Top Ten TV Music Themes

Top Ten TV Music Themes by Roxanne McDonald

Finding favorites lists to differ when it comes to best TV theme songs or musical themes, this pop culture fanatic goes on a cyber-search.

And included in the search for the rankings of others, she discovers a few favorites of her own—those she sings boisterously along with, those she—like many of us–can’t get out of her head.

Stylus Magazine asserts that criteria should include a) not annoying; b) representative; c) able to stand on its own. Here are the top ten of ALL TIME, according to Stylus:

Nerf Herder’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Raposo and Nicholl’s Three’s Company

Jim Gilstrap’s Good Times

Mark Snow’s The X-Files

Lalo Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible

Stu Phillips’ Knight Rider

Portnoy and Angelo’s Cheers

Dolores Clayman’s Hockey Night in Canada

Barri and Sloan’s Secret Agent Man

Mort Stevens’ Hawaii Five-O

Compuserve/Netscape has reiterated Robert Berry of Retrocrush’s Top 10 (of a list of 100 I couldn’t access, getting a worst songs page, instead), which simply implies the song, to make the list, has to be “infectious”:

1. “Sanford and Son”
2. “The Brady Bunch” and “Gilligan’s Island” (tie)
3. “Batman”
4. “The Jeffersons”
5. “Mission: Impossible”
6. “Star Trek”
7. “Twin Peaks”
8. “Spongebob Squarepants”
9. “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids”
10. “All in the Family”

My in-progress list (missing some rationale and in no particular order, for now):

“Six Feet Under” (Thomas Newman)

“The Addams Family” (Vic Mizzy)

“Different World” (Words/music by Bill Cosby, Stu Gardner and Dawn Lewis; sung by Phoebe Snow) Nice to be reminded my parents love me, and even nicer to listen to Snow’s unique sound)

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (“The Funeral March of a Marionette” by Charles Gounod) Is a Pavlovian signal for any fan waiting for Hitchcock to begin

“The Gary Shandling Show” (Randy Newman)

“Gilligan’s Island” (“The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle,” by Sherwood Schwartz and G. Wyle, sung by both The Wellingtons and The Eligibles)

“Batman” (Neal Hefti) Hey, what else would we cape-clad kids sound out as we da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da’ed around the sand pits?

“The Dating Game” (“Whipped Cream” Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass) I always liked Herb Alpert and his band as a kid, but got a special kick out of how this song was helping to introduce the nasty business (innuendos on this show and The Newlywed Game were a crack-up) into otherwise conservative TV of the times

“The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (Harry Nilsson) I still, sniff, get a little, hunh, emotional.

“Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (written and sung by Will Smith) So what if I’m white?

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