At some point in your life, you’ve no doubt drunkenly busted out a few television theme songs at the bar. Who could resist embracing your lonely last call by revisiting the lyrical comfort from “Growing Pains” (“Show me that smile again… don’t waste another minute on your cryin’!) or the soul-mate reassurance of “Family Ties” (“I bet we been together for a million years/And I bet well be together for a million more”).
Aimee Mann and Ted Leo, currently performing together as the Both, understand the depth and emotion of TV theme songs of the past 50 years.
New York magazine news and entertainment website Vulture enlisted Mann and Leo put together a medley of those familiar theme songs, from classic jingles like “Cheers” and “Welcome Back Kotter” to current opening-credit soundtracks from “Community” and “Orange Is The New Black.”
It’s pretty good, as expected.
“As soon as we started listening to theme songs we realized the best ones were really depressing, and we became fascinated with how many really depressing TV theme songs there were,” says Mann.
They might be depressing, but it’s nothing a great sitcom couldn’t fix within an episode or two.
Late last month, the Both performed live at the Paradise in Boston. Here they are performing “Save Me.”