David Bowie has taken time out from his day job composing songs for musicals about Spongebob Squarepants and written a TV theme. It’s not a first for the pop chameleon – he recorded the music for The Buddha of Suburbia in 1993, whereas the Neighbours tune is believed to have been loosely inspired by a jam session that came out of his and Iggy Pop’s cocaine-fuelled Berlin period. But his new music for The Last Panthers, a new co-production from Sky and Canal+, will be his first original contribution to a TV show in more than 20 years. He’s far from the only pop star to have written a TV theme – so how will it compare to these works of art?
Dexys Midnight Runners – Because of You (Theme from Brush Strokes)
How to you follow up the most brilliant yet commercially-challenging album of your career? One that contains romantic spoken word reminiscence, rants about the state of Radio 1 and declarations of Irish pride? Most people would probably agree that it’s not by writing a song for a British sitcom about an amorous painter and decorator. And they might have been right: this fiddle-adorned ballad was the last thing the band put out for more than a quarter of a century.
Ozzy Osbourne – Dog, the Bounty Hunter (Dog, the Bounty Hunter)
You don’t get to be called the prince of darkness without singing the odd TV theme, and so Ozzy stepped up to sing “I’m the dog, the big bad dog” over some sludgy metal riffs. The whole thing lasts 37 seconds, which is about as long as a heavy metal song about a bounty hunter should last.
Regina Spektor – You’ve Got Time (Orange Is the New Black)
The hit show about female prison life wasn’t even finished when Regina Spektor was asked to write the theme song. As she was writing, the show’s creator Jenji Kohan kept sending her rough, unfinished episodes in order to inspire her. “I got to really experience the world of the show and got to see what the characters were really like and it kind of helped me finish the song,” Spektor told Rolling Stone. Which probably wasn’t the experience Ozzy Osbourne went through for Dog, the Bounty Hunter.
Waylon Jennings – Good Ol’ Boys (The Dukes of Hazzard)
Jennings prided himself on being an outlaw country singer, making his music the perfect fit for a show that featured characters so goddamn rebellious that they used to get in their car through the windows. Johnny Cash shooting a man in Reno for the sole reason of watching him die had nothing on these guys.
Primus – South Park theme (South Park)
It’s hard to imagine the cartoon’s theme song is the work of an actual functioning band, given that it sounds like a malfunctioning bluegrass group and ends with a fart noise. But it is indeed the work of experimental San Franciscan rockers Primus, a band so quirky that critic Robert Christgau once declared them the “strangest top 10 band ever, and good for them”.
Dr John – Curious George theme (Curious George)
Dr John is a psychedelic blues pianist influenced known for his melding of Louisiana blues and zydeco with rock’n’roll. Curious George is a cartoon monkey known chiefly for his curiosity. What would make more sense than to combine the two? “You never can know what’s around the bend / Big adventure or brand new friend?” goes the opening line, picking up on the overriding theme of George’s curiosity like only a Louisiana pianist schooled in zydeco could.
