Songfacts®:

• One of the longest-running and most recognizable TV theme songs, the main title for The Simpsons debuted when the series went on the air in 1989. It's stayed fresh because the opening sequence changes with every episode, as does the song. For instance, Bart is always writing something different on the chalk board, and anything can happen when they pile into the couch. The biggest variation in the song is typically the length, and the saxophone part that Lisa plays.
• The theme was composed by Danny Elfman, who had a band called Oingo Boingo but was making bigger waves working on music for Tim Burton movies like Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. When he got the call to write the theme for The Simpsons, he didn't think it would be a big deal. "I said, 'No one's ever going to see this. It will never make it past a couple episodes, but it looks like fun," he told the Film Music Foundation.
• Danny Elfman was shown a pencil sketch of the open when he was brought in to write the music for it. He decided to go with something retro, along the lines of The Flintstones, which he grew up watching. That show's open also has a lot of movement and energy, courtesy of Fred's two feet.
• The Simpsons creator Matt Groening sought out Danny Elfman to create the theme. Years earlier, when Groening was a music critic for the Los Angeles Reader, he wrote a negative review of Elfman's band Oingo Boingo, admitting that he had only seen the encores. Elfman wrote a reply taking Groening to task for not seeing the whole show, and the paper published it. As years went by, they came to respect each other's work - Elfman liked Groening's comic strip Life In Hell, and Groening liked Elfman's scores. They waited until their first meeting to discuss the Simpsons theme to bring up their beef, and they decided it was water under the bridge.
• Danny Elfman is such a prolific composer because he tends to get musical ideas right away when working on a project. That was the case with The Simpsons. After meeting with Matt Groening to discuss the project, he wrote the song in his head on the drive home. When he arrived, he ran to his studio and recorded the demo. Groening loved it, and a few weeks later Elfman recorded it with an orchestra.
• The etherial voice at the beginning that sings "The Simp-sons" is Danny Elfman along with two other singers he used for the demo. That demo vocal ended up on the final recording and is heard in every episode, a technicality that was financially rewarding for Elfman. He didn't get paid much to create the theme "a few thousand at best," but having his voice on it earns him certain residual payments as a vocal performer, which have meant big bucks as the show has endured.
• The "Extended Version" of the Simpsons theme runs 1:39 and appears on the 1997 compilation Songs In The Key Of Springfield. Variations have since appeared on other compilations as well.
• Green Day recorded the theme for The Simpsons Movie in 2007. Their version was released as a single and reached #106 in the US.