As theme songs go, The Sopranos‘ use of ‘Woke Up This Morning’ by Alabama 3 might just be the coolest in TV history. The credits themselves are relatively unremarkable; mob boss Tony Soprano makes his way through the New Jersey Turnpike, a cigar clasped between his teeth and the city skyline in his rear view mirror.
What makes it pop, however, is the use of the London band’s 1997 song. With a raspy Howlin’ Wolf sample and a heart-swelling gospel choir, a story of bloody vengeance is told over a psychedelic blues riff. It’s the perfect introduction to the classic HBO series that pitted violent crime alongside domestic drama and philosophical discussion about the purpose of life. In a show famed for great writing, there is arguably no better summary of Tony’s fate than the lyrics: “Woke up this morning. You got yourself a gun. Your mama always said you’d be the chosen one.”
“We could never get The Beatles. We only tried once because we knew it was impossible”
It was only thanks to an HBO executive, however, that The Sopranos’ opening had a recurring anthem. “Originally what I wanted to do was have no theme song,” explains the show’s creator David Chase. “The idea was that we would start the show every week with a different song but HBO wouldn’t go for that. [Head of original programming] Carolyn Strauss said it has to be something that, when people hear that song from another room, they know their favourite show is on. That made sense to me.”
Chase, in London to help promote the UK launch of HBO Max, considered other songs by Elvis Costello and The Kinks before deciding on Alabama 3. He ultimately picked the song, written about a woman murdering her abusive husband, because “it just felt like Tony.” The original meaning of the lyrics didn’t matter to him because the song is “kind of” simplistic, according to Chase. “‘Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun.’ That was obviously the world for Tony. And ‘Your mama said you’d be the chosen one.’ Well, his mother didn’t think he was chosen for anything.”
Unlike some other showrunners, music lover Chase was heavily involved in the way The Sopranos sounded. Alongside music supervisor Martin Bruestle and editor Kathryn Dayak, he hand-picked many of the show’s most beloved needle-drops. They paid particular attention to the eclectic mix of songs that accompanied the show’s closing credits, including tracks by late ‘90s boundary pushers Aphex Twin and Radiohead, classic rock icons The Rolling Stones as well as Rat Pack idols Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
“When we were putting the budget for the show together, I asked for an extra $50,000 dollars per episode for music,” Chase recalls. He knew that the sound of the show would play a big part in making things tick. He also knew he needed money to make that happen after being burned making divorce drama Almost Grown in the late ‘80s. “We made it for Universal and these fucking morons didn’t licence the music in perpetuity.”
“Tony never listened to Bruce Springsteen, you know”
The budget went a long way but Chase wanted to make sure he didn’t just license things because he could afford to.”There’s no recipe, you just have to try things,” he says of the art of the needle-drop. “Having the picture, throwing things against it and seeing what works.” It’s also worth noting that money only goes so far. “We could never get The Beatles. We only tried once because we knew it was impossible.”
There are Sopranos characters whose personalities are defined, in part, by their taste in music. Adriana is a rocker who runs a club that hosts an array of grunge bands, Tony’s son AJ, meanwhile, highlights the show’s turn of the millennium setting through his love of nu-metal bands Slipknot and Mudvayne. Tony had far less interest in music. When it came to songs he might play on the car radio, Chase “always tried to make it music that Tony would like.” He listened to Sinatra and liked the ‘Smoke On The Water’ riff but had “middling” knowledge of popular culture. “He never listened to Bruce Springsteen, you know.”
One person who needs no introduction to Springsteen is Steven Van Zandt, the musician who made his acting debut as Bada Bing! strip club owner Silvio Dante. Chase first spotted him as guitarist in The E Street Band and invited him to read for the part of Tony. “He looked a little bit like Pacino to me, he had to be in the show,” Chase says. Van Zandt impressed in his audition, turning up in a suit he had made by the tailor of mob boss John Gotti. However, the musician was reluctant to take the lead role away from an established actor. Instead, Van Zandt suggested he could play a ‘50s nightclub owner. “I said, we can’t do that but we do have a strip club,” Chase laughs.
As for James Gandolfini, whose tender yet brutal portrayal of Tony is an all-time classic, his taste in music is more of a mystery. In 2020 Michael Imperioli (who played fellow mobster Christopher Moltisanti) revealed his co-star’s love of Green Day, with the actor reworking the pop-punk band’s classic songs to reflect his own feelings of frustration while making the show. Chase doesn’t deny Gandolfini was irritable towards the end of shooting (“He called us vampires, because we stole from people’s personal lives and put things into the character”) but claims no knowledge of his alleged Green Day covers. In fact, he only remembers Gandolfini being a fan of one unlikely band: Maroon 5. “He was exhausted, but I guess he liked them,” says Chase, who used their hit ‘She Will Be Loved’ featured in season five episode Rat Pack.
The most divisive use of music in The Sopranos also created the show’s most unforgettable moment. In the final episode, things come to a close with Tony and wife Carmela seated around a diner table. Flicking through the jukebox options, Tony punches in the code for Journey’s uplifting soft rock classic ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ and the song plays until the scene suddenly cuts to black. Nothing more. An iconic series ended in the blink of an eye.
Fans and critics have debated and theorised over the ending for nearly two decades now but Chase admits that even his use of Journey was contentious at the time. Not that he was going to be swayed. “By that time, I’d done the show for long enough that I finally had confidence in my decision making,” he says. He considered using Al Green‘s ‘Love And Happiness’ and reveals that some big name artists offered their music up for that final episode, but he refuses to name names. So why ‘Don’t Stop Believin’? “It wasn’t just to be bullheaded,” he says. “But when I told people [that it was in the scene] they had such a reaction that I knew it was the one. It’s what Tony would have put on.”
And does Chase have a favourite musical moment from Sopranos history? The writer points to the use of Otis Redding’s ‘My Lover’s Prayer’ in the second season as well as squeezing in a song by The Pretenders, whose vocalist Chrissie Hynde he had dinner with the night before our meeting. Ultimately though, Chase just being in control of the music was the ultimate joy. “Truly, it’s the biggest pleasure in filmmaking.”
All episodes of ‘The Sopranos’ are available exclusively on HBO Max in the UK and Ireland now