My Top 1000 Songs #780: Love Is All Around
[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]
So where does a tv show theme song fit in here? Is it another era-specific novelty song that you-had-to-have-been-there to appreciate? A guilty pleasure? A legit great song that deserves to be heard on its own musical merits? All of the above?
I published a personal essay a few years back on the closing theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the emotional pull it still as on me (inadvertently revived by a similar-sounding piano line in a random Wilco song). But of course it's "Love Is All Around," the opening theme, which is so memorable to a generation of tv viewers (and maybe beyond?). It's a lovely little snippet of a pop song written by Sonny Curtis (perhaps best known as both a member of Buddy Holly's Crickets and the songwriter behind "I Fought The Law"). And, sure, the lyrics may be tailored to the tv series, but it works even outside that context. For proof, just crank up the raging cover by Hüsker Dü (who share their Minneapolis roots with the fictional Mary Richards), which first appeared as a b-side on 1985's "Makes No Sense At All"). Or Joan Jett, who repurposed it as a modern-day feminist anthem. Or power pop band The Shambles, who mined its winning melody's inherent jangle pop sensibility. (Or even Curtis himself, who later issued his own country-pop remake.)
Here's a great collection of the original theme song and its subsequent iterations on later seasons:The Hüsker Dü cover:Joan Jett (live on Letterman):The Shambles:Sonny Curtis remake:
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