The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s theme song has been revealed as the highest-earning theme tune of all time.
In a new study, experts at Spin Genie analysed the number total of streams, monthly listeners, and estimated earnings of TV’s most popular theme songs to reveal which has had the most influence over the years.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song, which was written and performed by Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff, emerged at the top of the list with an estimated earning of $751.1K from streams alone.
In 2018, the British Phonographic Industry certified the 1990s song Silver for sales and
streams of over 200,000, even though it wasn’t released in the UK.
The theme song ‘Stand’ by R.E.M for the sitcom Get a Life ranked second for the highest estimated earnings with $284.1K, while The Sopranos theme song ‘Woke Up This Morning’ by Alabama 3 came in third with $231.2K.
The rest of the top 10 is made up by the theme tunes for Married With Children, Batman, The Addams Family, Taxi, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The X Files, and King of the Hill.
In other news, Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld recently revealed that he had to evacuate the set on the movie after Will Smith farted.
Speaking on the podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa, Sonnenfeld recalled that the incident occurred when they were filming a scene in the 1997 film in which Smith and co-star Tommy Lee Jones were seen travelling in a car that flipped upside down at high speeds along the roof of a tunnel.
According to the director, the pair had to be hermetically sealed into a fake car on set for the scene.
Sonnenfeld said: “I say, ‘Roll camera.’ And I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh Jesus, so sorry. Tommy, so sorry. Baz, get the ladder.’ And you hear Tommy saying, ‘That’s fine, Will. No worries, Will. Don’t worry, Will.’ Anyway, I don’t know what’s gone on, right?
“So we race the ladder over. Yeah, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs. And what happened was… Will Smith is a farter.
“It’s just some people are. And you really don’t want to be inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart. You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch. We evacuated the stage for about three hours.”