Music, like all art, is going to mean different things to different people. It will forever by a creative force that is subjective. This is why listicles of the best songs will always be subject to debate. That’s a good thing though; it gets people thinking and discussing their passions. That’s why we absolutely respect the effort that went into the list of the 50 Greatest TV Theme Songs that was written over at Consequence of Sound. And now let’s talk about how absurd the list is and where it has some significant faults.
Again, opinions being opinions, there is always going to be things that are subjective and purely opinion based. But there is one objective area where this list doesn’t make a distinction that needs to be made. If you’re going to make a list like this, you need to differentiate between songs that were written as a theme song, and ones that were created separately and then used as a theme.
A great example of this is found at number six on the list with “The Sopranos.” The theme song for the show, “Woke Up This Morning” by Alabama 3 is used extremely effectively to open the show. However, the song was written for their 1997 album, “Exile on Coldharbour Lane.” It was not written for the purpose of being the theme song and was instead selected to be the theme because presumably, David Chase or someone on the production theme felt it fit well. This is a much different beast than what Consequence chose for its number one theme song of all time, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” from “Cheers.” That theme went through several iterations to fit the show until Gary Portnoy finally got it just right. It’s not an existing song that was used for “Cheers,” it’s a song written for “Cheers.” That’s a big difference.
There is an art to matching the right song for the right moment, but as Consequence points out, the theme song is a dying beast. Why then, are we celebrating songs that were not written to be themes? Here’s another example; “You’re Dead,” from “What We Do in the Shadows” at number 33. It’s a great song by Norma Tanega and fits the show. But there are plenty of morbid and creepy songs out in the world. What if the producers of “Unsolved Mysteries” went that route instead of giving us the absolutely horrifying banger crafted by Gary Malkin and Dan Alvarez. “Unsolved Mysteries” is nowhere on the list by the way. But “California,” used by “The O.C.” makes the cut at number 41.
There’s also, probably, some recency and popularity bias happening here too. Why else would things like “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit” (No. 50), “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” (No. 29) “Breaking Bad,” (No. 16) and “Succession” (No. 15) be here? There are also a couple oddities that should get points for creativity, but not for greatness.
“WandaVision” (No. 28) deserves credit for how it used different intros that were pastiches of other television shows, but is nowhere as iconic or important to the landscape as say, “M.A.S.H.” (another song example that wasn’t written for the show specifically. It was written for the movie.) The same goes for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (No. 39). If that’s the case, then we should have an entry solely for the late, great Richard Stone who gave us the music to 90s Warner Bros. cartoon classics like, “Animaniacs,” “Pinky and the Brain,” and “Tiny Toon Adventures,” none of which made the list.
At least, to be fair, the list does do a decent job of spreading some love over different types of shows. Animation is represented by “Rugrats,” (No. 43) “The Simpsons,” (No. 8) and “X-Men: The Animated Series,” (No. 7) and there’s even a nod to game shows with “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” (No. 47). But then those genres seem to be missing heavyweights like “Jeopardy!.” There’s also a pretty fair mix of instrumentals to vocals, with the split being around 20 to 30 respectively. Though that depends on what you consider an instrumental. Does “The Twilight Zone” (No. 20) count as an instrumental or does the narration from Rod Serling count as a vocal track? But also, that one absolutely should’ve been in the top 3.
It’s just kind of strange to see some glaring omissions, even when we account for songs that were co-opted as themes. There’s no “I Don’t Want to Wait” from “Dawson’s Creek,” or any other WB programs for that matter. No “I’m Always Here” from “Baywatch,” and maybe the most staggering of all, nothing from the Miller Boyett shows of the day. That would include “Family Matters,” “Full House,” “Step by Step,” and even “Perfect Strangers.” There’s a lot of television over a lot of decades so obviously some things are not going to make the cut on a list of only 50. We can pretty much guarantee though that in another 30 years or so when “The Twilight Zone” celebrates 100 years, people are still going to know that theme. Can we say the same about “Game of Thrones?”
