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The opposite of [[Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics]] - an instrumental tune never intended to have lyrics is given some, often for humorous or ironic effect.
Gaining popularity on the Internet (e.g. [[
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The Cantonese Hong Kong dub of ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of
{{quote|
''and new paths we'll pave''
''May it shine, this new light and spirit''
''together we create the glorious and resounding!'' }}
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* On his [http://beasthouse-lm2.blogspot.com/ blog], Lawrence Miles, fandom personality and writer of ''[[
{{quote|
** There's more - for example, the lyrics to "The 'Mysterious TARDIS Energy' Theme" are [[Deus Ex Machina|"De-e-e-us ex ma-chi-na..."]]
** What about the main theme? ''Doctor
** [[The Late Late Show|Craig Ferguson]] created his own lyrics for the ''[[
** Bucking the trend, [[Bill Bailey]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68wJIQbCtlI likens the ''Doctor Who'' theme, when slowed down, to ''Belgian Jazz''] -- and performs it as a [[Spoken Word]] piece in French.
{{quote|''Je suis... Docteur Qui.''}}
* For a non-comedic example, the last season of ''[[Roseanne]]'' added lyrics to what had been an entirely instrumental tune for all past seasons.
* The theme tune to ''[[The X
* Similarly, [http://youtube.com/watch?v=CqDE8kocoTI this clip] from the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' [[DVD Bonus Content|DVD commentary track]] includes tongue-in-cheek lyrics.
{{quote|
You can go quite far,
And you don't need a car
Or even a ship. }}
* In ''[[This Island Earth]]'', an incidental tune plays as the flying saucer's viewscreen returns to normal view. When featured in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[The Movie]]'':
{{quote|
** Fun fact: This tune bears a striking resemblance to the Renaissance motet ''Crucifixus II'', by Antonio Lotti.
** This trope was a [[Running Gag]] on the series; ie. ''[[Fugitive Alien]]'' and ''[[The Girl in Lovers' Lane]]'' ("With Jack E-lan, not Jack La-lanne...")
** "[[Puma Man]], [[Crowning Moment of Funny|he flies like a moron!]]"
** ''[[The Beast of Yucca Flats]]'': "[[Coleman Francis|Coooooolemaaaaan Fraaaaanciiiis]]...[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Cooooolemaaaaaan Fraaaaanciiiiiiis!]]
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** ''[[Escape 2000]]'': pretty much every piece of background music was given lyrics containing the phrase "Leave the Bronx". Even the end theme, in which Mike was nearly driven insane by Tom singing "Leeaaaave Bronx, baby leeeeaaaave Bronx..."
** ''[[Fugitive Alien]]'': "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK2jFO_DaRQ This is the song written for the train chase/This is the chase, Rocky and Ken/He TRIIIIIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT!]"
* The theme from ''[[Star Trek:
** Roddenberry didn't discover this, Hanna-Barbera did.
* In ''[[The Young and The Restless]]'', a version of the theme song with lyrics is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p6WSPiewNc sung by Gina.]
* For some reason, the French version of the opening theme for ''[[
** They did the same with ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', along with the German version.
* In a ''[[Taxi]]'' episode, Reverend Jim is set up on a date with Marcia Wallace of ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'', and regales her with the lyrics he's composed for the show's theme: "Here comes Bob and Carol/His wife, Emily, really likes him/He has five people in his group..."
** Nick at Nite used to do this in promos, for ''[[
* The sitcom ''[[Buffalo Bill]]'' featured Dabney Coleman as the titular Bill, who hosts a morning TV talk show. In one episode, he decided to "spice up" the show by adding his own lyrics to the theme song:
{{quote|
''The people 'round here do some talking;''
''Turn on your T.V. set,''
''Turn on your T.V. and see!'' }}
* [[Bill Murray]] did this with the main theme of ''[[Star Wars]]'' on ''[[Saturday Night Live
* ''[[The Star Wars Holiday Special]]'' had Carrie Fisher sing the Life Day song to the tune of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' theme...
* In one of the [[Academy
* Eddie, from the late 90's sitcom ''Malcolm & Eddie'', came up with a get rich quick scheme that involved invoking this trope. One theme he added lyrics to was the ''[[Sanford and Son]]'' theme.
* "Live show, it's a ''[[
** And for the west coast: "Let's talk about sushi. Portland, Vegas, Glendale, this is ''30 Rock''!"
* Some fans of [[Game of Thrones]] have come to associate these lyrics to the [[Ear Worm|incredibly catchy]] theme song:
{{quote|
''Time to watch, Game''
''Game of Throoooones...'' }}
** And then there's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efD3nmwF-IM this] -- ''Game of Thrones'' as an [[Anime]], with its theme recast as a typical [[Anime Theme Song]] -- in Japanese.
* According to [[Joss Whedon]] on one DVD commentary track, the theme song to ''[[Angel]]'' goes ''"Angel iiis a vampire/Who fiiights criiime with hiiis friends..."''
* [http://www.hostropolis.com/april/mp3/quincy.mp3 An MP3 of someone singing unofficial lyrics] to the theme music of ''[[Quincy]]'' can be heard at radio personality [[April Winchell]]'s website.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[The Megas]] is a band devoted to this; particularly the classic ''[[
** The series itself did this in the third [[Mega Man Star Force]] game, where the theme song, Shooting Star, was given lyrics that were sung during one of Sonia's concerts. Sadly, it only showed up in text form and wasn't actually sung...
* [[The Adventures of Duane and
* In [[Flanders and Swann]]'s "Ill Wind," the singer laments the theft of his French horn to the tune of a Mozart French horn concerto.
* This is, more or less, the entirety of the genre of vocalese. Manhattan Transfer's version of "Birdland" (an instrumental composition by the jazz fusion band Weather Report) is a good example.
* Barbershop example: the Gas House Gang ('93 world champs) did this by putting a plot summary of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart's]] ''[[
{{quote|
''where the dinosaurs are free-ee'' }}
* Hoagy Carmichael originally wrote "Stardust" as an
* Pianist Floyd Cramer wrote "Last Date" as an instrumental. In 1960, Skeeter Davis and Boudleaux Bryant wrote lyrics, and Skeeter recorded the lyrical version as "My Last Date with You". Later on, [[Conway Twitty]] wrote his own lyrics as "Lost Her Love on Our Last Date", which was later [[Covered Up]] by [[Emmylou Harris]] as "Lost His Love on Our Last Date".
* [[
* [[Stevie Wonder]] wrote "The Tears of a Clown" as an instrumental but couldn't come up with any lyrics. [[Smokey Robinson]] thought it sounded like a circus, and obliged.
* It's more rap than singing, but Sweetbox's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" was Bach's ''Air on the G String'' turned into R&B.
* Sheldon Harnick, Broadway lyricist best known for ''[[Fiddler
{{quote|
All alone in his proud endeavor
And as long as I fight for this man's right
That's the glory of the stars and stripes forever.
Yes, the man with the sign's a friend of mine
All alone in his proud endeavor.
For the sign says to me, "This man is free!"
That's the story of the Stars and Stripes Forever." }}
* Singer Helmut Lotti has written lyrics to several classical music pieces.
* [[
* [[
* "A Lover's Concerto", which is sung to the tune of "Minuet in G" by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]].
* Bob Keeshan, AKA Captain Kangaroo, narrated a [http://gentlebirth.org/nutcracker/ children's record] of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite". Lyrics telling the story are given to each piece. For example, the famous "March" comes on when the toys (mostly stuffed animals) come to life; it begins with: "Dogs followed by cats and kangaroos/all marching along in step by twos..."
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* The [[Beastie Boys]]' joke song "The Biz Vs. The Nuge" samples the first half-minute of [[Ted Nugent]]'s "Homeward Bound", with Biz Markie singing along to the guitar riff.
* A common treatment to previously instrumental trance anthems, such as Darude's "Out of Control(Back For More)"(featuring Tammy Marie), Tiesto's "(Sub)Urban Train"(featuring Kirsty Hawkshaw), Rank 1's "Breathing(Airwave 2003)" and "It's Up to You(Symsonic)"(both featuring Shanokee), and Armin van Buuren's "Shivers" (featuring Susanna, originally "Birth of an Angel").
* [[Trans
* Straight No Chaser's "Christmas Can-Can", to the tune of [[Standard Snippet|The Galop from "Orpheus in the Underworld"]] features these lyrics:
{{quote|
If you can't, can't dance then that's okay.
(Not gonna do the kickline)
All you need are a tree, some lights,
About a thousand presents, wrap them up and pray for snow.
HO!" }}
** Ditto for "Kick the Can" by Bus Stop and "Can Can World" by Makkeroni.
* TV's Kyle wrote lyrics for the music from [[
* Ferry Corsten produced a lyrical version of his previous single "Punk" titled "Junk", with rapper Guru. "Galaxia", an early production by him under the alias Moonman (later remade under his own name), also had a vocal version.
* Energy 52's "Cafe del Mar", their [[One
* [[
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* [[
{{quote|
== [[Theater]] ==
* [[Screen to Stage Adaptation
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toyLQzd8HrY Schroeder]" from ''[[Peanuts|You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown]]'' is this to [[Ludwig Van Beethoven]]'s Moonlight Sonata.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* "[
** The arranged soundtracks for ''9'' and ''10'' have vocal versions of each game's ending theme. The one for ''10'' ups the ante by arranging the three Special Stage themes into a single epic vocal piece.
* ''[[Touhou Project]]'' is a game of stage music and boss music and can not avoid this. The sheer amount of lyrical remixes to themes has rewarded its fans with such things as:
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*** And, for good measure, the fitting self-aggrandizing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPkU4Dhpznk Gate Guard Girl Wonderful Meiling]
* Done by Taku Yoshioka Squad, "It's Kill or Be Killed" is a remix of the main theme of ''[[No More Heroes]]'', "N.M.H.", with lyrics added. Originally done for the Dark Side remix album, the song was used in the game's sequel. Another remix of the song with lyrics, a Japanese punk rock song "NO MORE RIOT," was also made for the album and used in the sequel.
* The albums ''[[
** [[
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmbgCBZ86z4 This fan-created arrangement] of "[[You Are Not Alone]]" from ''[[
* [[Pig With
* [[Okami]] has beautiful music, but except for the ending song, it's all instrumental. However, one video on [[YouTube]] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[[I Fw 8 ba QS Aww]]) has [[Vocaloid]] singer Gakupo adding lyrics to arguably one of the most beautiful tracks in the game.
* [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'s musical composition started with Todd Howard calling up [[Jeremy Soule]] and saying he wanted the traditional Elder Scrolls theme "as if it were sung by a barbarian choir". Throw in some lyrics in [[Con Lang|Draconic]] sung by said barbarian choir and you have the main theme music for Skyrim.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* YouTube user [http://www.youtube.com/user/Goldentusk Goldentusk] has a series of videos giving lyrics to movie theme tunes such as ''[[Jaws (
* YouTube user [http://www.youtube.com/user/hyadain2525 Hyadain2525] has an entire profile on this, crafting new songs out of familiar tunes. What gets really creepy is that he apparently provides all the voices through vocal
* YouTube user [[Tobuscus]] has a series of videos titled ''[http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?annotation_id=annotation_460375&p=3C14444766460071 Literal Trailers]'' in which he adds lyrics to trailers that are nothing but explaining what's going on on the screen. Many of these videos have more total views than the trailers they parody, and have made him into a featured performer at gaming conventions.
* Moosebutter's tribute to ''[[Star Wars]]'', most widely known through [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4 Corey Vidal's lip-synched video].
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (
{{quote|
Come to save the Princess Zelda
Ganon took her away
And now the children won't play
But they will when Link saves the day
Hallelujah! }}
** [[Nintendo Capri Sun]] made up his own lyrics to the Majora's Mask version of the theme at the start of his [[Let's Play]] of the game:
{{quote|
And I'm gonna suck at even the smallest task
But I know you guys
Probably won't seem to mind
So I'd better get off my behind
My behind, my behind, my behind now }}
* [[That Guy With
** This has since become a [http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/theme-lyrics regular feature of the site], the aptly named "Songs That Don't Need Lyrics But I Added Them Anyway HA!"
** [[The Spoony Experiment
* A number of video game tunes have been given lyrics by the remixers at [[
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVpWUsRocdc&feature=player_embedded This is not Roy's Castle]" is a version of this for the ''[[Super Mario World (
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeyUb2uvOv8 The Theme from the Dark World song] (by the same maker as the Roy's Castle song)
* And, of course, the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs6Ze8JJUHU rawest version] of the Forest Maze theme from ''[[
* The song the letter Y sings in the first ''[[Charlie the Unicorn]]'' is sung to the tune of "Clarinet Polka".
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/DLAbaoaqu I Can't Believe It's Not AVGN], a series of commentaries about [[The Irate Gamer]], added lyrics to the show's theme tune:
{{quote|
Irate Gamer sells to people
Crappy DVDs and T-shirts
Irate Gamer is a pee-hole }}
* At the end of the ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' review for [[Guitar Hero|''Guitar Hero World Tour'']], Yahtzee included an [[Easter Egg]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8jMn2Kcgs consisting of him adding lyrics to the theme tune of] [[
* While they already have lyrics, it's become something of a minor meme on [[Image Boards|/m/]] to come up with English versions of various [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Anime Theme Song]] lyrics. Original thread is archived [https://web.archive.org/web/20091125133655/http://archive.easymodo.net/cgi-board.pl/m/thread/3338405 here]. The ''[[
* ''[[
* [[YouTube]] user [http://www.youtube.com/user/brentalfloss Brentalfloss] has a series of ''With Lyrics'' songs put to various video game melodies.
** User katethegreat19 also does this, such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-as6Kbcj4c this version of] [[Final Fantasy VII
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaXVdwWuU-A "Comic Bakery"] by C64 tribute band [[Press Play On Tape]] turns the (instrumental) opening theme of the [[Commodore 64]] game ''[[Comic Bakery]]'' into a [[Boy Band]] song.
* The main theme to ''[[Rad Racer]]'' became the main theme to the ''20X6'' anime from ''[[
* The Newgrounds short "[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/442704 Indiada Jodes]", an attempt to summarize ''[[Indiana Jones and
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", the auditions for the titular group include Jasper singing made-up lyrics to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsiS-v6_6M Theme from ''A Summer Place''] (which actually does have a rarely-heard set of lyrics).
{{quote|
From ''A Summer Place''
The theme from ''A Summer Place''
It's the theme... }}
* [[Animaniacs
** As would most of the songs in ''[[
* [[What's Opera, Doc?|"Kill Da Wabbit Kill Da Wabbit"]] - a subversion, as the rid of the Valkyries (as well as everything else that's sung in that number) does have sung parts; however, Elmer and Bugs are singing the instrumental lines. Its predecessor, ''The Rabbit Of Seville'', is a more representative example, there being no words at all during Rossini's famous overture.
** For the same song, from ''The Emperor's New School'': "Kuzco Allegiance, Kuzco Allegiance, Kuzco Allegiance, day is today!"
* ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy:
* ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'' has a more serious application of this, with many of Tchaikovsky's ballet dances turned into songs.
* Two [[Saturday Morning Cartoon|Saturday morning cartoons]] from the 1980s, ''[[Peanuts|The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show]]'' and ''[[Shirt Tales]]'', added lyrics to their [[Theme Tune|theme tunes]] between seasons.
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** Then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO26RQkfID8 the Super Mario World Western Show], which is the famous Mario theme with a Japanese song about Mario and Bowser {{spoiler|and Luigi}} competing over Peach.
* A tribute to the themes of composer [[John Williams]], "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4 John Williams is the Man]", applies ''[[Star Wars]]''-themed lyrics to several of his scores, none of which were written for ''Star Wars'' to begin with.
* During DVD commentary on ''[[Superman:
* One episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' features an irritating client of Strickland Propane (loosely based on [[George Bush]]) singing made up lyrics to the ''[[Dallas]]'' theme (badly off-key, we might add).
** ''JR, JR, he's a really bad guy! He lives on a ranch with his mom!''
* "Leftover Goulash" from ''[[Arthur (
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Score and Music Tropes]]
[[Category:With Lyrics]]
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