What’s That Song?: Barenaked Ladies Open The Big Bang Theory One Last Time

Tonight’s a sad night for nerds everywhere…and, yes, that includes yours truly: after 12 seasons, The Big Bang Theory is finally coming to an end. This, of course, means that tonight’s the final night to hear the show’s theme song in front of a new episode of the series, which adds a whole other level of disappointment to the proceedings, but what would really disappoint us is if you didn’t know who sang the theme song.

Actually, we’re just kidding. If everyone reading this right now knew who sang the theme song, then there’d be no point in our having written this piece!

Barenaked Ladies fell into the opportunity to record “Big Bang Theory Theme,” as it’s called, because Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady went to see the band in concert and decided to ask them if they’d consider doing a theme song for the show. As it happened, Ed Robertson had just finished reading Simon Singh’s book Big Bang, which led him to do a rap about the contents of the book during that concert. Robertson was originally reticent to take the gig, because he’d had some bad experiences with writing songs for projects that ended up being rejected. Fortunately, he was Lorre’s and Prady’s first choice…and even more fortunately, they liked the song.

“Big Bang Theory Theme” was released on October 9, 2007, but it got its most significant exposure via the show’s season four DVD set, which included the video, and Barenaked Ladies’ greatest-hits album, HITS FROM YESTERDAY & THE DAY BEFORE.

No, you won’t be able to hear it in front of a new episode ever again after tonight, but at least you can revisit it anytime you want.