The very best TV theme songs of our youth were catchy and memorable and every bit as good as the singles that DJs played on the radio. This week we’re going to look at some of those TV theme songs, focusing on those that were also released as singles and made it onto the charts. Today’s such classic TV theme song of the day is the theme from WKRP in Cincinnati, one of my favorite comedies from back in the day.
“WKRP in Cincinnati Main Theme” was written by Tom Wells with lyrics by Hugh Wilson, the series’ creator. It was sung on the show and in a subsequent single release by Akron, Ohio-based singer Steve Carlisle.
The song tells the story of a lonely radio DJ moving from “town to town, up and down the dial.” It’s actually a little melancholy, especially in the extended single version with additional lyrics, even if the tune itself is rather upbeat. It’s certainly catchy; it’s a theme song that most of us remember and can sing along with still today.
The song mirrors the plot, sort of, behind the television program. WKRP in Cincinnati was about the wacky adventures of the eccentric staff of a low-rated, low-wattage AM radio station in Cincinnati, including new program director Andy Travis (played by Gary Sandy), station manager Arthur Carlson (AKA “The Big Guy,” played by Gordon Jump), DJs Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), nerdy newsguy Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), loyal assistant Baily Quarters (Jan Smithers), smarmy salesman Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner), and sultry receptionist Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson). In the pilot episode, Andy has just arrived in Cincinnati to turn around the fortunes of the struggling station by switching from easy listening to rock and roll; subsequent episodes (including the infamous Thanksgiving episode, “Turkeys Away,” with the non-flying turkeys) described the characters’ lives in the world of rock radio.
WKRP in Cincinnati ran for four seasons on the CBS network, from September of 1978 to April of 1982. “WKRP in Cincinnati Main Theme” was released as a single in 1981 and peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100. You all know the main lyrics:
Baby, if you’ve ever wondered
Wondered whatever became of me
I’m living on the air in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, WKRP
Got kinda tired of packin’ and unpackin’
Town to town, up and down the dial
Maybe you and me were never meant to be
Just maybe think of me once in a while
I’m on WKRP in Cincinnati…
The main theme was played under the show’s opening credits. There was also a closing theme, performed by Atlanta musician Jim Ellis. This piece of music consists of Ellis wordlessly screaming over a basic rock track; there really aren’t any words to it. Ellis improvised it in the studio and Wilson used it as-is on the show, as he thought it was a funny take on the unintelligible lyrics of many rock songs.
Jim Ellis explains how that somewhat-bizarre closing theme came about:
“Talk about lucking out! My first TV show turns out to be a sitcom legend. Hugh Wilson, working for MTM Enterprises, created WKRP In Cincinnati and hired Tom Wells to write and produce original music for the show. Tom, in turn, hires me to arrange and orchestrate the opening theme that he and Hugh had written, and to write a rock and roll closing theme. I had originally written the closer to be an instrumental, but on the day of recording, I began joking around singing the melody that the saxophone would eventually play. Of course there were no lyrics and I was just sort of scatting gibberish. Well, Hugh and Tom thought that was funny, and that it made a joke about the general unintelligibility of rock lyrics. So, out with the sax and in with the Jim Ellis’ only professional job as a lead singer. Not bad if you’re only going to have one.”
And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, the main theme to WKRP in Cincinnati over the show’s opening titles—for all four seasons. (The first season titles were a little different—and longer—than those used in later years).
