The mid-70s were a rich time for TV theme songs, with 1976 giving us our third straight year with such a tune reaching #1.
John Sebastian’s ‘Welcome Back’ was the first non-instrumental theme to accomplish the feat. Sebastian, former leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, wrote the song for the sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, which starred Gabe Kaplan as the titular Gabe Kotter, who returns to his Brroklyn high school as a teacher.
A year after the Soul Train theme became the first TV theme song to reach #1, another instrumental track repeated the feat. Funk group Rhythm Heritage’s ‘Theme from S.W.A.T.‘ peaked at #1 for a single week in February of 1976.
Though Rhythm Heritage’s version of this track enjoyed the sales success, the cop show used a different recording for its opening titles, one performed by an orchestra led by Barry De Vorzon, who wrote the song. That version sounds more like a TV theme and less like a funk jam, to its detriment.
A week or so ago, I featured the theme song from Soul Train and noted that it was one of five television theme songs to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This week I’ll cover the other four.
Before I get to those, I’ll throw a bone to the only TV theme to reach #2. That was Joey Scarbury’s ‘Believe It or Not (Theme from “Greatest American Hero”),’ which was kept from the top spot in 1981 by the eight-week chart-topping run of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross’ ‘Endless Love.’
The week of April 24, 2004, saw Usher atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Yeah!,’ in the middle of a 12-week run at the top spot.
At #2 was R&B artist Mario Winans with ‘I Don’t Wanna Know,’ a song that spent eight weeks in the second spot, never able to overtake Usher. Even when ‘Yeah!’ fell out of #1, it was replaced by another Usher track, ‘Burn,’ while Winans remained at #2. This guy must hate Usher.
Throwing back to the week of April 23, 1994, we have repeats in the #1 and #2 spot with R. Kelly’s ‘Bump N’ Grind’ and Ace of Base’s ‘The Sign,’ respectively.
In the third spot that week was 90s hitmaker Mariah Carey with her cover of Badfinger’s ‘Without You.’ The original didn’t make much of a commercial splash but it did spawn two hit versions.
Meet Me In Montauk 