Theme Songs. His NBC Nightly News score is pretty great, too.

Ratched’s opening theme song is Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns.
“Thank You for Being a Friend” was originally a 1978 hit by Andrew Gold, but singer Cynthia Fee’s version of the song is a perfect ode to the unbreakable bond between absentminded Rose (Betty White), free-spirited Blanche (Rue McClanahan), quick-witted Dorothy (Bea Arthur) and sharp-tongued Sophia (Estelle Getty). All Rights Reserved. But “Boss of Me” was their broadcast highlight, earning the prolific duo their only Grammy win in 2002. But amidst calls of “she’s so broken inside” from her animated crew, the toe-tapping tune also finds the time to dispel the notion that the show, and particularly its title, is sexist. In a way, yes: The two biggest shows that aired between 2008 and today, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, both led off every episode with a memorable credit sequence that captured an essence of the show—Mad Men’s ratting drums and melodramatic strings, Breaking Bad’s simmering slide guitar and sinister hissing. I do not own any of these songs and will gladly remove any songs that the owner would like taken down. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars. and —Josh Jackson, (Danny Elfman) —Josh Jackson, (Morton Stevens) It was, of course, also the soundtrack to the ‘80s videogame Spy Hunter.