5 Banger Rock Songs Made Famous By TV Series

For those who've seen 1985's "The Breakfast Club," try to imagine its final, iconic scene without Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" playing in the background. John Bender walks across a football field, raises his fist into the air, the shot freeze-frames, and ... what? Everything is silent, and the credits roll? That final shot and that song go so hand-in-hand that it's impossible to imagine them without each other, the same as lots of other famous films and songs. With that said, lots of TV shows also elevated certain songs to legendary statuses.

Who, for instance, could think of "Dawson's Creek" without Paula Cole's controversially Grammy-winning "I Don't Want to Wait" playing in the background? What about Massive Attack's superb and moving (if sadly overplayed at this point) "Teardrop" in the opening of "House"? Heck, is it even remotely conceivable to imagine the still-running "Cops" without "Bad Boys"? Absolutely not. All of these songs were made famous, in large part, because of the shows that featured them. But, none of them are rock songs. The Who's 1971 "Won't Get Fooled Again" is full-on classic rock, but the group was famous long before it got deployed in the opening to "CSI: Miami" and a slew of glorious David Caruso sunglasses memes. 

Other rock songs, however, came to fame and acclaim through TV shows. In a case like "I'll Be There for You" on "Friends," the song was made just for the show. In the case of "Woke Up This Morning" on "The Sopranos," it was a lucky find and fit. And in at least one case, a song was made more popular than it had ever been thanks to the show that featured it.

It's not possible to think about the sitcom "Friends" without thinking about The Rembrandts' 1995 theme song, "I'll Be There for You." It's not even possible to watch the music video for the song without seeing Rachel and Monica swap sunglasses, Chandler and Joey agree that, yeah, it's cool to dance together, and eventually see the whole cast take over the band's instruments. Like the song or not, like "Friends" or not, or find yourself tormented by its incessant use like David Schwimmer, we can all agree: "Friends" made "I'll Be There for You" popular, no matter the musical value of the song itself. 

As it turns out, it's no mistake that the cast of "Friends" showed up in the video for "I'll Be There for You," as the song and its "clap-clap-clap-clap-clap" bit (we agree with Courtney Cox that it's five claps) were written specifically for the series. More than that, it was so successfully composed, and "Friends" was such a smash hit, that "I'll Be There for You" resuscitated the very practice of using songs to open TV shows at a time when some execs wanted to can them. "I think it's an antiquated practice," then-ABC Entertainment president Ted Harbert said in 1994, the year "Friends" started airing (per Variety). "It gives the audience an opportunity to take the little remote and zap around. We really have to find ways to stop them from doing that." Joke's on you, Ted.

The Rembrandts' Michael Skloff wound up modelling the song after the Beatles' 1966 "Paperback Writer." His songwriting, plus Allee Willis' lyrics (especially the "Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A." line) and "Friends" itself, made the song an instant hit.

We've got to dig into the vaults a bit for this one, but really: Could a theme song better fit a show than "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" did "Cheers"? The whole track (which largely consists of its chorus) is about Frasier, Norm, Cliff, Diane, and company congregating at Cheers, the pub, in Boston and coming together in some kind of community where everyone — wait for it — knows your name. And like "I'll Be There for You," "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" was written specifically for its show.

The creative behind "Cheers" hunted down "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" songwriters Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo ahead of the show's release in 1982. The duo had caught the production team's attention because of their work on the musical "Preppies," particularly its song, "People Like Us." According to Portnoy via his website, their mission was to basically repackage "People Like Us" with different lyrics and make them "relate to a bunch of likeable losers" who hung out in a Boston bar. Like those likeable losers, the songwriting duo didn't think they were up to the task. That is, until the song came together in a flash one day when Portnoy was messing around at the piano. Not only did "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" perfectly sum up "Cheers," but it also became a beloved song in its own right. It keeps popping up on best theme song lists (including this one) to this day.

When Tony Soprano rolls down the New Jersey Turnpike on the way toward his job in "waste management," you know the song that's playing: "Woke Up This Morning," with its pulsing bassline and absolute, funky groove. For fans of "The Sopranos," nothing could so exquisitely capture the feeling of settling into an episode's mayhem. And for those "fans" who even skipped the song or thought it didn't fit? For shame! Even those who've never seen "The Sopranos" can sense the song's semi-demented, man-about-town swagger, especially given its opening line, "Woke up this mornin' / Got yourself a gun." 

It's strange to think that 1997's "Woke Up This Morning" went nowhere before "The Sopranos," no matter how cool the song is. Even more strangely and improbably, the track is the byproduct of Welsh/Scottish London-based music group Alabama 3, with members that dress like cowboys decked in white. "The Sopranos" creator, David Chase, heard the song on rotation and tracked down the group, thinking it was comprised of "three Black kids from Brooklyn," as Rob Spragg, aka Larry Love, told The New Cue. The band members had no idea what they were in for and were stunned when they started getting phone calls from the U.S. and seeing James Gandolfini on billboards. 

Even more strangely and improbably than before, Alabama 3 got a bad deal for "The Sopranos" because no one thought the show would take off when it aired in 1999. The trio got $500 for "Woke Up This Morning," a sum that would have left them kicking themselves for eternity if the song hadn't gotten licensed again and eventually rerecorded for 2021's "The Sopranos" prequel, "The Many Saints of Newark." 

Yes, fans of Kate Bush will rightfully point out that she existed long before a new generation discovered her via Season 4 of "Stranger Things," the same as Metallica and "Master of Puppets." But because Metallica is metal, we're going to focus on Bush (not the band) for this choice. Kate Bush is art rock, pop rock, art pop — whatever the genre — enough for "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" to be considered a "rock song" despite the lack of dudes with long hair strumming or shredding guitars. 

Also yes, "Running Up That Hill" was a big song long before "Stranger Things." But, it received an absurdly enormous boost in popularity because of the show, more than "Master of Puppets" pushing past 1 billion listens because of character Eddie Munson shredding on a trailer in the Upside Down. When character Max Mayfield escaped from evil "Dungeons & Dragons" villain Vecna thanks to the power of Bush and friendship, "Running Up That Hill" went from about 102 million listens on Spotify to an absolutely unbelievable 1.5 billion current listens. 

Because of this overwhelming surge in popularity, the now 67-year-old Kate Bush, who originally released "Running Up That Hill" on 1985's "Hounds of Love," made about £2.37 million as of August 2022. Bush was over the moon about the whole thing, calling it "extraordinary," "so exciting," and "quite shocking" on the BBC, saying that she'd been a fan of "Stranger Things" from the 1st season. "Running Up That Hill" even reached No. 2 in the U.K. and No. 8 in the U.S., higher than it ever was before.

What season of "Grey's Anatomy" are we on? 72? We're not even going to try and remember the myriad of spaghetti-stringed stories interweaving excessively — soap opera-like and soppingly sentimental— throughout the show's entire length. But you know what we will remember besides Dr. Grey's tequila obsession? That song. You know, the one with the two-note riff and the lines, "If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world"? Yep, that's "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, a song name and band name that you might have never heard even if you know "Chasing Cars" by sound.

We might actually have multiple shows to thank for elevating "Chasing Cars" to monumental, mega-hit status. The song was used in the 2nd season finale of "Grey's Anatomy" in 2006 and also the 3rd season finale of "One Tree Hill" that same year, mere weeks apart. "Chasing Cars" is so nebulous and generic in sound and meaning that it not only suited both shows but also any and all love stories and also loads of funerals.

Since 2006, "Chasing Cars" has been used in countless shows and movies, including other hospital-based shows like "House" and "ER." It's also been covered a quadrillion times, even by stars like Ed Sheeran, and sits at 1.67 billion listens on Spotify. That's pretty good for a song that singer Gary Lightbody wrote about something his father once told him. When Lightbody was interested in a girl, his dad told him that he was like a dog chasing a car. When he caught it, he wouldn't know what to do with it.