What’s up party people, this is ya boy Joey, the host of the So Wizard Podcast and here is my list of the best TV show theme songs!
Right off the bat, let’s be honest here, I didn’t make this list to win the poll. In fact, this isn’t even really a list of the best theme songs, but it’s MY choices for the best. There were others that would be considered classics that everyone and their mother would pick and I stayed away from those. My main criteria was, do I find myself singing or humming this song randomly throughout life, and how iconic to the show itself was the song.
While I’m sure you may have some different picks, hopefully you will find a new ear worm or even a new show to check out. And now, on with the list!
10) Baywatch
This absolute bop of 90’s cheese let you know that it was time to dim the lights, get out the tissue and lotion and watch Pamela Anderson run in slow motion. This song sounds like the soundtrack to a hell of a night out on the town in a Camaro. It fits the show perfectly.
9) The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
(full version of this one: https://youtu.be/gla6FVEnJcg)
NO GUTS, NO GLORY! I don’t know about you, but after hearing this song I am ready to run through a brick wall and defend freedom throughout the galaxy! This is a great song, from a criminally underrated cartoon that flopped spectacularly in the mid 80’s. This song sounds straight off the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack, a pure 80’s banger!
8) The Dukes of Hazard
Look, I know they have a confederate flag on the top of their car. That’s super cringe nowadays but in the 80’s you would not even give it a second thought while watching them ol’ Duke boys outsmart Boss Hogg each week while Daisy’s shorts jump started your puberty. The theme is perfect in setting up the premise and characters of the show. All of this from absolute legend Waylon Jennings, it has to be on the list!
7) Attack on Titan (season 1)
ANIME IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR CULTURE! Attack on Titan is a phenomenal anime where the remains of humanity lives in walled off cities and fights giant man eating titans to survive. Oh they do this by wearing Spider Man like grappling hooks and using swords. It’s freaking awesome and this theme song sets the stage exquisitely. A mix of Jpop and Fantasy Metal, I find myself singing it randomly all the time. While each season has a different theme song, and ALL of them are amazing, I am sticking with the classic season 1 theme.
6) G.I. Joe
As a kid in the 80’s, the only thing you wanted to do was to defend America against evil terrorists and no show made you ready to do it more than G.I. Joe! All the staples of 80’s awesome are here: cheesy singing and music and the voiceover explaining the show. In fact I can recite what G.I. Joe is from this song better than I can most actual important facts from life, so it definitely stuck in my brain. If you of a certain age and didn’t sing this while running down the aisle at Toys R Us looking for the latest Joes to take home, I don’t think we had similar childhoods at all.
5) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
A TV show I RAN home from school to watch daily (I was in high school too, so this really impressed the ladies), MMPR was a combination of everything I loved. The badly acted American footage inserted into the decades old Super Sentai shows combined into a perfect storm for a lover of bad movies, giant robots, and attractive girls who transform into Pink Rangers. Nothing sums up the entire franchise better than this theme, a guitar shredding butt rock anthem that yells “Go Go Power Rangers!” at you. If you aren’t headbanging and playing air guitar when this comes on, are you really even alive?
4) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The first instrumental on my list, and it’s by one of my favorite bands, Nerf Herder! Buffy is a great show and this theme is the perfect punk rock tune to get you amped up to kill vampires and also maybe date them. Plus Buffy and Willow are true waifus so they are deserving of an awesome theme song. There’s not much to add here on this one other than it perfectly fits the show.
3) The A Team
In the 80’s, this was THE live action TV show for boys. Explosions, car chases, Mr. T, gun battles, and all of it with absolutely no one getting hurt ever. When you heard this theme you felt like a bad ass who could take on the world, and also build weaponry out of junk laying around in someone’s barn. Yet another classic that has transcended its show and become part of popular culture.
2) Perfect Strangers
The ultimate 80’s sitcom opening theme. Sounding like it came right off the radio in 1984, this sets up the whole story of Perfect Strangers and just hearing it transports me back to a Friday night in front of a 13 inch TV watching ABC and reading comics with an entire weekend ahead of me. This song is catchy as hell and for my dollar, there’s really only one TV show with a better one…
1) Neon Genesis Evangelion
The greatest Anime of all time. The greatest theme song of all time. It’s not even close. My wife has threatened divorce if I don’t stop singing this in the house. An incredible banger that will stick in your head forever, with amazing anime nonsense lyrics when directly translated. With the show finally available easily in the US, you can jump on Netflix and experience it for yourself, but just hearing the first notes immediately makes me want to move in with a penguin and pilot giant robots while questioning existence. It’s the Bohemian Rhapsody of Anime openings and deserves its rightful place on the top of this list.
And there it is, MY top ten list. If I can get even one of you to check out some Eva or Baywatch, my day will be complete!
Thanks again to Stew for asking me to contribute!
SWO Productions 