Remember Those Cheesy TV Theme Songs of the 60’s?

I was a child of the 60’s and a mainstay of growing up in that era was watching way too much cheesy television. From Gomer Pyle to Gilligan’s Island to the Brady Bunch – we spent hours watching a bunch of silly fluff. We didn’t have videos, gaming, computers, facebook, and the like so we had to make due with outdoor play and bad TV.

The jingles introducing these songs were so addictive – catchy and lame at the same time. Many told the story of the show. Somehow instrumental themes that introduced shows like Bonanza and I Love Lucy gave way to catchy ditties with lyrics and because of that, my peer group has most of these tunes burned into our collective memories, whether wanted or not.

I am sure many of us would exchange a memory of where we left an important piece of mail just three days earlier or where we left our reading glasses just minutes ago, with the lyrics to Gilligan’s Island from the 1960’s. But alas, that is not possible.

Recently I was brunching with a group of us and one thing led to another and we started singing some of these silly songs like the theme to Mr. Ed, (A horse is a horse of course of course…) Beverly Hillbillies, (Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed…)  Green Acres, (The Chores, The Stores!) The Brady Bunch (Her’s a story of a lovely lady…), Gilligan’s Island (Come sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…)etc.

It caused a bunch of giddy giggles and reminiscing as we brought forth memory after memory – because sometimes just remembering something from long, long ago is a reason to celebrate! We didn’t care that we were in a restaurant – we were singing these silly songs aloud!

We got temporarily stuck on Petticoat Junction, and later after I You Tubed it, I couldn’t get it out of my head!

In the later 60’s through the 70’s these songs would prove to be hits on the radio as well, such as Welcome Back Kotter, the Laverne and Shirley theme, and the Partridge Family song.

I have to admit, as we went through the 70’s the songs became less silly and became a better musical product such as the theme from Cheers, Happy Days, and the aforementioned Welcome Back Kotter by Jon Sebastian of the Lovin Spoonful.

Now don’t go blaming me if you go through the rest of your day with some inane TV show song in your head, it could be worse. I could have brought up TV commercial jingles such as that Choo Choo Charlie was an engineer one.

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