gibber gibber jabba uhhh-haaah!

July 13, 2008 5:10 PM

WKRP In Cincinnati (Closing Theme). What the words to this? Are there any words? If they aren't words then what the hell are they, exactly? And what exactly is the story behind putting a song like that on a nationally broadcast sitcom? Anybody know the backstory?
posted by jonmc to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

The Wikipedia entry tells the story as I've always understood it.

The closing theme, "WKRP In Cincinnati End Credits", was a hard rock number composed and performed by Jim Ellis, an Atlanta musician who recorded some of the incidental music for the show. According to people who attended the recording sessions, Ellis didn't yet have lyrics for the closing theme, so he sang nonsense words to give an idea of how it would sound...
posted by LinnTate at 5:17 PM on July 13, 2008

Wikipedia has info on the themes. Article says that the words are deliberate gibberish.
posted by jquinby at 5:18 PM on July 13, 2008

For the record, the opening theme to WKRP is one of the awesomest TV themes ever. And now, I must say the show has one of the best closing themes as well.
posted by puritycontrol at 6:24 PM on July 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

There are contrary opinions.

(Dinking around Google I found several, one poor fool listened to the song 40 times in a row to come up with his "definitive lyrics." These people have never heard of pareidolia).
posted by nanojath at 7:22 PM on July 13, 2008 [4 favorites]

Awesome, nanojath!
posted by LinnTate at 7:36 PM on July 13, 2008

The nonsense lyrics (and yes, there are individual words you can pick out) were left in because even in those days, the closing theme of a show would be wiped out by a network promo, so they made a joke of it.
posted by evilcolonel at 7:56 PM on July 13, 2008