Those of you who have been following me on Facebook know I’m still doing my Supernatural marathon whilst sorting through over a thousand (!) Mount St. Helens photos from the USGS. There’s an episode in Season 10 that is particularly charming: the drama department of an all-girls’ school puts on a musical about the Winchesters, to which the Winchesters show up because, naturally, there are supernatural shenanigans at the Supernatural musical.
A particularly touching moment is when the girls sing a cover of “Carry on My Wayward Son,” which is a theme song for the show. Even if you don’t watch the show, you might still love it.
Here’s the scene it’s in, for those who want to see context:
Your turn, my darlings! Pick an iconic song from one of your favorite teevee shows. It can be an original or a cover, hard or soft or anything in between, silly or poignant or otherwise. I can’t wait to see what we come up with together!
I HAD to sign up for an account to cheer this. I (heart) SPN and this song still gives me goosebumps. Such a cute episode!
I do not watch this show, but I saw this song – a celebration of bisexuality, sung by a man (!), on an actual TV show (!!!) – and wanted to share it with you:
This one’s easy.
Suicide Note by Johnette Napolitano, which I heard for the first time at the end of the Third Watch episode where Bosco’s brother dies. I believe this particular version is also from the soundtrack for the movie Underworld. I could swear I heard it by a different artist, but IMDb insists it’s this one.
The other is Orange Sky (this version by Alexi Murdoch). From The O.C..
This comment reveals a lot more about my TV watching (non-)habits than anything else. Huh. I could explain but no one would believe me anyway. :)
I love all of the Star Trek theme music. My current favourite is Voyager’s, but I love how they all capture a sense of wonder and awe.
I’m not going to be much help here. I haven’t been a regular TV watcher since sometime in the early 70’s. At first it was because I was too broke to buy one, and I just got out of the habit. For a long time I didn’t even own one. I do now, but it only gets used to watch the occasional video – we don’t have cable, and I’ve never bothered to connect it to an antenna. Yeah – I’m weird.
“Baby Blue” by Badfinger from the Breaking Bad finale. That’s how you end a show!
I had a couple of ideas at first. All Along the Watchtower (the Bear McCreary version) was integrated well into the new Battlestar Galactica, but not necessarily in one definitive scene.
Then I thought of Della and the Dealer by Hoyt Axton in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. That show had tons of great music in large part because of more reasonable copyright laws of the time. Due to changes in the law, before it could be re-released on video they went through and gutted most of the good music replacing it with random crap. I remember someone trying to get a lot of the licensing together to try to make a re-issue with most of the original music, but I don’t recall if they ever made it.
Finally, though, I decided to tap one of the “classic” TV theme song writers of all time, Mike Post. I give you The Rockford Files Theme.
That was one of my all-time favorite shows. Phone booths. Yeah. I remember those.
I almost forgot! There was a connection between a recent Google Doodle celebrating Clara Rockmore’s 105th Birthday and the Rockford Files theme song. The theremin, which she popularized, led to the Moog synthesizer, which produced that weird, wonderful sound in the song.
OK, last addition. I promise (if your site would only allow comment editing…)
A great history of the Moog synthesizer from Ars Technica.
Well, foo. No contribution this time because I don’t pay attention to background music in tv/movies, even though my favorite genre of movies is musicals, but that’s because the music is foregrounded and unmissable. I once came out of a movie with a friend who said “wasn’t the music great?” and I said “what music?” Anyhoo . . . crickets.
The Americans made brilliant use of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” in a sequence where the two primary characters use set up a coordinated series of assassinations against enemy agents. It’s so well-done that the song has become permanently linked to that in my brain.
Also: “Tank!” by the Seat Belts, from the opening credits of the iconic anime series Cowboy Bebop.
@Chris Hall #8: Another runner-up on my list was the way the producers of The Americans used Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” in the pilot episode. It was seriously cut, spliced, and looped for an extended scene yet worked beautifully, adding to the tension.
James Horner’s music for the “Stealing the Enterprise” scene in Star Trek III is really damn iconic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEmAi8Yp-A0
And then of course the *amazing* Star Trek fight music and the iconic battle between Kirk and Spock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AphxyjrH4SE
And then there’s *so* much amazing music in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood I can’t possibly list it here, a few highlights:
– obsession and lusting after power come to a head in an epic temptation and confrontation with past mistakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_439qLQzHs
– This music is used during epic confrontations between dueling alchemists:
https://youtu.be/kvJ-Gf3YjOM
And then there is the singular and haunting “Bratja” from the first Fullmetal Alchemist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQKrWwbjQc4
(Fullmetal Alchemist is kind of like a Supernatural perfected with no toxic misogyny:
– two brothers, abandoned by a cold and distant father, lose their mother tragically
– driven by this loss and abandonment, they study alchemy to attempt to bring back their mother
– when they attempt to do so with an alchemical ritual, they pay an extreme cost, with Alphonse’s soul bonded to a suit of armor and Edward has lost an arm and a leg.
– now they journey to try to find a way to get Al’s body back
– they end up being pawns in a thousands-year old plot to end the world
The music is all custom for the show, so no topical rock or classic songs. But the framing and camera work, the writing, all of that involved is at such a high level. And it actually *ends* and ends almost perfectly. And the women involved have agency. They make choices, make mistakes, have their own lives and desires and feelings, and are all badass in their own ways, from Winry Rockbell that stays up for three days repairing Ed’s prosthetic arm, to Hawkeye as a bad-ass but not emotionally closed off soldier, to Major General Armstrong that absolutely destroys people with ruthless strength and intensity.
So yeah, a better Supernatural in a way. Sorry for rambling/evangelizing one of my favorite tv shows ever.)
Can’t believe no-one mentioned Gray’s Anatomy yet! Can’t track down clips from this computer, but in one of the early (think season 1 or 2, but not certain) they used Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars to pretty devastating effect, and then had a whole musical episode later on.
Aaarggh! With being busy this last week or so I’ve missed out on this one. Just didn’t see it in time. Damn. :-(
If I wasn’t too late I’d have suggested either some of the powerful, atmospheric moving music from Babylon 5 like :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmOCHMVAswY&list=PLcVh-WWldt8n782rfHmR5VKyjdZom65yn
or The mysterious Cities of Gold such as :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2NpM8SCcWY&list=PLFbUB-l1ZqtVSNCgDJDMgaKlLKaBo4Lzo
Or even the Ballad of Serenity from Firefly :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJLlQhcK0I
But I guess I’m too late now. Sigh. Sorry.