TV Themes

Like a catchphrase that filters into everyday usage, TV theme songs have the power to infiltrate our brainwaves until they stand for something all their own. Fire up the super pop of “I’ll Be There for You” by the Rembrandts and you can feel the warm East Coast camaraderie of Friends welling up inside; or that fizzing futuristic synth from Dr. Who, which is now shorthand for the best in small screen British sci-fi. Trip-hop wizards Massive Attack launch the weird and wonderful world of House with the profound sounds of their song, “Teardrop”, while the Ventures’ deliver their drum-solo surf monster, “Hawaii Five-O”.

Head to Next Steps for a soapy kitchen sink classic, and an anti-war ironist’s anthem.

For tunes designed to see us through the opening credits, TV themes sure have attracted a who’s who of musical masters. Maybe it’s the lure of creating cultural moments, like the classic kitchen sink soap of Eric Spear’s Coronation Street theme, featuring the immortal lazy trumpet of Ronnie Hunt, or the Johnny Mandel/Mike Altman co-written M*A*S*H theme, used in both the original movie and the subsequent series. Alongside those time-tested classics, we’ve also included more recent additions to the TV theme canon, like Wendy & Lisa’s “Nurse Jackie Main Title” and Danny Elfman’s theme for Desperate Housewives.

Tune in to Deep Cuts for more great TV themes.

As familiar as the sound of a good friend’s voice, a great TV theme lives in a special place within our subconscious, and lasts a lifetime, acting as the gateway to either present small-screen pleasure or everlasting nostalgia. Our TV Themes Essentials blends the old and the new, and the long and the short — from the 30-second prelude to Emmerdale to the eight-and-a-half minute original version of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, excerpted for CSI: Miami. This playlist is packed with small-screen wonders, from Danny Elfman’s fantastic, bombastic main title from The Simpsons, to the work of Jan Hammer, who captured the ‘80s with his glorious, pastel-tinted synth theme from Miami Vice. Turn on, tune in and drop . . . round for a cuppa, over some A-list goggle box tunes.

There's an art to creating a classic TV theme: it has to transfix you in an instant. Just three or four notes and we're hooked: the "dum, dum, dum-dum" of Mission Impossible or the "da da da da daaa da" of Hawaii Five-O are as memorable as an immortal catch phrase like "Book 'em, Danno". Style is the key, whether it's twangy guitars, cool and swinging jazz or even the power-pop intro to Friends.