And now, from the 'Gee, You Really Can Learn Something New Everyday' department...
I am probably one of the millions who has watched each Futurama episode seven billion times both on FOX and when they appeared on Adult Swim. I am probably also one of the millions whose done a little krumping everytime the theme song came on. During all this time I thought that it was an original composition from someone like Christopher Tyng, who did the music for the show (read the credits sometime, people!).
Who knew the theme was inspired by a song written by a pioneer of electronic music (I'm sure many of you did, but bare with me)? Someone from the website Tool Cool For School did and was able to find an original copy of the song on the infosuperhighwaynet. It's from composer Pierre Henry and the song, which came out in 1967, is called 'Psyche Rock'. As you watch the video that goes along with the tune (seen after the jump) you will certainly be able to notice the similarities between it and the Futurama theme. If not, I have included another video with the theme that plays over the end credits of the show (I couldn't find any opening credit video for some reason).
The Cheers episode Ken Levine's still writing in his head
Giveaway Tuesday: Fastlane - The Complete Series
Giveaway Monday: The X-Files: Revelations on DVD
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-14-2007 @ 6:04PM
Gene Cowan said...
I seem to recall at the time Futurama premiered that the story was that they couldn't afford to license the original, so Christopher Tyng emulated it in his theme music -- an homage, if you will.
I also think they addressed this in one of the DVD commentaries as well.
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11-14-2007 @ 6:50PM
PB said...
That is so cool! Thanks for posting this, Richard. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who sings and dances to the Futurama theme ... it's one of the titles that I don't Tivo through! (Well, title sequences are becoming scarcer, so a great one is especially great to find!)
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11-14-2007 @ 7:05PM
m said...
nice pointing this one out! actually, british dj artist fatboy slim did a remix of the pierre henry original ca. 1998, though it wasn't a big hit. (he's more famous for "the rockafeller skank" and probably mostly reknown for his awesome videos, such as "weapon of choice" featuring christopher walken dancing madly in a hotel lobby and the spike jonze directed "praise you" with that hippy-esque dancing in a shopping mall). fatboy slim also did a remix of a jean-jacques perrey song, another french electro-pioneer who had worked with pierre henry.
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11-15-2007 @ 8:07AM
Ashley Boyd said...
Yeah I realised that a while ago when I was listening to the Mean Girls soundtrack, as its on there.
(lets ignore my musical taste though eh?)
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