A Look At Spider-Man Theme Songs Over The Years (EDITORIAL)

January 28, 2014

I recently had an argument with my son about which was the superior Spider-Man theme song, the original 1967 version (the same show that Junot Diaz said turned him into a FanBro back in the Dominican Republic at 6 years old), or the theme song for the 2008 incarnation, The Spectacular Spider-Man . My son, being 4, didn’t have much to back up his argument, but I thought it’d be fun to indulge him by going through the various versions of Spider-Man over the years on YouTube. It turned out to be educational for both of us.

Spider-Man has been a beloved character since his creation and his ubiquity has grown over the years, spawning television shows, movie franchises, video games and toys (Like this one that played the Spectacular Spider-Man’s theme song over and over in my car on the way to daycare).

It was interesting to see how the various theme songs reflected the times. The 60’s featured horns and surf guitars, the 70’s live action had a funk groove to it, the 80s had throwaway shows with throwaway themes where Marvel was still figuring out how do these shows properly. The 90’s saw Joe Perry of Aerosmith compose a vocoder-heavy theme song and some lite techno was featured in The New Animated Series from 2004.

The Tender Box, a group of Mexican-Americans, wrote the power-pop theme song to 2008’s Spectacular Spider-Man that my son loved so much. They’re not half-bad. I’ve had The Spectacular Spider-Man theme song stuck in my head many times after dropping my son off at day care. But I don’t thing I found anything quite as interesting as the 70’s Japanese version (Check out Spidey’s awesome sidekick at 0:47):

There’s something about Spider-Man that appeals to the kid in all of us. I had a cheap Spider-Man costume when I was a kid and I wore it all the time. I’ve caught my son asleep in his costume a few times.

Spider-Man – 1967