Music Monday will be there for you…if you’re there for Music Monday too.
Please be there for Music Monday!
So, I’m back!
I’ve been quite busy lately, specifically, hyphenating (only for writing and social media purposes) my last name. So you’ve probably noticed already that Allison L. Venezio has become Allison L. Venezio-Preston.
I blame this guy.
Yep, totally married that.
My fiancee James has now become my husband James. I’m still getting used to saying “husband,” but so far, married life is awesome. It’s no different than engaged life was, aside from the last name change.
I get to start that process! We’ll see how much fun it is!
Anyway, the music.
Last week, during our honeymoon in Las Vegas, James and I got tickets to see an Off Broadway show currently giving shows in Las Vegas, at the D Las Vegas, on Vegas’s famous Fremont Street. We got to sit in the front, like absolute center of the stage.
So, if you’re wondering about this show, it actually is based on the 1994-2004 sitcom Friends, about a group of 20-somethings in New York, living, loving, and owning giant apartments. The show has the same premise, except with singing. The actors were pretty funny, and the show itself told everything that happened in ten years within 95 minutes (with a 3-minute intermission). The actors came out and took photos with the attendees, and of course, we participated. We’ve done enough conventions to know how much fun this is!
I also told the group that I met my Chandler, and married him. That got a nice reaction from the group. And yes, I really do see alot of Chandler (my favorite character on the show) in my husband. He totally gets it, although he has tried to flirt with me Joey-style.
Nope, he’s a Chandler Bing type.
Anyway, after seeing the show, I got the theme song stuck in my head – no, they didn’t sing it, but it was played prior to the show starting, along with the Pop-Up Video version music video for “Macarena” (shudder). And naturally, when you’ve seen something about a show you liked as a kid that long fell off your radar, and heard the theme song, you’ve gotta do a rewatch.
We’re halfway through the first season, and we just got home Friday afternoon. I think we watched five episodes on Sunday alone.
So, to not only pay tribute to childhood memories and musicals that seek to relive them, how about the theme song for the television show?
Oh, and if you must know, I had a Friends poster on my bedroom wall in seventh grade, as well as the soundtrack.
Anyway…
“I’ll Be There For You” is the 1994 song/theme song for the sitcom Friends, performed by The Rembrandts. The song was originally only meant to be a one minute song, but after being looped into a full music track on radio station WYHY in Nashville, there was demand to re-record the song as a full track. The Rembrandts didn’t want to do this, but it was their label’s decision, and they had to follow it.
In 1995, the music video was shot at NBC’s Studio 8H in New York City (the home of Saturday Night Live), with the actors improving throughout (which was a redoing of the original script). It really stands out on its own, and gets firmly implanted in your head.
Wouldn’t you say?
And the Pop-Up Video version, which I love (and was what kicked off Friends! The Musical)…
“I’ll Be There For You” peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, Hot Adult Contemporary, and Top 40 Mainstream charts. While it is considered to be one of the most popular television theme songs of all time, Blender called it one of the “50 Worst Songs Ever” in 2009. That just means some people don’t like earworms. I envy them because my whole brain is full of earworm music, and at the same time, consider them lucky, because no brain full of earworms.
What’s that like?
While the song went on and on for the show’s entire run, The Rembrandts’ Danny Wilde and Phil Solem disbanded in 1997, but re-established their duo in 2000, and are still performing together today. I guess you can say they are there for each other.
We’re unsure if rain keeps them apart.
Oh hush, it was funny when it popped into my head at midnight while writing this.
Have a great Monday, and enjoy the music!
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