Comments on: gibber gibber jabba uhhh-haaah!

Question: gibber gibber jabba uhhh-haaah!

jonmc — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:10:28 -0800

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?

By: LinnTate

LinnTate — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:17:26 -0800

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...

By: jquinby

jquinby — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:18:35 -0800

Wikipedia has info on the themes. Article says that the words are deliberate gibberish.

By: puritycontrol

puritycontrol — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:24:09 -0800

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.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:22:19 -0800

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).

By: LinnTate

LinnTate — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:36:23 -0800

Awesome, nanojath!

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:56:26 -0800

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.