History Main / RealSongThemeTune

* The ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' films seem to have this strange obsession with Music/LinkinPark's music and managed to utilize this with ''What I've Done'' playing in the credits of the first film[[note]]it was also played in the background of another scene[[/note]]. Then it got subverted with ''New Divide'' being recorded specifically for ''[[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen Revenge of the Fallen]]'', and was mixed into the film's actual score at various points. ''[[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon Dark of The Moon]]'' continued the tradition by having the song ''Iridescent'' as its theme, though slightly re-recorded to better fit with the film's grim mood.

* The rock band Music/{{Journey|Band}} got their own arcade video game during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames, which played several of the band's hits in electronic form. However, the cabinet also contained an actual cassette tape with an edited, looped version of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (not an electronic rendition, but the real song), which the game played through its speakers during the bonus stage. Playable copies of the cassette are a rarity for music collectors, as that version of the song isn't available anywhere else.

* The arcade and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis versions of ''VideoGame/MichaelJacksonsMoonwalker'' feature [=OPN2=] remixes of Music/MichaelJackson's "Smooth Criminal," "Beat It", "Another Part of Me", "Billie Jean", and "Bad" as stage themes.

* ''Momoko 120%'' features "Lum no Love Song" ("Lum's Love Song"), the first (and perhaps most well known) opening theme to the ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' anime series. Justified, since it was originally going to be an ''Urusei Yatsura'' game[[note]]It was eventually released on the Nintendo Famicom (the original Japanese version of the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]]) as ''Urusei Yatsura: Lum no Wedding Bell'', where the song choice makes a lot more sense[[/note]].

* Hamster Corporation, who releases various classic arcade games under the Arcade Archives, and ACA UsefulNotes/NeoGeo names, has a weekly livestream called "Arcade Archiver". The theme to this livestream is the original PSG version of the main theme from ''VideoGame/TerraCresta'', taken directly from the original game, which as it happens, is one of the games that Hamster has released.[[note]]There are two versions of the game. It was later re-released with an FM sound-based version of the soundtrack.[[/note]] Near the end, when they're about to sign off for the week, it switches to "Marching Raster", the name entry theme from the same game.[[note]]Hamster is legally able to do this since they now own the rights to the Nichibutsu library after Nichibutsu went out of business when its original founder and president decided to retire and close the company, after which he sold the entire library to Hamster.[[/note]]

* ''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz'': A portion of the track [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKnfOAI1A0 "Breakout"]] from the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 game ''VideoGame/ThreeDDotGameHeroes'' is used as the ending theme. It's often referenced and remixed in other songs throughout the show, such as the song in ''The Bible Game'', the opening titles in ''It's Awesome Baby!'' and ''It's A Bargain Bin Christmas'', the fight scene in ''Anime Games'', and a DarkReprise at the end of ''Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash | The Darker Age of Nintendo''.

** Not long after Bryan Danielson moved to AEW, he started using "The Final Countdown" again.

** Heck, lots of local Pro Wrestling shows used well-known songs as their themes. WWE used to use Music/MichaelJackson's "Thriller," the Pointer Sisters' "Jump," and later Animotion's "Obsession" as themes. And Memphis's CWA promotion used a techno version of ''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' (most famous for its use in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'').

* Wrestling/SmokyMountainWrestling used real songs as entrance music for pretty much everyone, a full list can be found under the trivia section of the SMW page. Owner/booker Wrestling/JimCornette sort of got permission to do this from financial backer Music/RickRubin (no one complained while SMW was running) but never actually got the rights to use any of those songs, this may be part of the reason that only 13 of the 200 TV episodes have been uploaded to the WWE Network, since those songs have to be edited out.
* Wrestling/{{WWE}} has used several "real" hard-rock and heavy-metal songs as theme tunes for their various programs, including Music/MarilynManson's "The Beautiful People," Music/PapaRoach's "To be Loved," Music/{{Nickelback}}'s "Burn it to the Ground," Music/GreenDay's "Know Your Enemy," or Music/{{Shinedown}}'s "Enemies." When they don't use a real song, they often use a ThematicThemeTune recorded by a popular artist such as Smackdown's mid-2000's theme, "Rise Up" recorded by Drowning Pool, and Raw's former theme from Wrestling/TripleH's "Reign of Terror" era, "Across the Nation" by Union Underground.

*** Examples in the mid-1980s WWF included Music/{{Survivor|Band}}'s "Eye of the Tiger" for Hogan, Music/{{Queen}}'s "Another One Bites the Dust" for the Wrestling/JunkyardDog, Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for Lauper's protege Wendi Richter, and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" for the U.S. Express (Mike Rotunda and Wrestling/BarryWindham, real-life brothers-in-law). The first few ''[=WrestleMania=]'' events also used real songs, including Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey's "Easy Lover" for the first ''[=WrestleMania=]'', and Aretha Franklin's "Who's Zoomin' Who" for ''[=WrestleMania=] III''. Also, "Ravishing" Rick Rude used "The Stripper" by David Rose as his entrance theme during his "Chippendale" gimmick.
*** The biggest exception would be Wrestling/{{ECW}}, who continued to use real songs as entrance themes as part of their image as an "outlaw organization." Even their [=TNN/SpikeTV=] theme counted (White Zombie's "More Human Than Human").

* Apartheid-era ForeignWrestlingHeel Colonel [=DeBeers=] typically entered to "Welcome to the Jungle" by Music/GunsNRoses.
* Music/AlterBridge's "Metalingus," which Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} had used as his theme from 2005 to 2012, was originally recorded for the band's first album. Prior to that he was using Music/RobZombie's "Never Gonna Stop." Come 2022, Edge becomes {{darker and|edgier}} [[{{Pun}} edgier]] and uses "The Other Side" from the band's fifth album, which would then continue to be used by The Judgment Day even after Edge gets kicked out of the group.

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson used "The Final Countdown" by Music/{{Europe}} during his time on the indies. When he became Daniel Bryan in Wrestling/{{WWE}}, he used "Ride of the Valkyries" for his first year in the company, and switched to a rock orientation of the song afterwards.

* Jungle Boy used "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora as his entrance music on the indy circuit, but was forced to drop it when he joined AEW. But in January 2021, AEW president Tony Khan went out of his way to buy the rights to the song so Jungle Boy could use it again.

* ''All Out 2021'' would use an instrumental version of Music/CypressHill's "Champion Sound."

** And Liverpool Football Club has famously used (fellow Liverpudlians) Gerry and the Pacemaker's 1963 cover of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72tBjGNlxI "You'll Never Walk Alone"]] as their team's song ever since Liverpool won the FA Cup Final in 1965, though the song originates from the 1945 musical Theatre/{{Carousel}}.

*** The Pittsburgh Pirates break out Styx's "Renegade" whenever they're looking to finish off an opponent.

*** The NHL also has victory songs, with a particularly notable example being Laura Branigan's "Gloria" after St. Louis Blues wins during their 2019 Stanley Cup run (though they retired it once they raised the Stanley Cup banner at the start of the next season).

** In an unusual subversion, [[VideoGame/MassEffect the first game's]] use of "M4 (Part II)" from Faunts as its credits theme is what catapulted the group into fame in the first place.

* ''Dawdle the Donkey'' used most of the first verse of Chris De Burgh's "That's What Friends Are For".

* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'' uses "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone in the intro sequence.

* ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'' uses an instrumental version of Cake's "Italian Leather Sofa" (and, strangely, was left in when the show was put on DVD. The rest of the music and songs used were redubbed with copyright-friendly soundalikes).

** Creator/NewDealStudios has shortened versions of "Mr. Blue Sky" by Music/ElectricLightOrchestra and "Gamma Ray" by Music/{{Beck}}.

* ''Series/{{Jackass}}'': The jangly polka is "Corona" by TheEighties alternative punk trio Music/{{Minutemen}}. An interesting choice, considering that it's a recording that's as old as most of the show's audience.

* ''Series/SugarRush'' uses Music/{{Blondie}}'s "One Way or Another".

* This is surprisingly common in soap operas in countries such as Portugal, where the song used will usually be from TheEighties. As of this writing, nearly all the soaps on channel 1 use a Real Song Theme Tune.

* ''Series/TheOC'' used Phantom Planet's "California".

* ''Series/BondiRescue '' Uses "In the Summertime" By Thirsty Merc as their Opening theme song.

* The American dub of ''Series/IronChef'' uses several songs from Hans Zimmer's ''Film/{{Backdraft}}'' soundtrack.

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' had a period of using licenced tracks as the theme songs for each game, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers at least in the Japanese releases]]. Those are "Loser" by Eikichi Yazawa for ''VideoGame/Yakuza3'', "Butterfly City" by ZEEBRA for ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', "Bloody Moon" by GOSPELS OF JUDAS for ''VideoGame/Yakuza5'', and "Sobo" by Tatsuro Yamashita for ''VideoGame/Yakuza6'',

* Though it should be obvious, each of the ''VideoGame/RockBand'' games has one of the songs from the game play during the opening cutscene from each iteration. The original ''Rock Band'' has "Highway Star" by Music/DeepPurple, ''Rock Band 2'' has a rerecording of "Hello There" by Music/CheapTrick, and ''Rock Band 3'' has "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" by Music/TheDoors. In addition, both ''Music/GreenDay Rock Band'' and ''Music/TheBeatles Rock Band'' have mashups of several songs by each respective band, and ''Lego Rock Band'' uses "Grace" by Music/SuperGrass.

* The ''WebVideo/{{Continue}}'' series uses two songs from video games for their intro - the dying jingle from ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' and "Lord of Darkness", Ashtar's theme from ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden II: The Dark Sword Of Chaos''.
* ''WebVideo/GIJoePSAs'' used a snippet of Fun Time Accapella by Night Rider in ''Reggae''.
* ''WebVideo/LinusTechTips'': The theme song is ''Supernova'' by artist Laszlo. The comments on [[https://youtu.be/PKfxmFU3lWY the original video]] overwhelmingly reference ''Linus Tech Tips''. The first LTT video to use the song is "[[https://youtu.be/Av6u9KYsSDk Obutto Revolution Gaming Cockpit - The ULTIMATE Workstation Computer Setup?]]" on February 9, 2015.
* ''WebVideo/MovieDorkness'': 'Brazil - The Office' during the 'Red Suitcase' era.
* ''Webvideo/MusicalHell'', adequate to a show hosted by a devil, opens and closes with "Danse Macabre".
* ''WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow'' had theme songs for three and a half seasons from a band called The Carps.
** Season One: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka4s8gSSbpU Compton To Scarboro]]
** Season Two: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNtBFXgfqik All The Damn Kids]]
** Season Three: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnHCFW3KWZo Veronica Belmont]]
** Season Four: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy78Z1i4hQI Heaven's Gates & Hell's Flames]] was used for about half the season before the opening credits were phased out.
* Fans of ''WebAnimation/NextGPoop'' are more likely to call The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There for You" "the ''[=NextG=] Poop'' theme" rather than "the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' theme".
* For its first few episodes, ''WebVideo/OddityArchive'' used Music/{{XTC}}'s "Senses Working Overtime" as its theme song, before switching to an original composition.
* The first ''WebVideo/PoniesTheAnthology'' uses a pony-version of "Power" by Music/KanyeWest for its opening short.
* ''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz'': A portion of the track [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKnfOAI1A0 "Breakout"]] from the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 game ''VideoGame/ThreeDDotGameHeroes'' is used as the ending theme. It's often referenced and remixed in other songs throughout the show, such as the song in ''The Bible Game'', the opening titles in ''It's Awesome Baby!'' and ''It's A Bargain Bin Christmas'', the fight scene in ''Anime Games'', and a DarkReprise at the end of ''Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash | The Darker Age of Nintendo''.
* From Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses we have:

* ''VideoGame/BoongGaBoongGa'', a South Korean arcade game that involves [[AssShove shoving your fingers up someone's ass]]. The game is [[WidgetSeries weird enough as is]], but then they also stole the theme song from ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' to use on the ''level select screen'', which just makes things weirder.

* ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' uses "BB's Blues" over its opening credits, and "Last Night" over the closing credits. Both covered by the show's house band, [[IncrediblyLamePun The Bum Notes]].

** Heck, lots of local Pro Wrestling shows used well-known songs as their themes. WWE used to use Music/MichaelJackson's "Thriller", the Pointer Sisters' "Jump", and later Animotion's "Obsession" as themes. And Memphis' CWA Promotion used a techno version of ''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' (most famous for its use in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'').
** However, CWA isn't even close to having the most famous use of ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' in wrestling. That would belong to Wrestling/RicFlair, who has used it for practically all of his career. See the "Sports" folder for still another notable use of the tune.

* Wrestling/{{WWE}} has used several "real" hard-rock and heavy-metal songs as theme tunes for their various programs, including Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People", Papa Roach's "To Be Loved", Nickelback's "Burn It to the Ground", Green Day's "Know Your Enemy", or Shinedown's "Enemies". When they don't use a real song, they often use a ThematicThemeTune recorded by a popular artist (such as Smackdown's mid-2000's theme, "Rise Up" recorded by Drowning Pool, and Raw's former theme from Wrestling/TripleH's "Reign of Terror" era, "Across the Nation" by Union Underground).

*** The biggest exception would be Wrestling/{{ECW}}, who continued to use real songs as entrance themes as part of their image as an "outlaw organization". Even their [=TNN/SpikeTV=] theme counted (White Zombie's "More Human Than Human").

** Wrestling/CMPunk started using "Cult of Personality" by Music/LivingColour during the "Summer of Punk" in Ring Of Honor and eventually returned to using that, with people in the industry remarking that since Wrestling/VinceMcMahon hates paying music royalties, it meant Punk got exactly what he wanted to re-sign for the company. His first WWE theme, "This Fire Burns" by Music/KillswitchEngage is a subversion; it was originally recorded for WWE's ''Wreckless Intent'' compilation album, used for their 2006 ''Judgment Day'' and briefly by Wrestling/RandyOrton. It later appeared on the band's album ''As Daylight Dies'' under the shortened title "This Fire".

* Music/AlterBridge's "Metalingus", which Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} had used as his theme from 2005 to 2012, was originally recorded for the band's first album. Prior to that he was using Music/RobZombie's "Never Gonna Stop". Come 2022, Edge becomes {{darker and|edgier}} [[{{Pun}} edgier]] and uses "The Other Side" from the band's fifth album, which would then continue to be used by The Judgment Day even after Edge gets kicked out of the group.

** Shortly before Khan bought the rights to "Tarzan Boy", he did the same for Music/TomWaits' "Ol' 55", though for a different reason. The song was used in the tribute video for [[Wrestling/LukeHarper Mr. Brodie Lee]] following his untimely death, and Khan bought the rights so that the video would never have to be edited in the future.

* ''All Out 2021'' would use an instrumental version of Music/CypressHill's "Champion Sound".

* Scottish indie wrestling sensation Grado used Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” as his entrance music for years, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yig8NsBRVA complete with audience song-a-long and dance choreography]]
* Wrestling/RondaRousey uses a version of "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett.

** Mark Levin uses the instrumental riff from "Somewhere I Belong" by Music/LinkinPark. He also uses it as his closing theme, with Music/RayCharles' "America the Beautiful" immediately preceding it on Fridays only. Since the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, he's gone from "Somewhere I Belong" to "The Star-Spangled Banner" (i.e., the U.S. national anthem) during the first-hour opening.

** LSU also uses Music/GarthBrooks' version of "Callin' Baton Rouge" as its football team's entrance music. As you might guess, LSU is in that city.

* Taito's ''Wild Western'' uses Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders in the Sky" for its main theme. Which, in turn, is a a SuspiciouslySimilarSong version of the public domain song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' opens with a version of "Where You Lead" which Carole King re-recorded with her daughter.

* ''The Iron Helix'' uses the Xorcist song of the same name. The rest of the soundtrack is also by [[FaceOfTheBand Peter Stone]].

* The Creator/{{BBC}} has done this too. From 1978–1996 and again from 2009–2015, it used the closing bass line from Music/FleetwoodMac's "The Chain" as the theme tune for its UsefulNotes/FormulaOne coverage. After Creator/Channel4 took over [=F1=] coverage from Auntie in 2016, it continued to use "The Chain" until introducing a new original theme in 2019.

* ''Series/{{Teachers}}'' uses Belle and Sebastian's "The Boy With the Arab Strap".

** Brazilian broadcaster Creator/{{Globo}} has used "Freedom of Speech", an instrumental from the soundtrack of the 1971 film ''Film/VanishingPoint'', as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-hep8V2JQ theme music]] for its newsmagazine ''Globo Repórter'' for decades.