Supreme Themes: The 60 Greatest Title Songs of All Time

TvGuide ^ | April 16, 2013

[SMGFan]

For years TV Guide Magazine has told you what's worth watching, but what about what's worth hearing — over and over again? In the best TV theme songs, lyrics can summarize the backstory or comment on characters, while instrumentals can sell the mood or set the scene. Just try reading this list of shows without getting a few of their songs stuck in your head. 
(Additional reporting by Kevin Schlittenhardt)

[vetvetdoug]

Montovoni recorded the theme song with his orchestra from The Virginian that was beautiful. Of all of the theme songs, this one was the most dynamic IMO.

[trisham]

Hi Joe! :)

[Sirius Lee]

Awesome! Lalo Schifrin also composed the theme for “Mannix” and you can’t go wrong with a swinging jazz waltz. I accidentally stumbled across it on Youtube and started watching a few episodes. I guess it was on tv even before Rockford.

[Fiji Hill]

My all-time favorite TV theme is If I Could Tell You In My Garden, from (The Voice of Firestone)

Here are some of my other favorites:

• Avant de Quitter Cest Lieux (When I Quit These Parts) (Lassie)

• Puffing Billy (Captain Kangaroo)

• When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain (The Kate Smith Show)

• Dragnet (Dragnet)

• Galop, aka Cavalry Charge, from Gioachino Rossini's "William Tell Overture" (The Lone Ranger)

[Paisan]

You forgot Funeral March for a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock)

[dfwgator]

A couple of war documentary themes

Victory at Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sto3p3eozg8

And who could ever forget the haunting “World at War” theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtB9e_Tev0Q

[Fiji Hill]

Erratum: "If I Could Tell You" and "In My Garden" are separate songs, but they were both used as themes for The Voice of Firestone, which started as a radio show in 1928 and then moved to television, where it continued until 1959.

[Jack Hammer]

Route 66 and Peter Gunn should be 1 and 2, IMHO, but then I’m a certified Old F*rt.

[Paisan]

Of all of the theme songs, this one was the most dynamic IMO.

See my post, #18

[Fiji Hill]

"Victory at Sea" is definitely one of the best TV show themes.

Another show with great theme music was The Twentieth Century, but in the 1960's, a more insipid version of the music was used.

[trisham]

“Round-Up”, from the Cincinnati Pops is a wonderful compilation of western theme songs, with “The Virginian” amongst them. I highly recommend it.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Have gun will travel reads the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land. :=)

[Excellence]

I had to look up Route 66. I don’t we ever watched it.

[Migraine]

You forgot Funeral March for a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock)

And for that matter, back when NBC still did news, Beethoven's 9th, second movement.

[Free Vulcan]

Magnum P.I., Family Ties, Batman, Dukes of Hazzard, Monday Night Football...

[Rodamala]

The show is an acquired tast, but The Venture Bros on [adult swim] is a crass rip at Johnny Quest (especially the earlier seasons). The theme music is fairly distinctive.

[hawaiianninja]

Wow. Besides many of the tunes and the list and others that people have mentioned here, there's quite a bit more that I can think of that has left a big impression on me. My biggest 2 are the following:

Personally, I like "The Avengers" Theme. I had lots of fun playing this on the piano when I was growing up. Plus, Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) was easy on the eyes! :) I became such an Anglo-phile because of her! XD Perhaps being a British show may have kept it out of the running for TV Guide? :?

And being a dad myself, I find the theme song from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" is kinda special. ^_^

[a fool in paradise]

Great list

They missed the theme to 60 Minutes.

[dfwgator]

CBS’ old NFL Today theme blew away the MNF theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUUMMlGPeMA

[Free Vulcan]

If you say so.