I feel like I should have a Christmas playlist for you, but I did that last year. So even though this isn’t seasonally appropriate, I’m sharing one about TV instead. I do love TV, if you haven’t noticed, and I realized that I had a lot of songs in my iTunes that were either TV theme songs or featured on TV shows- sometimes songs that were written for those shows. And here they are, with some explanations.

 

1. Cheers theme song, Gary Portnoy

Despite being a native Bostonian, I have never once seen Cheers. I did once go to the Cheers bar, though.

 

2. “Thank You for Being a Friend” by Andrew Gold- The Golden Girls theme song.

 

3. “Forever” by Jesse and the Rippers, from Full House

Remember this? Beach Boys song Jesse sings at his wedding.

 

4. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air rap

 

5. Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? theme song by Rockapella

I would have kicked ass on this show.

 

6. Boy Meets World theme song (the second one)

 

7. X-Files theme song

Twenty years. The show premiered TWENTY YEARS ago.

 

8. Another version of the XF theme

 

9. Cher’s cover of “Walking in Memphis”

From the “Post Modern Prometheus” episode of The X-Files

 

10. “The Scully Song” by Eric D. Snyder

I listened to this at work once and ended up  laughing out loud at my desk

 

11. “David Duchovny” by Bree Sharp

“David Duchovny, why won’t you love me?” might be the best rhyme ever.

 

12. “Scully’s Theme” from the last couple of seasons of The X-Files

 

13. Sex and the City theme (from the movie, but close enough)

 

14. “I’ll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts- Friends theme song

 

15.  “Smelly Cat” medley from Friends

The best of the Phoebe songs.

 

16. “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole- Dawson’s Creek theme song

 

17. “Never Saw Blue Like That” by Shawn Colvin, from Dawson’s Creek’s soundtrack

 

18. “Blue” by Angie Hart

I never watched Buffy, but this song, which I like, was on it.

 

19. “Where You Lead” by Carole King and Louise Goffin- Gilmore Girls theme song

 

20. Lorelai’s painting song from Gilmore Girls (she makes it up to convince Luke to let her help paint the diner)

 

21. “Reflecting Light” by Sam Phillips

It was the song playing when Luke and Lorelai first danced at a wedding on Gilmore Girls.

 

22. “Boss of Me” by They Might Be Giants

Theme song to Malcolm in the Middle– ah, a simpler time, one before Bryan Cranston was “the one who knocks.”

 

23. Crystal Bowersox’s cover of “Me and Bobby McGee” from American Idol

This was the last season of the show I watched.

 

24. “California” by Phantom Planet- The O.C.‘s theme song

 

25. “We Used to Be Friends” by The Dandy Warhols- Veronica Mars theme song.

 

26. “It Don’t Matter to the Sun” by Rosie Thomas

I’ve seen Grey’s Anatomy about five times, but this is on the soundtrack.

 

27. “Dunder and Dwightning” by Sweet Diss and the Comebacks

An ode to The Office

 

28. “Let’s Go to The Mall” by Robin Sparkles

I’m totally going to spoil one of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother– “Slap Bet”. At the beginning, Robin refuses to go to the mall with her friends because she doesn’t like malls, but she won’t tell anyone why. Everyone ventures guesses, but we find out in the end that she was a teen pop star in Canada in the 90s who had a hit song called “Let’s Go to the Mall. ” More Robin Sparkles songs pop up on the show as it goes on.

 

29. “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri

This song was featured on So You Think You Can Dance before Christina Perri even had a record- it was professionally recorded for the show because a mutual friend shared it with one of the show’s choreographers, who decided to use it. It immediately shot up the iTunes charts and she scored a record deal soon after.

 

30. “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall- featured on Ugly Betty

 

31. “Don’t Stop Believing” from Glee

I stopped watching this show awhile ago, but I’ll never stop loving this cover from the pilot.

 

32. “5,000 Candles in the Wind” by MouseRat

This song from Parks and Recreation is in an episode where the town is mourning the death of their beloved miniature horse, Li’l Sebastian. Sample lyric: “And here’s the part that hurts the most/Humans cannot ride a ghost.”

 

33. “Negro y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg” by Los Cuates de Sinaloa

One of the weirder Breaking Bad cold opens featured a music video of a Spanish song about Heisenberg, the main character’s drug lord alter-ego.

 

34. “Baby Blue” by Badfinger

Featured on the Breaking Bad finale, very appropriately.

 

35. “Wrong Song” by Connie Britton and Hayden Panetierre

One of my favorite songs from Nashville

 

36. “You’ve Got Time” by Regina Spektor- theme song to Orange Is the New Black