Just Some of Best Songs to be Featured in TV Shows
The title sums it up. A list – not a countdown, or a completed or definitive – just a list of some of the most influential, impactful and perfectly utilised songs to be featured in some of the greatest shows in television history. And, of course, *SPOILER ALERT*.
Mama Cass – ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’
Featured in LOST – (First in) S02E01, ‘Man of Science, Man of Faith’
Mama Cass is first on the list with her 1969 classic, ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’. This track is utilised perfectly in LOST when viewers tuned in to the first episode of season 2, expecting to find answers as to what was found down the mysterious hatch.
Instead stumble across a man, Desmond, waking up and going about a fairly regular daily routine whilst blasting some 12” Mama Cass. We see him exercising, making a smoothie and taking a shower – all whilst listening to the upbeat vibes of the 60s hit. A normal, carefree life, right? Well… that is until the needle is thrown from the vinyl by an explosion, as the audience must quickly question the reality of the time and place, as it is revealed that it is Desmond who is down the hatch.
The track was so influential to me; I quickly made it my alarm tone – as I felt prepared for anything the day had to offer. Work? Exercise? The Others? The Black Smoke? Easy.
Ben Howard – ‘Oats in the Water’
Featured in The Walking Dead – S04E05, ‘Internment’
The incredible English-born, folk singer, Ben Howard is up next. And the 2-time BRIT Award winning artist offers up the unspoiled, eerie folk-track, ‘Oats in the Water’, which mirrors the mood of this episode of The Walking Dead perfectly.
When we see Hershel, the guiding-light of many of the show’s characters (and certainly the audience), tending to the sick patients within the prison, our hearts sink. He selflessly risks his own health to protect his friends, in a world where common decency and looking-out for fellow man has been lost. The lyrics, ‘Go your way. I’ll take the long way ’round, I’ll find my own way down, As I should’ parallel Hershel’s attitude perfectly, as he refuses to succumb to the post-apocalyptic horror of the world.
However, after many of the patients die and turn to “Walkers”, Hershel is forced to break his own moral code and commits his first kill in front of the other patients. We then see Hershel retreat back to his cell and begin reading from the Bible, proceeding to break down in tears, as audiences realise, perhaps, there is no hope for anybody.
The song has become such a cult hit, it is now referred to as ‘Hershel’s Theme’.
U2 – ‘With or Without You’
Featured in FRIENDS – (First in) S02E08, ‘The One With The List’
Quite possibly the greatest, most-loved sitcom in the history of the world, and the Ross and Rachel, ‘Will they? Won’t They?’ relationship is one of the reasons why.
U2 deliver, ‘With or Without You’, as the picture-perfect theme for the TV relationship that the world was willing to happen. The gentle melody and romantically-haunting lyrics just seem to be about nothing else, but the 10-year struggle of the nerd, Ross Geller, trying to win over the cheerleader, Rachel Green.
However, the song is first used in ‘The One With The List’, after Ross foolishly decides to compare the gorgeous, Jenifer Aniston, with some other woman who definitely isn’t Jenifer Aniston… what a douche. After Rachel finds out, it seems all hope is lost for the couple finally getting together, until Ross dedicates this song as a radio request, and has Monica play it to Rachel.
It’s a touching, sweet moment, as it seems the romantic underdog just might pull it back. That is until Rachel phones the radio station and tells them what he did, getting the track to be removed from air-play. We had to wait until Rachel realised Ross was her “lobster” until the pair finally got together.
Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believin’
Featured in The Sopranos, S06E21, ‘Made in America’
Whether you love this track from Scrubs, Glee or some other TV show (or maybe you actually like Journey…), there is no doubt that the final scene from The Sopranos is its most talked-about and controversial featuring.
The track itself is a much-loved rock-ballad; with slicing guitar solos, herculean power-chords and deep, meaningful lyrics everyone in almost any situation can relate too – probably why the track is used so much in TV and film.
So, after 6 seasons, we see Tony Soprano – both a family man and a work man – be the guy that dishes out beatings and death sentences to others. And, as the final scene of the final episode was drawing to a close, fans stayed glue to their screens as they waited to see if Tony’s crooked life would finally catch up to him.
Now, this is simply one of those TV finales where every fan has an opinion – was Tony shot when the screen went black? My opinion doesn’t matter. Because whatever anybody says, the disputes and discussions will just, ‘Go on, and on, and on, and on…
Peter Gabriel – ‘The Book of Love’
Featured in Scrubs, S08E19 – ‘My Finale’
Originally written by The Magnetic Fields, Peter Gabriel’s cover of ‘The Book of Love’ is simply flawless.
Scrubs is such a unique show, as we follow a young, boyish intern called J.D., in his journey to becoming a fully qualified and respected doctor.
Now, the show is well-known for featuring some of the greatest music-moments in TV history – Bell Biv Devoe, The Fray, Colin Hay, Joshua Radin – the list is endless. However, after all the deaths, break-ups, laughs, fights – the audience is forced to say goodbye to J.D., as he leaves Sacred Heart Hospital.
We stand there, with J.D., as he fantasises about what could become of his life in the future. And it’s so tough to watch because it’s a future we all want to see for both him and ourselves. It’s a future of happiness.
‘The Book of Love’ is the accompaniment for this closing chapter in J.D.’s life. And this is one of them instances where – if you are a true fan of the show – you see no faults. Just a great ending.
‘And who’s to say my fantasies won’t come true… just this once?’
Badfinger – ‘Baby Blue’
Featured in Breaking Bad – S05E16, ‘Felina’
Blood. Meth. And Tears. Isn’t that all about what Breaking Bad is about? Well, that and, ‘Change’.
If you saw the show, you have an opinion on whether or not Walter White was a bad guy or a good guy. For me, he was just a good man who did bad things… very bad things.
And, after avenging his brother-in-law, leaving some money his children and saving the cult-icon, Jesse Pinkman, the man, the legend, “Heisenberg”, Walter White dies from a wound from his own weapon. But not before he gets one last look around the place that made him so powerful – that caused so much ‘change’ – a meth lab.
Again, it’s a scene everybody has an opinion on. But a true fan will just watch, in awe, as perhaps the greatest character in TV history falls to his death to the accompaniment of Badfinger‘s, ‘Baby Blue’. And just how influential was this track and this show on the public? Well, after it’s appearance in the show, there was a 2,981% increase of sales of the song, as well as over 9,000% increase in streaming over Spotify. Now there’s your ‘change’.
And I believe it’s nothing more than the lyrics that make this song so perfect for the scene. Every word seems to reflect the entire five-year journey the audience just went on, as Walter White muses, ‘Guess I got what I deserved’.
‘The special love I have for you, my Baby Blue…’
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