FRIENDS: WHAT? Before “I’ll Be There For You”, The Show Had Another Theme Song Planned!
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There are some theme/intro songs which you just don’t want to skip, and FRIENDS is undoubtedly one of the. I’ll Be There For You by Rembrandts makes you smile, and most importantly it makes you clap to it. But, did you know the makers had a placeholder instead of the theme song before the pilot episode released?
We’ve all heard many trivia stories about the show, but this one takes the cake. A lot of hustle went in finally reaching the ‘I’ll be there for you’ track. Read ahead to know how the makers finally got what they wanted.
A trivia published on Mental Floss reads, “When Friends producer Kevin S. Bright sent the pilot episode to The Rembrandts’ Danny Wilde and Phil Solem, its placeholder theme song was R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), which he was hoping they could emulate if they took the gig.”
It further adds, “They did take the gig, but the band itself didn’t actually come up with the sitcom’s still-ubiquitous theme song. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman’s husband, Michael Skloff, composed it, with lyrical help from Allee Willis (who co-wrote Earth, Wind, & Fire’s hit September). The Rembrandts Rembrandt-ified it, as Solem told BuzzFeed News, and the show’s producers surprised them by adding their own finishing touch: the four claps, which took them more than a few takes to get right.”
The theme song became so popular that an extended version of it was recorded. The trivia also states, “Friends premiered about a week after they wrapped, and The Rembrandts returned their focus to their forthcoming album, L.P. But after a Nashville radio program director named Charlie Quinn played a looped version of the 45-second theme song, it became clear that the public wanted more. It got a crazy amount of requests. The phone lines started blowing up, and all the sister stations started playing it, and it went national, Wilde told BuzzFeed News. L.P. was completely done, but their label insisted they record a longer edition of the Friends theme and add it to the end of the album. Though they weren’t exactly thrilled, they eventually came to appreciate the song’s success. It didn’t really fit, Wilde explained. But it helped sell that record!”
