Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson talks “Big Bang Theory” theme song
Canadian pop-rockers the Barenaked Ladies are playing tonight at Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S Eastern. Along with songs from their new album, “All in Good Time,” the band’s new live show features the extended version of the speedy, eccentric theme to the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” In a recent phone interview, BNL singer/songwriter Ed Robertson told me that show creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady asked him to pen the theme song after attending a BNL concert, and at the time, Robertson had one of those “is there a hidden camera watching me?” moments.
“They contacted me and I had literally just finished reading a book by this British particle physicist named Simon Singh. The book is called ‘Big Bang’ … so it’s a book that walks you through cosmological theory from the moment of the big bang up to present. I finish reading that book and then I get a call from Los Angeles from Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, ‘Would you like to write the theme song to a new sitcom called “The Big Bang Theory?”‘ I know, right? It was amazing,” Robertson said.
He said Lorre has been in a band for several years and really understands music and the songwriting process.
“They were just great to work with,” Robertson said. “I’ve submitted so many songs for movies and TV shows and it’s often like you just get like pissed off because you spend all this time and they’re like ‘Well, we need this song that describes the character’s journey. And your scene is this, and this is what we wanna say in the song. You need to incorporate this line because it’s really central to the theme.’ So I as a writer, I take all that on and do it all, and I like craft this thing and I’m really into it. And I pull it off, and they listen to it and go, ‘Hmm, no, we were thinking we just wanted a hit single from Counting Crows.’”
After going through that experience enough times, when he got the call on an August day while he was at his cottage with his wife and kids, he just straightforwardly asked the show creators how many people were trying to write the theme.
“There was sort of a pause and they said, ‘Well, you’re the only one we’ve asked. We really want you to do this.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s great because I can give you what you’re looking for if you can tell me what you want,’” he said. “So it was a great relationship right from the start.”
He told the creators up front that he wasn’t precious about anything and could make any changes needed to the theme. But Lorre and Prady not only loved the theme, they also asked him to pen a longer version for future use. The extended version of “The History of Everything” has now become a popular part of BNL’s live shows.
“We played it one night just kind of on a lark, and people went nuts. It’s one of the hits in the set now,” he said with a laugh.
For more of my interview with Robertson, including the band’s transition from a quintet to quartet with the departure of co-founder Steven Page, click here.
For more information, call 677-9169 or go to www.diamondballroom.net or www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
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Comments
The close captions say “BILLION”, where the song sounds like they say “MILLION” years ago, which would be incorrect, as the Earth was created BILLIONS of years ago. Anyone from the show care to clarify if the song was sung in error, but corrected in the closed captioning???
Thanks in advance.
Does the theme song refer to the birth of the universe compliments of the “Big-Bang” as having been 14 million years ago or 14 billion years ago? I just started watching the show recently and it sounds like million which of course is incorrect. Just wondering.