6 60’s Theme Songs That Will Make You Nostalgic
As I was browsing the theme songs of the shows I used to watch when I was a younger kid (I do not identify as an adult yet), I realized how much I love nostalgia. Just a few notes and I was back in my pajamas on Saturday morning, watching my favorite TV shows.
So, instead of keeping this all to myself, I decided to rewind an extra thirty or so years from my era and get the baby boomers involved. Why leave all of you out of the fun? You guys had some excellent TV shows, and I want to let you relish those memories. Whether you watched them with your kids, as a kid, as a teen, or last week on MeTV, Let’s get started! Click the headings; hear the themes.
Audiences and Halloween partygoers alike have been snapping along to “The Addam’s Family” since the show first aired in 1964. With cold, black and white stares, Morticia, Gomez, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Pugsley, and Grandmama welcomed you into their dark and sinister sitcom—Kookiness and spookiness and all.
Memorable Lyric: “They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re all together ooky: the Addams family.”
It is not nearly as iconic of a song, but it is definitely worth a mention. This bouncing, swinging theme was penned by Frank Devol. My Three Sons is about a widower named Steve Douglas and his adventures raising…well…his three sons.
Fun Fact: Did you know that Frank Devol also composed the Brady Bunch Theme?
A classic Hanna Barbera tune, this theme (written by Hanna, Barbera, and Curtin) is strongly associated with the Flintstones. But did you know that “Meet the Flintstones” wasn’t the song that originally presented the modern Stone Age family to the world? According to neatorama.com, the animation was introduced by a lyric-less theme song entitled “Rise and Shine” for its first two seasons.
Memorable Lyric: “When you’re with the Flintstones, have a yabba dabba doo time. A dabba doo time. You’ll have a gay old time.”
It’s just whistling, snaps, and a simple drumbeat, but those are the only tools “The Fishing Hole” needs to become a tenacious earworm. Originally composed and whistled into existence by Earle Hagen, I know it will be stuck in your head all day!
Fun Fact: Did you know that this song has words? Here is a link to a recording of Andy Griffith himself singing the little known lyrics.
One thing that this show has in common with The Andy Griffith Show (other than the creativity of its name) is that The Dick Van Dyke show’s theme also has little known lyrics. Here are a few lines: “So you think that you’ve got trouble. Well trouble’s a bubble.
So tell old mister trouble to get lost.” Listen to it and try to sing along with the words. It’s easy once you get the hang of it.
Fun Fact: I know this has little to do with the song, but did you realize that Johnny Carson almost got the lead role, taking Dick Van Dyke’s place (Mental Floss)?
This song is as hick as you can get, and you’ve got to love it for that! With a banjo and some booming bass vocals, this theme narrates the poor family’s path to riches and their journey to Beverly (Hills, that is)!
Memorable Lyric: “And then one day he was shootin at some food, and up through the ground come a bubblin crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.”
Well…Unlike TV today, it wasn’t always 24 hour programming back then. So, in honor of that simplicity, I would like to end with the static, the blip, and the lingering white dot.
I hope you had a gay old time.
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