A bit of a break from the normal routine as Spade Racing takes a look at the best Nascar television theme songs of all-time (well, mostly from the modern era), as well as a few of the worst. (note—a * after the song title means it is the actual documented song title—all others are descriptions by me).
PART 1—Honorable and DIShonorable Mentions
Five songs that just barely missed the top ten…
HM 1. ESPN SpeedWorld late-80’s “Techno Logo”—the first true “SpeedWorld” theme, this took the original (the instrumental bridge from Cat Stevens’ “18th Avenue”) and gave it a nice futuristic feel. And don’t worry—SpeedWorld’s variations will be making appearances in the top ten!
HM 2. TNN Motorsports late-90’s “Rock Theme”—a modernized version of a short-lived but beloved theme, this is the one you remember hearing as graphics appeared zooming by an anonymous driver. Probably would’ve been better had it not been an obvious rip-off of a better-known theme by another network’s motorsports coverage.
HM 3. CBS late-90’s “Dramatic Symphony”—CBS’s race coverage was a bit outdated by the end of their run, but at least they had a nice theme song.
HM 4. NBC/NBCSN late-10’s “Runnin’ Down the Dream”*—Z.Z. Ward’s version might not be as good as the Tom Petty original, and it took a few weeks to grow on me, but damned if this isn’t a catchy tune.
HM 5. CBS 1985 Michigan-only “Separate Ways”*—for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, someone at CBS decided to use the instrumental opening of Journey’s “Separate Ways” (a song that has nothing to do with racing) for a single race in 1985. This makes the list purely for its randomness, with bonus points for the opening itself featuring random shots of cars going through tech inspection.
…and five songs that made me want to throw my remote through the TV.
1. Any and all “Bro-Country”—Whether it was Fox abandoning a classic theme for “Siiiiiidewaaaaaysssss” or NBC cramming Blake Shelton down everyone’s throats, beer-drinking anthems reek of out-of-touch executives telling southerners what they like.
2. ESPN’s “Jetsons” theme (51:08 in this vid)—When ESPN came back to Nascar there was a lot of hope they could recapture the glory years of “SpeedWorld”. What we got instead was a jumbled mess personified by a lame futuristic instrumental complete with Jetsons-esque sound effects. Yeesh.
3. Fox’s NFL theme—Part of Fox’s odd plan to invade all its sports coverage with its NFL theme song, this made absolutely zero sense. I doubt anyone’s enjoyment of a race has ever been enhanced by using a football song instead of an original track.
4. TNN Motorsports’ “Spastic Horns”—used in the mid-90’s, this musical abomination combined a laid-back rhythm with seemingly randomly-placed horn sounds. It was less-Nascar, more-Jazz band tuning up.
5. Random Banjo Music (11:48 in this vid)—a staple of 80’s coverage was a theme song of generic banjo looped over and over. Thankfully this died out as Nascar went mainstream, as it seemed to have about five minutes worth of forethought (and work) put into it.