Jonathan Wolff [http://www.seinfeldmusicguy.com/] is the Michael
Jordan of TV theme songs. He’s written over 40, from Will and Grace
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnpzBIJ1M5A] to The Hughleys
[https://youtu.be/4iqAAoKY0ko]. Before hitting it big, Wolff spent a
decade as a “multi-purpose utility tool for musical chores” —
being a studio musician, producer, and recording engineer. He even
taught Arnold Schwarzenegger how to pretend to play the violin
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_WsKd3A2AY] for the little-seen 1976
film Stay Hungry
[http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Hungry-Jeff-Bridges/dp/B00018YC3M/wnyc-s360-20].
Eventually, Wolff started composing exclusively, which landed him a
gig on the Seinfeld
[http://www.amazon.com/Seinfeld-Complete-Jerry/dp/B00EIJTLK4/wnyc-s360-20] pilot.
The show’s producers were having difficulty finding music that
wouldn’t overpower the comedian’s opening routines. “Jerry,
you’ve already given me the melody and theme,” Wolff told
Seinfeld. “My job is going to be to support you and the organic
nature of your voice.” Wolff sampled his own mouth noises, slapped
some funky bass over it, and the rest is history. He built the theme
to be manipulated — the rhythm of the mouth pops, shakers, and bass
notes changed ever so slightly to fit the different monologues that
opened every show. Decades later, the internet has begun to manipulate
it, too:
In the past year, the Seinfeld theme has been mashed up with songs by
Limp Bizkit, Kendrick Lamar, ODB, Evanescence, and Radiohead. Wolff
never wrote lyrics for his original theme, but he couldn’t be more
tickled with all the variations popping up online. “It’s like
I’ve been invited to another party,” Wolff says. “It’s really
quite a compliment.”
Special thanks to Reed Dunlea [https://twitter.com/realdeedrunlea],
who wrote about Jonathan Wolff for Vice
[http://noisey.vice.com/blog/how-seinfelds-theme-song-was-created].