The Theme From...

Here's something a bit different. This is a collection of TV theme songs but not just any theme song. The wife and I were binge watching the old Judd Hirsch series Taxi and I fell in love with the theme song and was inspired to collect as many jazzy/funky/MOR theme songs as I could fit on a CD.

 

My main criteria was that the song must be an instrumental. No snappy tune where the lyrics explained the show's premise. I broke that instrumental rule only twice but for good reasons.

 

Because TV themes tend to be no more than a minute to a minute and a half this is one of my longer track listings. I searched for the full versions of as many tunes as I could and bent the rules slightly for a couple of interludes but my main goal was to make it fun to listen to. I hope I achieved that goal. Enjoy.

Tracklist

01 Bob Newhart (Home to Emily)

02 Sanford And Son

03 Taxi (Angela)

04 The Office

05 MASH (Suicide is Painless)

06 Peter Gunn

07 Barney Miller

08 Night Court

09 Arrested Development

10 Room 222

11 Peanuts

12 Jeopardy [Think Music]

13 Hawaii Five-0

14 Mission_Impossible

15 Portlandia (Feel It All Around - Washed Out)

16 I Dream Of Jeannie

17 Pink Panther

18 Rockford Files

19 Newhart

20 Curb Your Enthusiasm

21 Batman

22 Hill Street Blues

23 Trailer Park Boys

24 Wings

25 Northern Exposure

26 Breaking Bad

27 Countdown [Think Music]

28 SWAT

29 Andy Griffith Show

30 thirtysomethig

31 Bewitched

32 Twin Peaks

33 The Munsters

34 The Man From UNCLE

35 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Journey of the Sorcerer - The Eagles)

Bonus

36 Weeds (Little Boxes)

Reality Notes

While most of these tracks are named after the show they are associated with some existed before being chosen as a theme song. I put the actual name in parenthesis when applicable. 

 

The few songs that have vocals on them are tracks 15, 21 and 36. The full version of the Portlandia theme has some vocals but they are almost unintelligible. The Batman theme uses the vocals almost as another instrument and just repeats the name Batman over and over. The song Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds opened the show Weeds and I looked forward to hearing it every time I went to watch the show.The song predates the show, first recorded by Pete Seeger in 1963, so the lyrics are unrelated to the show's premise. Over the course of the series they used different versions of the song but this one stuck in my head. Think of it as a bonus song.