Instrumental Theme Tune

A Theme Tune without lyrics. Often, there is some attempt to thematically match the instrumentals to the tone of the show; a noble, orchestral theme for high drama, something brassy and mysterious for Speculative Fiction, something fast and powerful for an Adventure Series, something quirky and odd for a comedy show. Often, such a theme tune will be adapted from an obscure old symphony piece.

Far and away the most common style of Theme Tune for American drama series.

Note that some Instrumental Theme Tunes actually possess Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics. Subtrope to Instrumentals.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 2004 ADV distribution of Area 88 has Mission: Fuga, a remix of Bach's Little Fugue.
• Baccano! has "Gun's & Roses" by Paradise Lunch, a jazzy instrumental track that fits with the series' Prohibition era setting.
• Cowboy Bebop's theme song, "Tank", has a few spoken words in the beginning, but is mostly a Charles Mingus-esque big-band jazz number.
• Crest of the Stars and its sequels use a brass-heavy symphonic theme, as composed by the late Katsuhisa Hattori.
• Deltora Quest (the American version only)
• Devil May Cry: The Animated Series has "d.m.c." by rungran for its opening song, NOT to be confused with Run–D.M.C..
• Divergence Eve has a lyric-less metal/techno/rock opening.
• Aside from a narration courtesy of Dan Green, the opening for the 4Kids dub of F-Zero: GP Legend goes like this.
• Emma: A Victorian Romance's opening theme, "Silhouette of a Breeze", is an orchestral piece accompanied by piano. The second season's theme is "Silhouette of a Breeze: Celt version", which is a different arrangement using Celtic instruments like the flute and harp.
• Fushigi Yuugi has some instrumentals itself, but in a subversion: What seems like the backing track to an Image Song with lyrics is actually an entirely different song. (i.e. "Inoru You Ni Aishiteru"/"Romantic", "Ai To Iu Na No Tatakai Ni"/"Sassou To...", "I Wish"/"Music Box")
• Gungrave's theme song, "Family".
• Like Cowboy Bebop above, Gunsmith Cats also opens its episodes with a jazzy instrumental.
• GUN×SWORD opens with what can only be described as a spaghetti western theme played with traditional Japanese instruments.
• Haibane Renmei's "Free Bird", later becoming a Leitmotif.
• The anime adaptation of Hetalia: Axis Powers has an orchestral opening theme.
• Marvel Anime: Iron Man and Marvel Anime: Wolverine both have instrumental rock themes as opening and ending songs.
• There are several versions of the theme song of Lupin III, both instrumental (the majority, including the original second-series one) and vocal (the second opening of the second series, and various Lupin-related jazz albums). The original 1971 series had a completely different theme, but it's not as memorable, and hasn't been used since the new one was written in 1977.

• Najica Blitz Tactics has a jazzy/big band instrumental opening theme.
• The OVA of Read or Die opens with an instrumental piece that sounds like a James Bond homage.
• Robotech featured an instrumental theme by composer Ulpio Minucci, which helped distinguish the series from those of the decade and hinted at the show's ambitions.
• The first opening of Shadows House is a classical and somewhat jazzy instrumental piece.
• Space☆Dandy, although only for the initial broadcasts in the US, before switching to the vocal version of "Viva Namida"
• The American release of Speed Grapher uses an instrumental opening theme ("Shutter Speed"), though the Japanese release uses Duran Duran's "Girls on Film".
• Street Fighter II V (the American version only)
• Tamagotchi Friends, a webtoon adaptation of Tamagotchi condensing the first seven episodes of the Yume Kira Dream story arc into shorts that are about four minutes long, uses an Extremely Short Intro Sequence with a song that has no audible lyrics.
• Trigun has, essentially, a long guitar solo as a theme tune.
• Tweeny Witches opens with an orchestral instrument theme by composer Tamiya Terashima.
• Yona of the Dawn: An orchestral instrumental piece for its first opening.

Asian Animation

• The theme song for Akis does not have vocals.
• The theme song for Andy Pirki does not have any vocals.
• Cupid's Chocolates does not have vocals in its theme song for the first season. The second season's opening does have lyrics, however.
• The very Turkish-sounding theme song of King Shakir has no lyrics.
• The short nature of Lamput episodes (15 seconds in the first season, two minutes and five minutes for later seasons) doesn't leave too much time for vocals in what little it has of a theme song, as the intro was made to be about three seconds long.
• The classic Motu Patlu series (not the 2012 one, but the 80s/90s one that came first) has an instrumental opening made using an electronic synth.
• The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Around the World in 20 Days opening has no singing.
• The theme for Stitch & Ai doesn't have any vocals save for a brief moment of male singers saying "Woo!" in the background and a couple(?) female singers lightly singing "Ah!" at the very end.
• Tobot Galaxy Detectives: The opening and closing theme tune for the series is played on a rock and roll guitar.

Eastern European Animation

• Fantasy Patrol has this in season 1. Season 2 has a completely different tune with lyrics.
• Hungarian Folk Tales has a short tune played on flute and cello accompanying its title sequence.

Films — Live-Action

• John Carpenter's classic Halloween theme is a good example of a modern version of the trope: a nearly non-musical electronic sound beat designed to create tension whenever it is heard in the movie.
• There are only three James Bond films with instrumentals over the titles: Dr. No, From Russia with Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's believed the last case was so because John Barry couldn't figure out how to put in all nine syllables into a coherent song. However, From Russia with Love does have a vocal version by Matt Monro, heard on a car radio in the film itself and over the end credits.
• Star Wars, while not the only example from John Williams's catalogue, is undoubtedly the most famous, used in every opening crawl and appearing several times as a Leitmotif for the series.
• The infamous "da-dada-da-dada-da-dada-DA" of Indiana Jones certainly counts, too.
• The Pink Panther. You could never forget the saxophone punctuated piece by Henry Mancini, could you?
• The Three Stooges had a couple of different themes.
• Laurel and Hardy had a famous short theme.
• Love Story has an instrumental theme that was also turned into a non-instrumental sung by the legendary Andy Williams.
• Spaceballs has an orchestral march theme parodying that of Star Wars as well as a disco Title Theme Tune which plays much later in the movie.

Live-Action TV

• The 21st Century
• 30 Rock, though it is sung With Lyrics in both live episodes, and by "Weird Al" Yankovic in The Stinger to "Kidnapped by Danger"
• The theme tune for 31 Minutos was initially this, but later it was added lyrics as a "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune with various of the show's characters and was even titled "Yo Nunca Vi Televisión"^* Roughly meaning "I Never Saw Television".. However, the title sequence never used said lyrics.
• The A-Team's dramatic military march.
• The Abbott & Costello Show
• According to Jim had a jazz piece as its opening theme.
• Adam Ruins Everything
• Airwolf
• ALF
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour used several different versions of Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" as their theme music, making the composition famous in the process.
• Alias
• 'Allo 'Allo! has little French accordion music tinged with nostalgia.
• American Gladiators
• America's Most Wanted
• Andor. Each episode also has its own special version of the opening theme to go with the mood of the episode, varying slightly in exact instrumentation and sound while still retaining the same melody.
• Andromeda
• Angel. The extended version has lyrics.
• Anything But Love
• Are You Afraid of the Dark?
• The Avengers (1960s)
• Babylon 5, a slightly different one for each season.
• Barney Miller's jazzy theme.
• The Baron
• Battlestar Galactica
• Baywatch (Hawaii season 1, though more accurately is an example of Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics, since it is an instrumental of "I'm Always Here")
• Another instrumental that was written long before it became a theme tune: "Yakety Sax" from The Benny Hill Show, originally recorded by Boots Randolph.
• Beverly Hills, 90210
• Bizarre Foods has TWO separate instrumental themes, though the second is actually for the Spinoff show "Bizarre Foods America". The show has a third theme tune that's nearly instrumental (i.e. it would be were it not for the shout-sung "It's so bizarre!" exclamation toward the end of it).
• B.o.B
• The Bob Hope Show
• The Bob Newhart Show
• Bonanza
• Bones had an electronic theme by The Crystal Method.
• Bottom memorably uses two seedy pieces of blues music over its opening and closing credits: ""BB's Blues" for the opening, and the more bouncy and upbeat "Last Night" for the crazy-dancing end credits.
• Boy Meets World had a different one each season for seasons 1-4. Seasons 5-7 had a Thematic Theme Tune.
• Breaking Bad
  • Better Call Saul, though it's actually just the intro of the full version and has Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics
• The Brittas Empire
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Burke's Law
• Cagney & Lacey
• Captain Kangaroo. "Puffer Billy" was the name.
• The Champions (1968)
• CHIPS
• The Cleaner (UK)
• Combat! (1962): The theme quotes from "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".
• The numerous Special Edition Titles on Community have generally been instrumental, with the exception of the Halloween ones (which used the normal theme), and the two that Abed sang.
• The Comic Strip Presents had a brief, cheery organ passage, played against a title card depicting an atomic bomb with "Have A Nice Day" spray-painted on the side falling toward a dot on a road map marked "You Are Here".
• Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, even though most cartoons had words in their themes.
• The Cosby Show. However, the whole "thematically match the instrumentals to the tone of the show" part doesn't exactly work, and for one season used a grand orchestral piece for the opening of a comedy show.
• Cosmos
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: Frolic by Luciano Michelini.
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has "Dog On Fire" (by Bob Mould, performed by They Might Be Giants) as main theme, which manages to suit it perfectly.
• Dallas One of the best!
• Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan, had a weird but upbeat (for a spy series) jazz-march hybrid theme, with the lead melody played on harpsichord. Granted, a new theme (with lyrics) was commissioned for the US airings of the series (as Secret Agent), but the American audiences still heard the original theme anyway — it played over the opening scene of every episode, and was often used to set the mood whenever secrets were being passed around.
• Davis Rules
• The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
• Decoy
• Department S
• Designing Women
• Dexter's theme song sets the mood perfectly for a show where the protagonist is a serial killer.
• Diagnosis: Murder
• Doctor Who. The show additionally tends to Rearrange the Song every now and then:
  • The original 1963 arrangement was touched up in 1967, featuring a faster bassline and a new twinkling whirr, and it was further remixed for the closing titles in 1970, with these variations being used until 1980.
  • After John Nathan-Turner took over as producer in 1980, the 1967 and 1970 arrangements were replaced with a new Synth-Pop rendition, which was then replaced by a more ethereal version in 1986, which got used for all of one season before being swapped out for another Synth-Pop version from 1987 to the show's cancellation in 1989. This was followed by orchestral versions for the 1996 Made-for-TV Movie and series 1-3 of the Revival Series.
  • "Voyage of the Damned" through The End of Time use a highly rocked-up version of the opening theme by Murray Gold.
  • Series 5 through series 7 use a version by Murray Gold that mixes a retro-electronic baseline and a grand orchestra (and choir!) to create a haunting but upbeat version, with some modification for the final half of series 7.
  • "The Day of the Doctor", as the 50th anniversary special, has its own special version by Gold that plays up the exciting, adventurous aspects of the theme.
  • Series 8-10 use another version by Gold, this one with an electronic and futuristic feel.
  • Series 11 onwards use a version by Segun Akinola that incorporates more of the original tune and adds an underlying electronic beat to create an eerie version quite unlike any of Gold's.
  • Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, made an unofficial version of the theme with spoken word lyrics performed in-character called "Who is the Doctor?"
• Dog with a Blog
• The Donna Reed Show
• Doogie Howser, M.D.
• Dream On
• Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
• EastEnders
• The Equalizer
• The first two seasons of Eureka used a whimsical, whistled tune. Seasons 3 and 4 used an abbreviated version.
• Even Stevens
• Everybody Loves Raymond (except the season 7 theme, "Jungle Love")
• The Fabulous Show with Fay & Fluffy
• Falcon Crest
• Fawlty Towers used a sedate string quartet piece that ironically counterpointed the show's manic events.
• Fish
• Foreign Exchange
• Frasier: The Opening Theme is notable as it changes frequently (a form of Couch Gag). There were more permutations introduced as the show ran longer and longer, all with a light jazz feel which set the tone nicely for the content of the episode.
• Fringe
• Furuhata Ninzaburo
• Game of Thrones
  • House of the Dragon (same theme as above)
• Pick a Game Show, any Game Show.
  • Notable exceptions include the 1970s version of To Tell the Truth, the 1990 game show adaptation of Monopoly ("M, ohh, N, ohh, P O L Y"), and The Wizard Of Odds (with Alan Thicke singing such lyrics as "Who's the guy with the prizes/That'll light up your eyes-es..."). All Star Blitz briefly used a Surreal Theme Tune with "lyrics" that mainly consisted of the show's title and gibberish, but retired this theme after one week.
• All seasons of GARO use instrumentals (or at least operatic chanting) as the opening themes for the first halves of the series, before switching to JAM Project songs.
• Garrison's Gorillas
• Get Smart
• The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
• Ghosts (UK)
• Goosebumps
• The Green Hornet had used Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" for decades; the TV show brought in composer/arranger Billy May to update it, who then enlisted trumpeter Al Hirt for the distinctive solos.
• Grounded for Life
• Gunsmoke
• Both the original Hawaii Five-O and the 2010 revival.
• In Helix, a Sci-Fi/Horror Thriller revolving around an outbreak of The Virus, its theme is a calculatedly dissonant piece of Bossa Nova easy listening, that slows and warps to a stop as Bad Black Barf drips off the "X" in the Title Card. It's companion end credits theme shares its genre and instrumentation, but is instead tense with a rising background whine that evokes "Psycho" Strings before warping to a stop again.
• Highway Patrol
• Highway to Heaven
• The theme from Hill Street Blues was set to credits that look like a cross between a sitcom and a police procedural. However, the sad, simple piano chords tie it all into the real mood of the show: an ongoing tragedy and the people who have to cope with it, day after day.
  • And of course it's a blues, punning on the title.
• For Real Song Theme Tune par excellence, see the use of Eagles' "Journey Of The Sorcerer" for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981). Famously chosen because Douglas Adams thought that the theme for a show about hitch-hiking should have a banjo in it somewhere.
• Hockey Night in Canada had an unforgettable instrumental theme in "The Hockey Theme", which was so ubiquitous in its home country that it was actually considered Canada's second national anthem. Unfortunately, thanks to licensing issues, that song is now the theme for The NHL on TSN. HNIC's replacement song, "Canadian Gold", is mostly instrumental, but includes a few samples of crowds cheering "Hey!" during the piece.
• Hogan's Heroes
• Home Improvement
• Another Real Song Theme Tune example: House has as its theme tune an instrumental segment of a Massive Attack song.
• Hunter
• I Love Lucy, which had words which were sung in the series once.
• I Spy
• Is It Legal?: Both theme tunes are an example of this.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Daniel Hart's "Interview with the Orchestra" plays over the short title sequence.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the stock music piece "Temptation Sensation")
• Jackpot used the stock music piece "Jet Set", which would later be used by This Week in Baseball (below).
• JAG, as well as its spinoffs NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. Though, weirdly, not NCIS: New Orleans, which has a Real Song Theme Tune.
• Jason King
• Joe90 (oddly enough, this theme was later recycled for the Amiga and SNES game Super Putty)
• The John Larroquette Show
• Johnson and Friends
• Kamen Rider Hibiki was the only Kamen Rider series to have one. It ended up being one of the victims of the show's tragic Executive Meddling.
• The Kids in the Hall had "Having an Average Weekend" by instrumental band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet.
• Kirby Buckets
• Knight Rider (And note how radically different was the tone of its revival, Team Knight Rider)
• Knots Landing.
• Kraft Suspense Theatre
• L.A. Law.
• Land of the Giants
• Late night talk shows in general, though they all have announcers telling who the guests are:
  • Conan
  • Late Night
  • Late Show With David Letterman
  • The Tonight Show
• All of the shows in the Law & Order franchise use the same tune, but with unique arrangements for each show.
• LazyTown in syndication and its later versions. This is because the syndicated version had a small music budget and shifted from a simple educational kid's show to an educational action series like Power Rangers. This means all songs sung by the characters are replaced with background songs from various artists, but a list would be too long to fit here.
• Lab Rats and its spin-off Lab Rats: Elite Force
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
• The William Tell Overture as the theme to The Lone Ranger, although this dates back to radio.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
• Lost in Space
• MacGyver (1985)
• The Magician (1973 series)
• Magnum, P.I.
• Modern Family, minus the one background vocal saying "Hey!" throughout the whole thing.
• Major Dad
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• Man in a Suitcase
• Mannix
• Man Seeking Woman
• M*A*S*H had an instrumental theme, "Suicide is Painless". The song had lyrics in the movie.
• Matt Houston
• Max Headroom
• Mech-X4
• Medical Center: Lalo Schifrin composed the theme for this early 70s TV show that could have worked for an action show too!
• Melrose Place
• The theme song for the Canadian series Mentors was a computerized-sounding, piano-based tune, with plenty of beeps and blips. Fitting, given that the show revolved around teenagers who could bring back historical figures with the help of a supercomputer.
• Miami Vice: One of the biggest complaints about the movie adaptation was its lack of the groundbreaking rock intro and incidental music used in the series.
• Midnight Caller
• Midsomer Murders
• Mission: Impossible: Composer Lalo Schifrin actually made a short piece to go with the climactic chase scene but the producers liked it so much they decided to make it the central theme.
• Monk, before they got Randy Newman to do a new song for the second season. The old one still popped up in the underscore, though. Since the original theme won composer Jeff Beal an Emmy, it's strange that Universal decided to change it. Then again, Newman's theme won an Emmy as well.
• One of the most famous: John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March", better known as the opening theme to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• Mork & Mindy had a cheery, upbeat theme tune to match the tone of the show. There was a different but equally upbeat theme in Italy. With lyrics.
• ''Motherland
• Murdoch Mysteries
• My Brother and Me
• My Favorite Martian
• Nashville
• Newsradio
• Night Court
• Night Stand With Dick Dietrick
• NYPD Blue
• The Odd Couple (1970) theme song technically has lyrics, but they don't appear in the opening and most people don't even know they exist.
• The Office (US)
• Only Fools and Horses had this in its first series and 1981 Christmas special before the introduction of the well-remembered opening and closing themes in the second series.
• Our Miss Brooks
• Parks and Recreation
• The People's Court
• Perry Mason ("Park Avenue Beat" by Fred Steiner)
• Or speaking of Henry Mancini, how about the extremely well-known Peter Gunn theme.
• Philbert (live action/animated pilot)
• Police Woman
• The Prisoner
• Pushing Daisies.
• Quantum Leap
• Red Dwarf originally opened with a booming, bass-heavy instrumental that was wildly out of place given the nature of the show. Starting with Season 2, the opening instead uses a shortened instrumental version of the rather-more-fitting closing theme.
• The Red Green Show
• Remington Steele
• The Rockford Files
• The Rookies
• Room222
• Roseanne (excluding the final season)
• Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
• The Saint
• Quincy Jones' emblematic funk-soul tune "The Streetbeater" from Sanford and Son
• Saturday Night Live: Announcer reads the list of performers and guest stars, but that's it.
• Most of the programs on Scripps Howard-owned TV channels (e.g. the Food Network and HGTV) have open domain instrumental theme tunes to save on production costs.
• Secret Army
• Seinfeld
• Shoestring
• Silicon Valley - "Stretch Your Face" by Tobacco
• Simon & Simon
• The Single Guy
• Siskel & Ebert (all incarnations of the show)
• Soap
  • Benson
• Nearly all American daytime soap operas, with only a handful of exceptions.
• Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em had a cute little tune played on two flutes. It was actually a piece of concealed Fridge Brilliance by composer Ronnie Hazelhurst: the alternation of quarter-notes and eighth-notes spelled out the title of the show in Morse Code.
• Son of the Beach
• The Soup (formerly Talk Soup)
• Most of the Stargate franchise, including Stargate the movie, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate The Ark Of Truth.
  • In a commentary for an SG-1 episode, Joe Malozzi, Paul Mullie and Peter DeLuise present lyrics. however these aren't official. At all.
• Starsky & Hutch had a different instrumental theme for each of its four seasons. Season 1 Season 2, Season 3 and Season 4 In France, however, it had an entirely different theme. With lyrics. All together now: "Starskeeeeeeeeeee et 'utch..." (This happens fairly often in France, with Hart to Hart, Dallas, Prison Break and even Heroes, among others, also getting vocal theme songs exclusive to the country.)
• The entire Star Trek franchise, excepting Star Trek: Enterprise, which does have an instrumental Ending Theme. Gene Roddenberry receives co-writer credit (and a share of the royalties) for the original Star Trek theme, as he wrote the lyrics. If you just said "The theme from Star Trek had lyrics?", you probably know how composer Alexander Courage felt about this.
• St. Elsewhere has an iconic instrumental theme composed by Dave Grusin. Grusin appears to have repurposed most of that theme for the mid - late Eighties theme for the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live.
• Stranger Things
• The Streets of San Francisco
• Svengoolie
  • Sventoonie
• Switch (1975)
• Tales from the Crypt
• Taxi
• thirtysomething
• This Week in Baseball had this for both the opening and closing — the aforementioned "Jet Set" for the opening, and an even more iconic closing theme in another stock music piece, "Gathering Crowds".
• Thunderbirds (the first Gerry Anderson-produced Supermarionation series to have one)
• The Time Tunnel
• T.J. Hooker
• Too Close for Comfort
• Toon In With Me
• Top Gear uses a remake of The Allman Brothers Band's instrumental "Jessica," making this a Real Song Theme Tune as well.
• Trapper John, M.D.
• Turner & Hooch (2021)
• Twin Peaks had... The Twin Peaks Theme, a slow synthesizer/bass piece composed by Lynch's long time collaborator Angelo Badalamenti.
• Ultra Series:
  • Ultraman: Towards the Future: While the Japanese version employs a theme with lyrics "Our Great", the Australian version employs an instrumental orchestra for the opening titles.
  • Ultraman Powered: The same theme song is used for both the US and Japanese versions of the series' opening, however the US version has no lyrics in it.
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Vegas
• Wagon Train
• Walker, Texas Ranger (The first two themes only. The third theme, "The Eyes of a Ranger", has lyrics)
• The Watch (2021)
• The West Wing
• What's Happening!!
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? (UK series; the U.S. version was also an instrumental theme tune but was narrated over by Drew Carey, and later, Aisha Tyler, telling which performers are on the show in a different method each episode)
• The Wild Wild West
• Wings (actually a classical piece called "Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959, Rondo: Allegretto" by Franz Schubert)
• Without a Trace, the only show in the CSI-verse not to use a Real Song Theme Tune.
• World's Wildest Police Videos
• The X-Files theme song has whistling and several melodies (polyphony) with unsettling tones sounding as if they were coming from the background. It's really creepy.

Music

• Most orchestral pieces for operas or musicals or thematic music. And some pieces for children.
  • Peter and the Wolf
  • Beethoven's Sixth Symphony - The Pastoral
  • Grieg's Incidental music for Peer Gynt.
  • A Child's Guide to the Orchestra.

Podcasts

• Though Welcome to Night Vale features plenty of eerie background music and a new guest song during the "weather" section, it always opens with The Ballad of Fiedler and Mundt by Disparition.

Sports

• Sport "series" on television will sometimes have short themes, usually memorable riffs from songs.
  • Formula One (when on the BBC) it's Fleetwood Mac's The Chain.

Theatre

• Victor Herbert's The Red Mill is one of the few musicals to have an instrumental theme running through the show.

Video Games

• Most old video games did not have the power to include lyrics with their songs, so they have instrumental themes instead.
• The intro to Cortex Command, using mostly old-style sound effects.
• The intro to Tales of the Abyss is instrumental in English due to unwillingness to dub the song. This was avoided in later Tales games (thus far Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces) by having the artists in question speak both English and Japanese.
• The theme from Battlefield in all its incarnations. The 2142 version in particular.
• The Elder Scrolls: Arena through Oblivion have this, though the series' Recurring Riff (the "Elder Scrolls theme") was only introduced in Morrowind when Bethesda brought in Jeremy Soule as composer.
  • Averted in Skyrim. The story goes that one day director Todd Howard called up Soule and said, "I hear the Elder Scrolls theme as sung by a barbarian choir." Soule basically shrugged and did what he was told; the result was "Dragonborn".
• Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions.
• Kingdom Hearts has Sanctuary/Passion and Simple and Clean/Hikari, but ignoring those the main theme tune of the series would be the Recurring Riff Dearly Beloved(KH1,KH2,Birth by Sleep,re:Coded,Chain of Memories,3D,358/2 Days take your pick), which is normally just piano and some strings playing a fairly simple melody during the menu screen and particularly Heart Is an Awesome Power moments. And boy is it amazing.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC has an opening theme simply called "Trails in the Sky that acts as a medley of various themes with a heavy emphasis on the "Whereabouts of Light" and the nameless, Recurring Riff that accompanies particularly emotional or epic scenes. Later games in the series, along with the Evolution remake of FC, use lyrical themes based on tracks in their games.
• The Splatoon series is an interesting case, where many of the games' songs do have lyrics, including its Bootstrapped Theme "Splattack!", but they're all sung in unintelligible Conlang. The in-universe band SashiMori (introduced in Splatoon 2) does sample human vocals for their songs, but they're chopped up beyond all recognition.

Web Animation

• AstroLOLogy and its signature theme tune of whistling. The Japanese dub has its own additional opening and ending themes.
• Bonus Stage
• CAPTAIN YAJIMA, aside from a Narrator introducing the show's title.
• CartoonMania, with creator Matthew Littlemore admitting that he just simply couldn't think up any good lyrics for the opening.
• Gobblety Tobblety: The opening theme is a wordless piece consisting of a few different instrument sections.
• Over The Hills
• Talking Tom And Friends

Webcomics

• M9 Girls! has a main theme, which plays in pivotal pages, for example, when the M9 girls done their costumes for the first time.
• Zombie And Mummy, unusually for a Webcomic, has a theme tune playing on its home page.

Web Videos

• The Nostalgia Critic (an instrumental of "The Review Must Go On")
• The Oddity Archive theme song from episode 6 onwards, "Pavanned", does not contain any spoken lyrics.
• SinceThe Guild centers on an MMORPG guild, and the opening sequence shows drawings of everyone's in-game avatars, the title theme is an instrumental modeled after video game music.

Western Animation

• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, outside of the monsters scaring the frightened victims and Gromble shouting out different dialogue to the monsters after jumping out of the floor.
• The Adventures of Puss in Boots
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog uses an instrumental opening theme that emphasizes the nonsensical comedy of the show.
• The Adventures of Tintin (1991) by Nelvana received an orchestral opening.
• The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan
• The Amazing Spiez!
• The Amazing World of Gumball
• Amphibia
• The Angry Beavers
• Archer
• Archibald the Koala
• Atomic Puppet
• Audrey and Friends
• Babar - same theme used throughout most of the series, except for the final season, which was unique in nature and used a livelier version of what had been the show's closing credits theme as the opening theme.
• Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, The Batman season 3-5 (the first two had a Title-Only Opening), Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Beware the Batman.
• Beavis and Butt-Head
• Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!
• Beetlejuice
• The theme to Ben 10: Alien Force, which, for extra fun, is an orchestrated instrumental of the original theme tune.
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
• The 2016 Ben 10 reboot also counts (unless you count the children chanting "Ben 10!")
• Big City Greens
• Big Hero 6: The Series
• Birdman and the Galaxy Trio
• Bless the Harts
• Bluey (if the Theme Tune Roll Call doesn't count)
• Bob and Margaret
• Bobby's World
• Bob's Burgers
• Bojack Horseman
• Bordertown
• Boo Boom! The Long Way Home
• The Brak Show
• Bunnicula
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
• Capelito
• Capertown Cops
• Cartoon Planet (there are two intros to this show: The first had Space Ghost singing about how the show was founded. The second merely had an actor in a Space Ghost costume dancing (or doing nothing) over a blue background; this version is the instrumental)
• Cartoon Sushi
• Casper and Friends
• Chaotic is one of the only 4Kids openings with no lyrics whatsoever.
• Charlie and Lola, not counting the giggles and the little noises Charlie and Lola make throughout the title sequence.
• Clerks: The Animated Series
• Close Enough
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2017)
• Codename: Kids Next Door (though the Swedish dub does have lyrics)
• Costume Quest
• Counterfeit Cat
• The Cramp Twins
• The Critic
• The Crumpets, if excluding the voices such as the cast shouting the show's name.
• Devlin
• Dexter's Laboratory, using its piece to set the mood between Dexter and Dee Dee.
• The Dick And Paula Celebrity Special
• Dilbert
• Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz's opening theme is a brief instrumental of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
• Doug, of all the characters that appeared in the intro, Skeeter is the only one who makes a sound (he shouts out "cool" while swinging from the drawn line).
• Drawn Together
• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
• Duckman
• Dug Days
• Ed, Edd n Eddy had a theme song composed entirely of a bass, whistling, and a few blats from a trumpet, plus some shouting and a brief bit of near-scat singing right at the end.
• Edebits
• Eek! The Cat
  • Klutter
• Family Guy (the "Road to..." episodes, and the DTV Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story)
• Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes
• Fillmore!: One of the very few Walt Disney TV Animation shows to have such a theme song.
• Final Space
• The Flintstones (the first theme tune, "Rise and Shine", originally used in the first two seasons)
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
• Futurama's theme is mostly bells and futuristic sounds.
• The Garfield Show
• Gargoyles
• Glitch Techs
• Godzilla: The Series
• Gravity Falls
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
• Handy Manny, not counting the voice singing "Handy Manny".
• Harvey Beaks, not counting the voice saying "Harvey" throughout.
• Hey Arnold!, if Helga yelling "Arnold" repeatedly through the whole song doesn't count.
• Hilda, not counting the one moment when the titular character's name is sung in whisper-like fashion.
• Home Movies
• Hotel Transylvania: The Series
• Hot Streets
• Hoze Houndz (earlier seasons; later ones had lyrics)
• Invader Zim
• Jackie Chan Adventures
• Johnny Bravo (aside from some random spoken lines by Bravo)
• Jonny Quest, both the the original series and the the 90s update.
• Jumanji
• Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
• Justice League Action
• KaBlam! (If the Opening Monologue doesn't count)
• Kaeloo
• The Kids from Room 402
• Kid vs. Kat
• King of the Hill
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
• Kong: The Animated Series
• The Legend of Calamity Jane
• Legend Quest
• LEGO City Adventures
• The Lion Guard
• Liquid Television
• Little Bear
• Little Bill (not counting the Title Drop several times throughout the theme song)
• The Little Mermaid (1992) - An instrumental medley of songs from the original film presented as follows - "Part of Your World," "Under the Sea," "Kiss the Girl," "Under the Sea" (again), "Part of Your World" (again), "Under the Sea" (once more for luck)
• Loonatics Unleashed
• The Looney Tunes Show (more accurately, Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics, as the theme is "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", which has lyrics but they're rarely used)
• Lucky Luke (the 1991 revival's opening theme, not that of the 1983 one)
• Lupo Alberto
• Mary Kate and Ashley in Action!
• Metalheads
• You'd think that a series with a premise as bizarre as that of Mighty Max might warrant an expository theme tune, but its rocking instrumental theme works surprisingly well.
• Mike Tyson Mysteries
• Milly, Molly
• Mission Hill's theme is a catchy, instrumental version of the Cake song "Italian Leather Sofa", where the only spoken part is "one, two, three" at the start.
• Mister T: Aside from "Mr. T!"
• Mixels
• The Mr. Men Show
• Mutant League
• Ninjago (season 8 and beyond)
• The Octonauts
• Oswald
• Oswaldo
• The Owl House: The theme song is a haunting guitar-driven melody that lacks lyrics.
• Paper Port
• Charlie Brown had "Linus And Lucy", a jazz piano trio number. It sets the tone perfectly for the otherwise indescribable feeling that permeates the Peanuts. As a result the pair are inseparable in many minds to this very day.
• Pelswick
• Pikwik Pack (not counting the Theme Tune Roll Call and Title Drop)
• The Penguins of Madagascar. It's especially fun because they have two different music styles to contrast the penguins with the lemurs.
• Pig Goat Banana Cricket
• The theme for The Pink Panther is quite easy to recognize.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998), besides the narration
• Both the 1986 (season 1 only) and 2010 incarnations of Pound Puppies
• Problem Child
• Rayman: The Animated Series
• Recess
• The Ren & Stimpy Show
• Rick and Morty
• Right Now Kapow
• The Ripping Friends (aside from the spoken lines towards the beginning: "It's ripping time!", "That's the spirit!", and "Let's rip 'em apart!")
• Robot Chicken
• Rocko's Modern Life (mostly; it does have brief vocals which sing the name of the show for a few notes throughout the song, but the rest of the tune is an instrumental)
• Rocky and Bullwinkle had the memorable cartoony march theme by Frank Comstock (or Fred Steiner, in the case of the home video versions).
  • The various segments in the show itself are also lyric-less: "Fractured Fairy Tales", "Dudley Do-Right", and "Peabody & Sherman".
• Rugrats
• Nelvana's adaption of Rupert received a delightful orchestral opening that established the series' lighthearted yet adventurous tone. Nick Jr. replaced it with an expository theme tune, but Qubo used the original version of the opening.
• Sammy
• The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show (another rare exception of a Disney cartoon with no lyrics)
• The original theme song to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was an instrumental, but was quickly replaced by the iconic one everybody knows. They wouldn't have another one for 15 years, until The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (which features no lyrics, but some awesome Opening Narration) and then another 25 years(!) until Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
• Besides a chant of the title at the very start, the theme to The Simpsons contains no lyrics.
• Sonic Boom
• Space Ghost and Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Spicy City
• Static Shock (seasons 1 and 2)
• Stressed Eric
• Stroker and Hoop
• Sunday Pants
• Summer Memories: Aside from Jason's statement at the beginning, the theme song is pure synth music.
• SuperMansion
• Superman: The Animated Series
• Sym-Bionic Titan
• Tales From The Cryptkeeper
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) (season 5; aside from brief spoken lines)
• Thomas & Friends (up until season 11)
• Thunder Cats 2011
• The Tick (more or less. There are vocals, but they're just scatting to the theme music, and can't really be considered "lyrics")
• Time Squad
• Titan Maximum
• Toad Patrol, not withstanding Mistle Toad's monologue at the end, which is spoken. A more mysterious, ethereal theme tune for the first season, compared with the second's season, which was more lively and fun, fitting of the shift that happened at the end of the first season.
• Tom and Jerry
• Tom and Jerry Tales
• ToonMarty (barring a few Title Drops)
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race (the primary show/past seasons had lyrics in the theme song)
• Total DramaRama (unless you count the babbling in the theme song, the intro is instrumental)
• Totally Spies! (seasons 3-5; seasons 1, 2, and 6 had an opening with lyrics)
• Transformers: Prime's opening sequence uses an instrumental theme (the show's main theme, by composer Brian Tyler), making it one of relatively few Transformers series to do so.
• Tripping the Rift
• Trollhunters
• The VeggieTales Show: The LarryBoy segments use an instrumental theme tune, with the only audible words being shouts of "I am that hero!".
• The Venture Bros. uses "No Vacancy", a rearrangement of the Steroid Maximus track "Fighteous".
• Victor and Valentino
• Video Power (first season only; season two had rap lyrics)
• Voltron: Legendary Defender
• What A Cartoon! Show
• Wishfart
• Xiaolin Showdown as well as Xiaolin Chronicles.
• The opening of both X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution (except a scream about halfway through)
• This trope also happens to be the case with foreign dubs of several animated TV shows (usually from Hanna-Barbera), mostly in Latin Spanish and (sometimes) Brazilian Portuguese. (Depending on if they are used, some intros will leave speaking lines intact, such as a narration or character dialogue.) Such examples include:
  • The Latin Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese dubs for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The Scooby-Doo Show
  • The Latin Spanish and Polish dubs for The Jetsons
  • The Latin Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese dubs for The Tom and Jerry Show
  • The Italian and Brazilian Portuguese dubs for The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
  • The Latin Spanish dub for The Smurfs
    • A completely instrumental version of the theme song without any vocals, was used at least once on a Croatian dubbed episode and can be seen here.
  • The French dub for Super Drags.

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