Why Seinfeld's Theme Song Changed Every Episode

What's with the “Seinfeld” opening theme music? what? They couldn't afford to record an actual theme sequence? Remember “The Brady Bunch”? And how did that theme song explain everything you need to know about the show? “The Brady Bunch” even had a handy 3×3 grid of all the characters so you could keep everyone straight. “Seinfeld” just had some bass grooves and some guys beatboxing, just kind of freestylin it. You'd think they could at least write some lyrics. “Here's Jerry. He's neurotic and selfish. Here's George. He is neurotic and selfish.” Kind of writes himself!

Aside from the Jerry Seinfeld impersonation, the “Seinfeld” theme music was always unique. Made up of beatboxing, some electronic harmonica-like noises, and lots of electric bass, it was never the same from episode to episode. Musician Jonathan Wolff, who has also composed music for sitcoms such as “Who's the Boss?”, “Will & Grace,” “Married… with Children” and “The King of Queens,” performed the music. Wolff never composed a single “Seinfeld” theme song, instead using a bouncy, swinging rock riff. The riffs tended to vary in length because they had to be played under one of Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up bits.

“Seinfeld” was seemingly built around these bits. The premise of the show, such as it is, was that Jerry lived a strange and neurotic life, and his day-to-day experiences would eventually form the basis of his stand-up career on the show. Jerry's stand-up served as the thematic introduction to each episode. Since Jerry's bits were of different lengths, the background theme music had to be lengthened and shortened accordingly.

Video interview with “The Big Big Story” Wolf talked about his work on “Seinfeld” and how he had to write a piece that would have to be 20 seconds to a minute long to fit into the little intro segments. A comfortable, single 90-second song was impossible under these conditions.

Some famous TV shows already played shortened versions of pop songs, usually cutting a three-minute hit into a 45-second chunk (see: “Friends”, “Full House”, etc.). Many TV theme songs have an 'extended version' somewhere in the world. However, “Seinfeld” didn't have the option of using only two different mixes of music. Each episode needed a new one. Then Wolff just created a new theme for each episode on the synthesizer, using his fingers, mouth and breath. As Wolf described it:

“I have no idea how many themes we did on 'Seinfeld.' I knew every monologue was going to be different because he was telling different jokes so that it would even hold water and sound like the 'Seinfeld' theme to his own 'Seinfeld' theme recording, so appropriate for these times.”

In terms of timing, Wolff's theme song wasn't just a wild, open riff, but was very specifically based on Jerry Seinfeld's delivery style. It seems that Seinfeld, perhaps without realizing it, tended to speak and deliver his jokes in a very musical rhythm. Wolff observes that Seinfeld's delivery could be set to a metronome. He continued:

“I was watching his HBO special and I noticed that Jerry's jokes were lyrical. And I put on a clock. About 110 (bpm). And it became the tempo of the 'Seinfeld' theme. The bass line because 'Seinfeld' was so simple that it can stop and start on his jokes, and that way I could build each piece into each monologue, LEGO-style.”

Wolff also noted that the network — perhaps predictably — hated his improvisational style, finding it annoying. Fortunately, “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David went to Wolff, insisting that the “annoying” music remains. David felt NBC was screwing things up anyway. Thanks to David, Wolfe kept his job. Today, the bass riffs of “Seinfeld” are as famous as its actors.