My mistake

[urbpan]

I've been going around thinking that "Soul Bossa Nova" (popularized as the theme from Austin Powers, and in my opinion, the best thing about the Austin Powers movies) was a Burt Bacharach composition, when in fact it's by Quincy Jones. Incidentally, I discovered this when I decided that I needed to own another Quincy Jones tune, "The Streetbeater," which also was famous as a theme song. (Bonus points if you know what it's the theme of)

I have an inordinate amount of theme songs in my collection, partly because context makes music better, and partly because theme songs tend to be catchy and anthemic, and I dig that.

In addition to the Dr. Who theme (2 versions), the themes from Star Wars, Firefly, and Invader Zim, I also have the theme from the Katamari video game, "Boss of Me" by TMBG, "Hawaii 5-0," "Judgement Night" (the whole soundtrack which is far better than the movie), "Repo Man," "View to a Kill," "Some Kind of Monster," "Peter Gunn," "Live and Let Die," "Love is All Around Us," that whole Saturday Morning Cartoons thing, as well as "Watching the Detectives," "Life on Mars," "All of Me," "Hockey Monkey," "Pretty in Pink," "In the Street" which have retroactively become themes.

I was going to post asking what you thought the best themes were, but boy there sure are a ton of them. I always loved the sitcom themes from my youth: Barney Miller, WKRP, Taxi, etc. but those are mostly context. Except Barney Miller. That's still pretty damn funky. So let me ask anyway: What do you think are the best themes?

I didn't count the music of Seks Bomba, but I should have.

Comments

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Oh great gooogily moogily, you know I could go on for hours on this subject. It's notable that several of the songs on your list were hits before they were lifted for theme songs.

I'll add a few. The theme from Baretta, Journey of the Sorcerer (which was used in both the TV and film version of Hitchhikers Guide but in it's original full version is an Eagles song you would never guess was an eagles song), Spider-man (The sixties cartoon version), Mrs. Robinson, That Thing You Do, Miserlou, Viva Las Vegas, Help, The Boys Are Back in Town and... Ah hell, I'll stop before I fill up your blog.

I also have an insane number of songs from soundtracks, but I won't get into that.

Seems like I favor instrumental themes...

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I really liked the short version of the "Star Trek: Next Generation" theme. It was so enthusiastic! With that fanfare, they were going to boldly explore the CRAP out of the galaxy.

I'm a sucker for synth bells, too - I like both the "Futurama" theme and "Dead Like Me" because of it.

And from the "80's tv", both "L.A. Law"'s opening trumpet and the heavy synthesizer of "Miami Vice" made me happy.

But hands down, bar none, my favorite tv theme ever was the National Geographic Special theme. Not only was it a seal of quality edutainment, it had all that sweet tympani under the horns.

Re: Seems like I favor instrumental themes...

[smallerdemon.livejournal.com]

I am almost certain that Futurama's theme didn't use synth bells. The composer, Christopher Ting, is a percussionist and has plenty of genuine bells at his disposal.

Re: Seems like I favor instrumental themes...

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I was assuming they were synth because of the overall slightly electronic feel to the theme. But that very well may be post-processing.

Re: Seems like I favor instrumental themes...

[smallerdemon.livejournal.com]

Could be. I misspelled his name: Christopher Tyng.

I know he does commentary with the rest of the crew on several of the DVDs and talks extensively about his love for old percussion instruments. He say he found something from the 50s called the Boobams (http://www.pas.org/museum/Tour/0304.cfm) that he loved using on Futurama. I would be surprised that a Man that uses Boobams on a cartoon scifi comedy wouldn't use real chimes. :)

Re: Seems like I favor instrumental themes...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I'm old enough to have the Miami Vice soundtrack on Vinyl. Pity or adore me.

The Natl Geographic theme is awesome--it's like the local news themes from everywhere, but lords over them all with its feeling of importance and adventure.

I forgot to mention that I have (and you should too) the source material for the Futurama theme. It's called Psyche Rock by Pierre Henry, and you can listen to it on youtube here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TKz4qVmUz84