Why Solely One Seinfeld Episode Has Music With Lyrics

When an influential piece of media like “Seinfeld” turns into canonized as one of the best sitcoms ever made, it may virtually be too simple for viewers to overlook the numerous classes it discovered to realize that standing. Whenever you watch “Seinfeld” from the very starting, you may see a present that has the proper parts, however remains to be looking for its footing. Every season noticed the NBC sitcom steadily turn into extra assured in its comedy, characters, and outlandish plots. By the time “The Contest” aired, it cemented “Seinfeld” as a phenomenon that everyone had to keep up with.

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There was a whole lot of ambition behind the scenes, with collection co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld making an attempt to put in writing a show about the chaotic lifestyle of a New York comedian. It turned a success as a result of they have been keen to push the envelope of one thing that had by no means been completed on tv earlier than. In that very same breath, Jonathan Wolff not solely composed the music for all 180 episodes of “Seinfeld,” however was additionally liable for a theme track that sounded barely totally different in each one in every of them.

“Seinfeld” would not have a standard opening intro per se, because it as an alternative opts to indicate Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) performing a minute of his stand-up materials on the high of the episode as an alternative. The theme music is a variation of catchy finger snaps, lip pops and slap bass that, based on Wolff, would double as a rimshot to accompany Jerry’s jokes (by way of Forbes):

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“The frequency vary of this bass, in a normal approach, stayed out of the frequency vary of the audio of his voice in order to not compete; And that was my strategy to the ‘Seinfeld’ theme — to create Lego items of music that have been modularly manipulable. In order that for each monologue, I might create a special recording to go with the timing and size of every.”

It is a cool thought that offers “Seinfeld” a singular sound that adjustments and evolves in little methods over the course of its 9 season run. There was just one episode the place Wolff added lyrics, which was a choice that began and ended with “The Be aware.”

Viewers who tuned into the season 3 premiere of “Seinfeld” have been greeted with a shock: There have been all of a sudden quick lyrics like “simple to beat” and “heeeeeeeeey” accompanying the sound results. It is a weird addition to a easy intro. In a behind the scenes featurette, Wolff talks about the way it was Jerry who instigated the thought after listening to some scat music and needed to present the intro some further aptitude. “There have been some little horn riffs embodied inside the music and I believed, what if I put nonsense lyrics to these,” Wolff recounts.

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For a present like “Seinfeld,” taking a threat is a big a part of the present’s enchantment, particularly if everybody’s on board. You by no means know what may come out of it. The present’s inventive workforce had a optimistic reception to the lyrics. Wolff, nonetheless, rapidly discovered that altering it with out consulting the highest brass wasn’t an important thought:

“We tried it. Jerry preferred it. Larry preferred it. We completed the episode. We did the following couple of episodes utilizing that music. Then the primary episode aired. We forgot to ask anyone else. And when different individuals, community, Citadel Rock, heard this on the air and we’re stunned by it, it was not a positive response and we went again and stuck the following two episodes.”

Oops! I generally really feel like a sq. once I’m put ready to argue in favor of the studio executives, however they’re proper on this case. Whereas the lyrical music of “The Be aware” imbued all through the episode makes it an attention-grabbing footnote within the present’s historical past, I can not see the scat-influenced tune being as efficient all through the next seasons. It is overkill on high of the sound results and appears like one thing out of a “Seinfeld” parody reasonably than a pure extension of the present’s rhythm.

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