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What was the last hit TV theme


Carl

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I think it was "I'll Be There For You," from Friends, but I want to make sure. We're talking about an original theme song created specifically for a TV show, that became a hit song with radio play and everything.

What's interesting is that after "I'll Be There For You" did so much to promote the show, TV went in the opposite direction and started doing without opening themes. These are the same creative minds that brought us Homeboys in Outer Space, so it shouldn't be surprising.

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by Will Smith is older I think... right?

how about "Boss of Me" by TMBG for Malcolm in the Middle? (#21 in the UK)

or the X-Files Theme by Mark Snow (#2 in the UK)

and I don't know if that counts, but Green Day's version of the Simpsons' Main Theme (produced for the Simpsons Movie) was quite the hit

edit: I browsed a bit through wikipedia and there's eg

"I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole for Dawson's Creek that reached #11 in the Billboard Top 100

"It's a Jungle out There" by Randy Newman for Monk won an Emmy for Best theme song, I dunno if it was a chart or airplay hit as well though

Edited by Guest
read Carl's post again
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Maybe "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" (from "Cheers")?

I don´t remember which show is older...

"Cheers" aired from 1982-1993. "Friends" ran from 1994-2004.

edit: I browsed a bit through wikipedia and there's eg "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole for Dawson's Creek that reached #11 in the Billboard Top 100

"I Don't Want to Wait" was a hit before the premiere of "Dawson's Creek". It first hit the Hot 100 on 11/1/1997, while the show debuted on 1/20/1998.

FYI: "I'll Be There for You" only reached #17 on the Hot 100, primarily because a single was not released until after the song's airplay had peaked. (Until 1998, only singles were eligible for the Hot 100. The song was #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for 8 weeks.) The last TV theme song to hit the Top 10 was "How Do You Talk to an Angel" by the Heights, from the show "The Heights", which hit #1 a week before the show was cancelled.

The Theme from Mission Impossible was originally written for TV, and became a #7 hit in 1996; however it was a cover performed for the movie by Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen, rather than the original version of the song by Lalo Schifrin (which reached #41 in 1968).

Also, while it was not the show's theme, "Wherever You Will Go" by the Calling was featured in the second episode of "Smallville", after which it quickly became a hit, peaking at #5.

And, of course, numerous songs featured on "American Idol", including Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" and Daughtry's "Home", have gone on to become hits, in addition to those performed by contestants on the show, such as Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" and David Cook's "The Time of My Life".

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It's a kid show, but the theme to Hannah Montana, "Best Of Both Worlds" made the Billboard download chart at No.92 in 2006. Does that count as a hit?

I don't know if the theme from "Bones"(2005) by the Crystal Method ever made it to a chart or not.

The theme to "House"(2004) "Teardrop" by Massive Attack was a hit in the UK years before that, but it might've been in the US download chart afterwards, for all I know.

Entertainment Weekly's website just had a discussion about what were the best TV themes. Here's a link: http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/09/tv-theme-songs.html

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