Behind the Barenaked Ladies' 'Big Bang'
On Sept. 24, 2007, one of the most popular and longest running sitcoms of all time premiered on CBS, bringing with it a theme song so catchy that we know it’s been running through your head since the second you saw the title to this piece.
Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 glorious seasons, helping the nerds-are-actually-really-cool cause immeasurably during the course of its run, but it probably also helped the bank account of one Ed Robertson considerably as well. Robertson, of course, is the predominant vocalist for Barenaked Ladies (particularly since the departure of Steven Page from the band’s lineup), but he’s also the one who penned the tune.
READ MORE: The Plane Truth About a Barenaked Crash
How did BNL find their way into this lofty position? Well, it’s a short, sweet story: Lorre and Prady went to see the band in concert and decided to ask them if they’d consider doing a theme song for the show. By coincidence, Ed Robertson had just finished reading Big Bang, a book by Simon Singh, which in turn led him to do a rap about the contents of the book during that very concert. Although originally hesitant to take the gig, Robertson was Lorre’s and Prady’s first choice…and even more fortunately, they liked the song he put together for them.
“The History of Everything (Theme from The Big Bang Theory)” was first released on October 9, 2007, but got its most significant exposure in two specific ways a few years later: on the show’s fourth-season DVD set, which included the video; and Barenaked Ladies’ greatest-hits album, Hits from Yesterday & The Day Before.
At 1:51 in length even at its longest, it’s over before it can do any more damage to your psyche than get permanently lodged in your subconscious...and, frankly, isn’t that what a good TV theme is supposed to do, anyway?
