5 Greatest ’80s Sci-Fi Sequence Theme Songs, Ranked

There are loads of nice sci-fi reveals from the ’80s that audiences keep in mind watching, and a number of other of these reveals had memorable theme songs that followers keep in mind listening to as effectively. Sometimes that is not at all times factor. A number of reveals opened with earworms that might get caught in your head and keep there lengthy after the ending credit had rolled. The most memorable of them are nonetheless caught in individuals’s heads practically a half-century later.

Here are 5 of the very best ’80s sci-fi sequence theme songs, ranked from worst to greatest. All of them have a memorable, distinct sound, whether or not they’re for an animated science-fantasy journey, a superhero comedy, or an actioner about an artificially clever vehicle. It’s a sound that, for lack of a greater approach to describe it, is extraordinarily of the Nineteen Eighties. There are synth tunes and yacht rock vibes galore. But, despite the fact that all these theme songs are so clearly merchandise of the last decade, there is a cause why they endure all these years later.

The theme music for “Inspector Gadget,” the syndicated sequence a couple of bumbling cyborg detective, is without doubt one of the biggest cartoon theme songs of all time. It can be, frankly, one of many worst due to how a lot the repetition of “Do doDo doDO InsPEctor GADget,” damaged up solely by an occasional “Go, Gadget Go!” will get caught in a single’s head.

Shuki Levy is the composer to thank (or maybe blame) for the “Inspector Gadget” theme. Levy did the music for a bunch of ’80s cartoons, together with “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” “The Real Ghostbusters,” and “M.A.S.K.” In the ’90s, he additionally did the music for “Power Rangers” and “Digimon: Digital Monsters.”

“I focus on the character itself when I start composing,” Levy advised CBC. “Then I take the directions of the producers, the kind of rhythm they want, and I just go with it.”

Levy’s “Inspector Gadget” theme music additionally appeared in Disney’s 1999 live-action adaptation of the cartoon, which starred Matthew Broderick.

The ABC sequence “Street Hawk,” which aired for only one season in 1985, isn’t one of many best-remembered reveals of the ’80s. Rex Smith stars as a cop who goes undercover driving what the opening narration describes as an “all-terrain attack motorcycle designed to fight urban crime, capable of incredible speeds up to 300 miles an hour, and immense firepower.” So, suppose “Knight Rider” however on a motorcycle as an alternative of a automobile, and never as humorous. It was canceled after half a season, airing simply 13 episodes.

However, “Street Hawk” is value remembering as a result of none apart from Tangerine Dream composed the propulsive, synthy theme music. The observe, “Le Parc,” originated on Tangerine Dream’s 1985 album of the identical identify. Tangerine Dream was accountable for a ton of iconic ’80s scores, together with the music for motion pictures like Michael Mann’s “Thief,” and the Tom Cruise movie “Risky Business.” The “Street Hawk” theme is not their greatest work, however in all probability the very best factor in regards to the short-lived present all the identical.

The title sequence for “Thundercats,” the syndicated science-fantasy cartoon that aired from 1985 till the top of the last decade, is without doubt one of the greatest openings of any present. It’s thrilling, boasting fluid, action-packed animation that’s leagues higher than the less-expensive animation from the precise present. It additionally encompasses a killer theme music.

Though there’s an city legend that “Inside the Actors Studio” host James Lipton composed the “Thundercats” theme, that is not the case. Bernard Hoffer, a prolific Swiss-born composer who did the music for the remainder of the present, additionally did the theme. Though Hoffer was classically educated — making use of that coaching to cartoons like “Thundercats” by giving every character their very own leitmotif — he very a lot loved scoring the Saturday morning youngsters’s sequence.

“In the ‘ThunderCats’ score, you hear the highest of high brow music composition,” Hoffer advised WBUR’s Radio Boston in 2011, per the official “Thundercats” site. “This was real music. And it was a combination of classical music superimposed over rock.”

Larry Kenney, who voiced Lion-O, supplied the enduring “Thundercats, HO!” shout that punctuates the theme and helps make it so memorable. Jules Bass of the Rankin/Bass manufacturing firm that made the present, wrote the lyrics.

A cool, glossy digital beat drives (pun supposed) the title sequence for “Knight Rider,” the basic ’80s actioner starring David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight and his speaking Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, Ok.I.T.T. Intense, regular, futuristic, and simply the tiniest, winking quantity of foolish in a manner that tipped its hat to the considerably kitschy nature of “Knight Rider,” the theme was an ideal introduction to the four-season sequence.

Stu Phillips, who additionally did the rating for “Battlestar Galactica,” created the “Knight Rider” theme utilizing 4 separate synth gamers together with some drums, bass, and an acoustic piano. The “Knight Rider” theme has such beat that it could not keep contained to the present. In 1998, rapper Busta Rhymes remixed a music of his initially titled “Turn It Up.” The first model of the observe samples an Al Green music; “Turn It Up (Remix) / Fire It Up” dropped that in favor of the “Knight Rider” theme. The remix charted at quantity 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The superhero style would not at all times overlap with sci-fi, however since Ralph Hinkley will get his super-suit from aliens, this three-season ABC comedy drama that premiered in 1981 qualifies. Thank goodness it does, as a result of the theme music, incessantly referred to as “Believe It or Not,” is without doubt one of the biggest TV themes of all time, so it is nice to have it represented on this science fiction-focused listing.

The music was composed by Mike Post, who, upon being advised the premise of the sequence, stated “this is nuts,” as he recalled in an interview with the Television Academy. He turned to songwriter Stephen Geyer for the lyrics, desirous to see if he may “maybe make an analogy between love and flying in a suit.” Joey Scarbury, a singer who Post was producing for and whose profession actually by no means took off, sang the tune.

“Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)” is without doubt one of the uncommon songs created for a film or TV present whose legacy has eclipsed the medium it originated in. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Seinfeld” viewers would possibly keep in mind an episode the place Jason Alexander’s George Costanza has a parody of the music as his answering machine message.