I had a Care-Bears-themed party a couple weeks ago, and at one point we were discussing cartoon themes from that era and how incredibly catchy so many of them were. This set me down a path of researching. I had a thought that had never occurred to me before: the people who wrote these songs must have written tons of other catchy stuff, too, right?
It turns out they did! So I thought it would be fun to make a playlist just of songs written by the same people who wrote the stuff we used to jam out to as kids sitting down with our Ecto Cooler and Dunkaroos, getting ready to watch our favorite cartoons.
You can see the playlist I made here, where I just kind of tossed everything in together. (This is by no means a complete list, because some of this stuff isn’t even on Spotify, and some of these songs have lots of covers that I didn’t include every version of. Also, at one point there were so many Britney Spears songs that I just had to quit adding them so as not to completely overwhelm the list with her.) I’m also including links to the videos for each cartoon song, in case you’ve forgotten any (or just secretly want to jam out to them again). A few of them even have extended versions I never knew about!
What’s fun about this list is that it’s such a wide mix of different artists, so everything might sound familiar and yet completely different.
Who’s Included
Stephen Geyer wrote the theme for The Wuzzles. Although it isn’t a cartoon theme, he also wrote “Believe It Or Not”, the theme song for The Greatest American Hero, also popularized in parody form by George Costanza’s answering machine. I included the original version on the list. (Side note: I’ve known for years that this song was based on the theme from this TV show. For some reason, never once had I stopped to wonder what that show might have been about. Not until just now, when I saw the opening credits for the first time. Now I feel like I have to watch whatever this absolute madness was.)
Mark Mueller wrote the themes to DuckTales and Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers.
Steve Nelson wrote “Pooh Bear”, the theme song for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and was the main composer for the show. He also wrote the theme song for Darkwing Duck. (By the way, did you know that Darkwing Duck and Winnie the Pooh from this era were both voiced by Jim Cummings?)
Javier Losada wrote the David the Gnome theme, originally performed in Spanish. It looks like the whole show was in Spanish originally and was dubbed for English-speaking audiences, which I had never known. (So most of his songs on the list are also in Spanish.)
Although only a segment of it was animated, the theme song was also pretty iconic for the era, so I have to give a shoutout to Sean Altman and David Yazbek for “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”? Both have had pretty ample solo careers, as well.
“Run With Us”, the theme to The Raccoons, was written by Kevin Gillis, Jon Stroll, and Steve Lunt (the one who wrote so many Britney songs). Also, Lisa Lougheed’s music video for this is very worth the watch for ultimate nostalgic ’80s vibes. This was purportedly written for the second season (which would explain why I also remember this version of the opening credits).
John Sebastian, co-founder of The Lovin’ Spoonful, wrote “Care Bears Countdown”, the theme from the second Care Bears cartoon. He also wrote several catchy songs for The Care Bears Movie (which notably contained other songs by Carole King) and The Care Bears’ Adventure in Wonderland. (I’m still seeking a credit for “I Wanna Be a Care Bear”, the theme song from the first Care Bears cartoon.)
The Strawberry Shortcake theme was composed and performed by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman–co-founders of The freaking Turtles!
Robert J. Walsh wrote “Rock It to the Sky”, the Muppet Babies theme song.
Not Included on the Playlist
Some of the composers I looked up mainly stuck to the same kind of work with cartoons and kids shows, and didn’t really branch out into pop hits, so they aren’t included in the playlist. But they’re very much still worth a mention here!
Michael and Patty Silversher (a.k.a. “Silversher & Silversher”) wrote the “Gummi Bears Theme” and “Gummiberry Juice” from the same show, as well as “Spin It!”, the TaleSpin theme. They also wrote “In Harmony” and other songs from The Little Mermaid TV series and some of the songs from The Return of Jafar. (I know “In Harmony” might seem like a random thing to mention, but it was memorable enough that I still get this one stuck in my head sometimes today, and it was also sung by Jodi Benson, the original Ariel, so it’s very worth a listen if you never saw or don’t remember this show!) But since the Silvershers mostly stuck to this kind of work, I don’t have any pop hits from them to include on the playlist.
Tommy Goodman, along with Barry Harman, composed the theme for My Little Pony Tales. He also did My Little Pony, My Little Pony: The Movie, My Little Pony ‘n’ Friends, and The Glo Friends.
George Wilkins, who wrote the theme for The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, also worked primarily within this area.
Together with Haim Saban, Shuki Levy wrote the theme for Inspector Gadget. They also collaborated on “Go Go Power Rangers”, the theme for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, as well as the themes for Heathcliff, The Littles, It’s Punky Brewster, Kissyfur, Rainbow Brite, The Popples, Lady Lovely Locks, ALF: The Animated Series, and many more!
Is there anything I missed? There were so many great cartoons back then, it’s completely possible I just skipped right by something without thinking of it! Let me know if I’m missing your favorite.
And if you got so distracted watching old intros you went down a YouTube rabbit hole and completely forgot, here, again, is the playlist I made of other songs by these same composers.
If you liked this list, you may also enjoy my Whovian or faerie tale wedding playlists.
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