TWEET:🐥 The Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today

This Week's Embedded Earworm Tune™ led me to wonder which TV Series' opening credit sequences feature the best use of hit songs

It feels like a decade has passed since I watched season one of Pachinko, the brilliant Japanese/Korean epic family drama on Apple TV+, based on the novel by Min Jin Lee. In reality, it’s only been 1 3/4 years since it aired.

My sense of time, to borrow a wonderful phrase from Yiddish, is all fakakta. The months before COVID seem like twenty years ago, while I could swear it was the holiday season just a few weeks ago, and now it’s here again.

Pandemics, horrific wars, global warming, economic chaos — how is a person supposed to handle it all?

By following the advice of The Grass Roots, I suppose, and ‘Live for today.’ Or as spiritual guru and author Ram Dass would say, ‘Be here now.”

Pachinko — the book and the series — takes place across multiple timelines, none of which are the mid-60s to the mid-70s. Yet this classic tune provides the perfect vibe, the perfect message to begin each episode. If you watch the opening credits and you know nothing about the book or story, you might think you’re about to watch a musical. In the video, all of the main actors joyfully dance around a pachinko parlor. It’s a stark contrast to the serious themes — war, AIDS, drug addiction, just to name a few — explored in the series.

The use of popular songs as themes for television series is as old as the medium. While it is more common for shows to use original music for their opening credits, there are plenty of examples of recognizable tunes starting off many of our favorite shows.

While I will share below a couple of my favorites, I would love to hear which songs you felt/feel were especially well utilized as opening credit themes for television shows. For me, it’s not just the greatness of the song, it’s how it is paired with the visuals and the show’s themes that make it stand out.

Regarding the Grass Roots, you can find their history and imprint on rock and roll history with a quick internet search. But a couple of highlights:

• The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri.

• Their heyday was from 1965-1975 but, according to Wiki, are still actively touring, but with no original members. Early member Rob Grill, before his death, personally chose the members to continue the band’s legacy. That’s kinda awesome.

• They charted on the Billboard 100 a total of 21 times and reached the top 40 fourteen times.

• Their most popular incarnation featured Creed Bratton — most known as playing the character “Creed” on the American version of the hit TV series The Office.

• A sampling of their hits include: “Where Were You When I Needed You,” “Midnight Confessions,” and “Things I Should Have Said.”

1. The New Pope (HBO - 2018)

This limited HBO limited series was a sequel to the limited series “The Young Pope.” In both versions, Jude Law plays the Pope. In this one, Law is in a coma, hence the need for a “new pope.”

The way director Paolo Sorrentino utilizes Sofi Tukker’s rollicking “Good Time Girl” is bold, and brilliant — and lets the viewer know that they are in for a wild ride.

2. The Leftovers (HBO, 2014-2017, three seasons)

Each season of this transcendent series features a different theme. Season two, for most of the episodes, uses “Let the Mystery Be,” Iris Dement’s heartfelt ode to not knowing all the answers, off her 1992 album Infamous Angel. The Leftovers is about the aftermath of a rapture-like event that leads about 1/4 of the population to spontaneously disappear. Choosing this song, after a heavy and mostly humorless season one (which covers the entire of the Tom Perrotta novel) is a sly message to the viewer: “Don’t expect all the mysteries of the show to be answered.” While also trying to lighten things up just a bit.

The twangy vulnerability in Dement’s voice and the ironically joyful visuals make this a perfect opening credit song.

3. Get A Life (Fox, 1990-1992, two seasons)

This Chris Elliott comedy lasted two seasons and was the sort of sitcom you either loved or hated. You can guess which side I landed on. If you were an early David Letterman Show fan, you know all about Chris Elliott’s numerous classic appearances on that show.

Incorporating one of R.E.M.’s most annoying, sing-songy singles was a stroke of genius, perfectly matching Elliot’s man-child idiocy. Seeing it appear (thankfully, edited) to start the show made me love the song a little more (or hate it a little less) each time.

• As I asked earlier, which shows do you think used original songs the best?

• Was the heyday of such songs the ‘70s and ‘80s?

• What TV shows are you eagerly awaiting their return now that the strikes are over (I know the actors still need to dot their I’s and cross their T’s)?

• Be sure to include links to the songs you suggest if you can.

Thanks for reading!

Steve