There’s something almost magical about a great TV theme song. You hear it, and instantly you’re back on the couch, snack in hand, ready for your favorite show. It doesn’t matter if it was years ago. The melody hits, and your brain just goes: “Oh yes. This.”
Despite periodic attempts to contract or outright eliminate them, theme songs are a crucial part of the TV-watching experience. The best ones put you in the right mindset for each episode and can be just as entertaining in their own right as any great joke, monologue, or action sequence. Honestly, that’s a bold claim. But after going through the greatest openings in television history? It holds up completely. Let’s dive in.
1. “I’ll Be There for You” – Friends (1994–2004)
Let’s start with what is, without question, one of the most recognized TV theme songs ever recorded. Friends has been voted as people’s number one earworm, with more than a quarter saying the catchy theme gets stuck in their heads for at least an hour every week. That adds up to a minimum of 52 hours a year, the equivalent of a whopping 141 episodes of the show. That’s kind of wild when you think about it.
The title theme used in the pilot for Friends was actually “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M. For later episodes, Warner Bros. Television wanted either that song or one by frontman Michael Stipe. When Stipe rejected the offer, the producers enlisted the Rembrandts to record their own theme song. So in a way, the world owes Stipe a thank-you for saying no.
By the end of the first season, Friends was so popular that a Nashville radio station began playing a loop of the brief theme song as if it were an actual single. The Rembrandts had cut the theme somewhat against their will, and once radio began playing it, they were pressured into fleshing it out into a full-length song. It spent two months at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart.
The show’s huge success didn’t entirely help The Rembrandts’ brand and even led to a temporary split. “Once people realised it was us, it killed our cool vibe,” said Wilde. “We went from doing cool clubs to matinee shows where parents would bring their kids. The song became an albatross round our necks and broke up the band for a few years.” The price of accidental fame, I suppose.
2. Game of Thrones Theme – Game of Thrones (2011–2019)
Few TV themes in the modern era are as instantly recognizable as the swelling, cello-driven opening to Game of Thrones. It was composed by Ramin Djawadi in 2011, after series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss approached him requesting a theme. Asked to avoid flutes and solo vocals, which the producers felt were overused in fantasy themes, Djawadi used the cello as the lead instrument.
According to Djawadi, the show creators wanted the main title theme to be about a journey, since the show has many locations and characters. After being shown a preliminary animated title sequence, he was inspired to write the piece. He said he started humming what would become the theme tune in the car after seeing the visuals, and conceived the idea on the drive back to his studio. The finished theme was presented to the producer just three days later.
The Game of Thrones soundtrack has been streamed over a billion times. That number alone tells you everything you need to know about the cultural footprint this theme left behind. It has won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition, two ASCAP Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy. Not bad for something scribbled out during a car ride.
Game of Thrones took tenth place as the most recently aired show on Sky TV’s 2024 survey of the most recognisable theme tunes. Even years after the final season, it keeps ranking high. That’s the power of a truly unforgettable opening.
3. “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” – Cheers (1982–1993)
Here’s the thing about this song. It doesn’t just introduce a show. It makes you feel like you belong somewhere warm before you even sit down. “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” popularly known as the theme to Cheers, was co-written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo, and it has a pretty complicated backstory. The show was originally going to use a different song, “People Like Us,” from the musical Preppies, until legal rights prohibited its use. The producers then enlisted Portnoy and Hart-Angelo to write new music.
The two drafted multiple versions, including an early version that made references to Boston. Eventually the musicians arrived at the final version. Today, long after Cheers has been off the air, the song is considered one of the greatest themes of all time, ranked as such by Rolling Stone, due to its wistful sound of cozy refuge.
Cheers is arguably the last of TV’s great original theme songs, as during the show’s run, producers began scaling back on original songs and started licensing existing ones. Perhaps no original TV theme in history so clearly captured the vibe of its show, which was to invite you each week into a warm, inviting corner saloon where “everybody knows your name.” That’s a near-perfect creative match between music and concept.
4. Succession Main Title Theme – Succession (2018–2023)
The Succession main title theme is the theme music of HBO’s satirical dark comedy-drama. It was composed by Nicholas Britell in 2018 and released by Milan Records and HBO. The theme was composed using piano tunes, layered with strings, brass, beats from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and percussive sounds to blend classical and hip hop music. On paper that sounds bizarre. In practice, it’s one of the most hypnotic openings in TV history.
Its sound was inspired by Beethoven and Schubert, with hip-hop beats incorporated. In 2019, Britell won an Emmy for outstanding original main title theme music. Due to the song’s popularity, the score has been used in countless memes online. The meme culture alone is its own kind of cultural legacy.
Rolling Stone listed it at number 25 in their Top 100 television theme songs of all time, saying “the music for Succession nicely drives home the notion of a ruling class that has descended into gangster decadence, of ambition and entitlement collapsing into chaos and nihilism.”
What some have called “the definitive TV theme of the 21st century” – and honestly, it’s hard to argue against that. The show’s musical signature is its mix of “dark, courtly classical sound” with “oversize hip-hop beats and 808s,” with the latter reflecting the taste of both protagonist Kendall and real-life hip-hop enthusiast Britell.
5. The Addams Family Theme (1964–1966)
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photo back, Public domain)
Two snaps, a few bars of guitar, and suddenly you’re somewhere wonderfully, gloriously strange. The Addams Family’s quirky tune perfectly complements its eccentric cast of characters, and over six decades later, it still works like a charm. There’s almost no other TV theme in history that creates a whole mood in under five seconds.
Over 22,000 TV viewers have voted on the best TV theme songs of all time on Ranker, with the Addams Family theme ranking in the current Top 3. Fan vote or not, this one clearly hasn’t aged a day. Both The Munsters and The Addams Family got a significant lift in recent ranking polls, seemingly driven by an uptick in first-time voters.
The original 1960s sitcom, The Addams Family, has one of the most iconic theme songs in television. It also inspired its modern successors. Wednesday doesn’t use the memorable original theme song directly, but it does give nods, like when Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) snaps her fingers. Danny Elfman’s score elevates the gothic feel. The finger-snap DNA lives on.
6. The Flintstones Theme – “Meet the Flintstones” (1960–1966)
Few animated openings have the sheer staying power of this one. Yabba-dabba-doo. Three syllables, and an entire cartoon world snaps into focus. Believe it or not, the theme song “Meet the Flintstones” wasn’t added until the third season of The Flintstones. Despite its late addition, a survey in the UK found that it was the best-known children’s theme song of all time. That’s extraordinary for something that wasn’t even there from the beginning.
Current fan polls on Ranker place The Flintstones in the top three best TV theme songs of all time, alongside Scooby-Doo and the Addams Family. The fact that a song from the early 1960s can still score that high against every modern contender is remarkable. The greatest TV theme songs encapsulate the essence of their respective series while also standing as outstanding compositions in their own right, with masterful songwriting, evocative lyrics, and engaging instrumentation.
The Flintstones theme ticks every one of those boxes. It’s upbeat, it sets the prehistoric-but-suburban scene instantly, and it sticks in your head for days. I know it sounds crazy, but it might be the most efficient TV theme ever composed for sheer premise-delivery-per-second.
7. The Sopranos Theme – “Woke Up This Morning” (1999–2007)
Before a single word of dialogue, before Tony Soprano even pulls up to his house, the grinding rock guitar of Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning” tells you exactly what kind of show you’re in for. Gritty, menacing, full of bluster. The Sopranos is among the shows cited by The Hollywood Reporter as featuring some of the top TV theme songs of all time.
Countless television programs vie for attention, and exceptional theme songs can change a series from mere entertainment to a cultural touchstone. By skillfully blending music with narrative elements, these standout compositions become synonymous with their respective shows, immortalizing them as some of the very best in television history. The Sopranos theme is perhaps the clearest proof of that principle in action.
What makes it genius is that it’s not composed specifically for the show. Alabama 3 wrote it independently, and the producers licensed it. Yet somehow it fits so perfectly that most people assume it was bespoke. That’s a rare kind of creative luck. The best themes put you in the right mindset for every single episode, and can be just as entertaining as any great monologue or action sequence. The Sopranos theme achieves all of that in under 90 seconds.
8. Hill Street Blues Theme – Hill Street Blues (1981–1987)
Not everyone under 40 will immediately recognize this one. But within music and TV circles, this theme is legendary. Mike Post, whose TV themes made him a radio hitmaker in the 1970s and early 1980s, is the composer with the most themes in classic TV countdown lists, including Hill Street Blues at number 16. That’s a remarkable placement decades after the show went off the air.
The Hill Street Blues theme has this slow, melancholic piano melody that sounds like a city waking up. It perfectly mirrors the mood of the show: gritty, human, a little weary but still fighting. Post composed it to feel timeless, not tied to any particular musical trend of the era, which is probably exactly why it has held up so well.
Television has long been a powerful medium for storytelling, capable of drawing viewers into immersive worlds with compelling characters and captivating plots. An essential element of popular series is their theme songs, often as memorable as the shows themselves. From catchy tunes to emotional ballads, the best TV theme songs resonate with audiences and become ingrained in popular culture. Hill Street Blues is a textbook case of that principle at work.
9. Doctor Who Theme (1963–Present)
This one is genuinely in a category of its own. Since Doctor Who first aired in 1963, 15 incarnations of the Time Lord have come and gone, as well as countless companions. The long-running sci-fi show is now an institution, and its innovative theme has attained iconic status. Sixty-plus years. Still going. Still iconic.
An audacious interpretation of Australian composer Ron Grainer’s original score, it was initially created in a Maida Vale lab by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, whose resident genius Delia Derbyshire utilized painstaking techniques to create the otherworldly piece we know today. This was done without modern synthesizers. The fact that it still sounds alien and futuristic is genuinely astonishing.
New research conducted by Sky TV reveals that Doctor Who ranked among the top most instantly recognisable theme tunes as voted for by Brits, with 47% of respondents identifying it. From Pink Floyd to The Human League, The KLF and Orbital, numerous artists have been touched by its greatness. That’s quite the musical legacy for a time-traveling alien’s ringtone.
10. The Simpsons Theme – The Simpsons (1989–Present)
Danny Elfman composed one of the most cheerfully chaotic openings in television history, and he did it in two days. The Simpsons theme is a whirlwind: fast, funny, a little anarchic. It mirrors the show’s spirit perfectly. Sky TV’s 2024 research found that The Simpsons theme was identified by roughly 44% of British viewers as one of the most instantly recognisable theme tunes of all time.
What makes this theme so special is that it changes with every episode. The couch gag at the end of the opening sequence is different most weeks, meaning fans have watched hundreds of variations of this theme without ever getting bored of it. That’s a creative achievement that’s hard to overstate. A good theme song is recognizable. A great theme song actually enhances a series. They can tell their own story, get stuck in your head, or even be a track you look forward to hearing more than watching the show.
The Simpsons theme manages to be all three things at once. It’s also survived longer than almost any show in television history, now spanning over three and a half decades. If that’s not a testament to the staying power of a brilliant theme, I honestly don’t know what is.
A Closing Note on What Makes a Theme Truly Great
The greatest TV theme songs of all time encapsulate the essence of their respective series while also standing as outstanding compositions in their own right. That dual requirement is harder to meet than it sounds. A theme has to work as music and as storytelling simultaneously, setting tone, mood, and expectation all within a 30 to 90 second window.
Despite periodic attempts to contract or outright eliminate theme songs, they remain a crucial part of the TV-watching experience. Streaming era skip buttons haven’t killed them. If anything, the best ones have become more beloved precisely because people choose not to skip them. That says everything.
From the haunting cello of Game of Thrones to the iconic claps of Friends, these songs are more than just introductions. They’re emotional anchors. They tie you to moments, to people you watched with, to versions of yourself from years ago. Which one brings back the strongest memory for you? Tell us in the comments.
