The Saturday Morning Top Ten

We'll have a Yaba Doo time!
© Hanna Barbara Productions

Today's Christmas Eve, and I thought I'd take it easy on myself and post a list of the top ten cartoon theme songs.

Yeah, I couldn't think of a way to do a Christmas theme.  Maybe next year, I'll talk about some classic Bible comics.

Anyway, because this is mainly a comic book blog, there will be a heavy bias in favor of comic-book based, animated and "boy"-oriented theme songs, but it's just for fun, and I don't want anyone to take this as some sort of definitive list or anything, it's just meant to be fun.

The main rule here is that it can't be an instrumental.  An instrumental is not a "theme song," because it doesn't tell us anything about the characters, and while it may get us in the mood, most kids aren't going to go around humming it the way they'll sing a theme song, with a few exceptions.

But first… honorable mention.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Great theme, but aside from using the term "Avengers, Assemble," it's more of a generic rock song that could go in a movie, and doesn't tell us about the characters.

10.  WildC.A.T.S.

When I was a kid, I thought this was the cheesiest theme ever, but upon listening to it as an adult, it's actually got some pretty impressive harmonies.  The rap in the middle is your typical example of "so bad it's good."

One thing that tips the cheese-scale is the fact that it refers to the team as "we," making it sound like it's supposed to be a couple of members of the team singing to us.  Ugh.

For a series that brought a distinctly dark-age comic to Saturday mornings and therefore may have been meant to be taken as serious as a heart-attack, it's ridiculous, but that's what makes it fun in retrospect.

9.  The Real Ghostbusters

Now, this one gets major demerits as it was already a #1 hit two years before the show came out, due to its inclusion in the blockbuster starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.  Obviously, this isn't the Ray Parker Jr. version, but it doesn't matter, it's still a great song no matter who sings it.  I'm not sure I would have included it except that the animation itself is awesome and this rendition of the song at-least holds a candle to the film version.  That's why this is here and "Back to the Future" isn't.

8.  Teen Titans

A more recent addition.  I hadn't really thought about it until someone pointed it out, but this epic series from the mid-'00s was one of few recent shows to actually have a real theme song to speak of (Psych is another, but that's live-action), and the visuals were great.  It's performed by the Japanese group Puffy Amiyumi and what's strange is that they sometimes played it in Japanese.  They also had an episode where the show's producer Glen Murikami did the vocals in Japanese to hilarious effect.

7.  The Flintstones

One of the most memorable theme songs in history, this was the opener to the first prime-time animated series.  Even people who have never seen the show know it well, and I've seen it lampooned, most notably on The Simpsons.

The sequence is also pretty clever, as it shows how the tropes of the prehistoric world are used to do things we do in the modern world.

Its sister show The Jetsons also had a memorable theme song, but this one wins just because it's better known.

6.  Bucky O'Hare

I'm not sure how many people remember this one, but DAMN that's an awesome theme song.  I mean, if someone managed to do a kid-friendly version of Faith No More singing about a spacefaring rabbit, this is what it would sound like.

I'll be honest, I don't remember much about the show itself, but for years, I kept thinking, "toads beware," and "this is it," don't rhyme; but then I realized "beware" was supposed to rhyme with "O'Hare," so yeah, it's cool.

5.  Captain America

Of Marvel's stable of limited animation series during the late '60s, Captain America had one of the more memorable theme songs.  It sounds like a World War II march, which puts the viewer in the proper mood.

4.  G.I. Joe: a Real American Hero

A great theme, but there's a problem: the lyrics make it sound as if it's about a guy called G.I. Joe instead of a team, with lines like, "he never gives up…"  The narration voiceover pops in to remind us that it is, in fact, about a whole team.  Still, the harmonies and opening verse make this a winner.  Sort-of a souped-up version of the old Captain America theme song.

3.  Transformers

Oh man, this while I put the TMNT theme above this one, it did serve as the sort-of definitive rock cartoon theme song of the 1980s.  The visuals got the blood pumping and the awesome "robots in disguise" talk-box effect made this beyond awesome.

2.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

To my generation, this was the ultimate theme song.  While it took a while for the Turtles to appear on Saturday morning per-say (when it first came on, it was usually at 4:30 on weekday afternoons) this is nevertheless what it's all about.

We don't simply get a nice catchy theme song, we get the lowdown on each Turtle and what he brings to the table: Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, etc.

When the show finally did come to Saturday mornings on CBS, the visual scene was altered for some unknown reason.  Maybe to make it "softer."  But with the 1994 (check date) revamp of the show, they gave it more of a heavy metal tinge (well, metal for a kid's cartoon) while the recent Turtles show on Nickelodean gives us a rap version of the tune.

1.  Spider-Man

This song was included over the credits of the 2002 blockbuster that brought the character to the big screen, and has been covered by major rock bands such as the Ramones and Aerosmith.  And yet, at its core, this song is quite simply the definition of Saturday morning.

Unlike some theme songs, it actually gives you the lowdown on the character's powers: we learn that he can do anything a spider can do, and that his radioactive blood makes him super strong.

I doubt too many kids these days have seen this show, especially with some quite admirable animated stuff popping up in recent years, but everyone seems to know the song, which is the world's greatest cartoon theme song.