Nope, Not A 1-Hit Wonder: The Rembrandts

It’s a song that at least a few of us have heard, a theme song to a TV show that at least a few of us have watched. It was kinda big, yet the group that recorded it had no other hits.

Well, not quite.

Yes, “I’ll Be There For You” was ubiquitous in the mid to late 90s. From 1995 until around the turn of the decade (possibly even longer) you couldn’t turn on your radio without hearing it.

The artists who recorded it were the duo of Phil Solem and Danny Wilde, known as The Rembrandts.

Solem and Wilde had been knocking around the business for many years before forming The Rembrandts in 1989. Wilde was a member of 70s band The Quick and had released several minor albums on his own. He met up with solem when they were members of the short lived power pop group Great Buildings.

In 1989, they teamed up as The Rembrandts and recorded an album that was released through Atco records in September 1990. The single “Just The Way It Is, Baby” was released and became pretty popular on the radio, making it all the way to 13 on the charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhbVrxiq9HM

But the follow-up single “Someone” stalled at 78 on the charts.

In 1992, they released a follow-up album called “Untitled” (borrowing loosely a trick from Led Zeppelin). This album contained the minor hit “Johnny Have You Seen Her”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKsLriAUEY0

It made it to 54 and I recall hearing it a couple times on the radio.

Also on the Untitled album was “Rollin Down The Hill” which was featured in Dumb And Dumber.

But the next major song by The Rembrandts would not be featured in a movie. But as the theme for a TV show.

Friends_titles

In 1995, one could not turn on a radio without hearing those familiar jangling chords or that catchy chorus.

Now it’s a good thing that titles aren’t copyrighted because there’d been an earlier song called “I’ll Be There For You” by those 80s titans Bon Jovi.

But the Rembrandts totally unrelated song became a 90s staple.

According to Wikipedia:

The original theme, which is under one minute long, was later re-recorded as a three-minute pop song. After Nashville program director Charlie Quinn, along with radio announcer and music director Tom Peace looped the original short version into a full-length track and broadcast it on radio station WYHY, it became so popular that they had to re-record it. “Our record label said we had to finish the song and record it. There was no way to get out of it,”

The song was getting radio play before it got released as a single so many people had already bought the full album or the Friends soundtrack before the single was released. Hence the reason why it only made it to 17 on the charts.

However, it would also be the last Rembrandts song to make it to the charts. They’ve soldiered on and released a couple more albums as well as a greatest hits which includes the songs noted above.

So in addition to their immortal TV theme song, The Rembrandts also had another fairly large hit and a couple minor ones and they’ve continued to put out decent jangle pop over the years. But the fact that they had one song that tapped into the zeitgeist at that particular moment in time meant that following it up with something equally successful was going to be close to impossible. That and the fact that the musical climate of that era wasn’t as accommodating to the Rembrandts style. It was at a point when many people wanted edgier stuff and there were other groups that were doing the same style but getting more recognition (The Gin Blossoms for instance). Hence, the reason for their erroneous reputation as one-hit wonders.

But they’re still around, still making music when the rain starts to fall like they’ve been there before.

More Nope, Not a One Hit Wonder

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lebeau
Admin
9 years ago

It feels like the 90s here this week. First Lisa Loeb and now the Rembrandts! Good times. I’m getting all kinds of nostalgic.

If I remember correctly, the Rembrandts hated this song. And they really hated the music video which was basically an excuse for the cast of Friends to mug for the camera while they stood around watching them.

Carl
Carl
9 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I remember hearing that too. I have very little tolerance for a band whining about a song they wrote and sang that became a huge hit and made them loads of money.

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Yeah, it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for them just because success didn’t come in the specific fashion they wanted it to.

Although I don’t believe they actually wrote I’ll Be There For You. According to the Pop Up Video segment I watched, it was written by the guy on the piano who isn’t actually part of the group.

RB
RB
9 years ago

Heh, nice closing sentence 🙂 This song was particularly striking to me during the Friends run, not just because i loved the show and the song. It was more than 30something still being able to jump around the living room and imagine being 20something. Mid to late 90s were when I really started to feel acutely distanced from the musical trends of the time. Melody had appeared to have fallen out of favor with the newer generation. Lyrics were incomprehensible or depressing. Yet here was a hit song with zany lyrics that you could sing in your car. The fact… Read more »

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago
Reply to  RB

I’ll Be There For You is interesting because it represents the end of an era in popular music. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s and even into the 90’s, numerous tv theme songs became top 10 (even #1) hits: Welcome Back Kotter, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Cops, Greatest American Hero and Happy Days are just a few tv shows that had hit songs from their theme song. I’ll Be There For You is really the last tv show theme song that I can even think of to become a radio hit, primarily because tv shows don’t have lengthy opening titles… Read more »

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  Craig Hansen

I miss TV theme songs. Also I am old.

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I think a recurring series of articles on tv show theme songs might be a fun topic to explore, Jeff. There’s certainly a good amount of them that became major radio hits during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, enough to sustain a potential series for awhile. More than a few of them have interesting stories behind them.

RB
RB
9 years ago

well the names have all changed since you hung around…

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago

A-Ha might make for a great Not A One Hit Wonder write-up. Take On Me was a big #1 hit for them, which also had a great art-driven music video. It’s still one of my favorite music videos. They even had one further Top 20 hit before fading away, making sure 30 years later they would qualify for Not A One Hit Wonder status.

daffystardust
Editor
9 years ago
Reply to  jeffthewildman

better really do your homework, because they’re on my list too.

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

We should probably work out some kind of communication about who is doing what so no one steps on anyone’s toes. I’d suggest that if you are writing an entry in a series that someone else “owns”, it’s probably a good idea to clear an idea with that person before posting just to be sure.

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago
Reply to  jeffthewildman

I’ll be looking forward to the potential A-Ha article with great interest! By the way, might I make a suggestion? Family Guy had an amusing parody of the iconic Take On Me music video, you could always pull that off Youtube and add it to the article for a good chuckle.

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago

I’ve missed the Not A One Hit Wonder column, it’s been awhile since the last one. Any word on when we might see the next one? I hope A-Ha is one of the next artists to get a write up. Hint Hint! 😉

daffystardust
Editor
9 years ago
Reply to  Craig Hansen

I’m hoping to get NN1HW cooking again after I return from my trip. A-ha keeps getting bumped down the list, but they are definitely on the list. I will take a serious look at them next time.

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

Hoping for some James Bond theme song info.

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago
Reply to  jeffthewildman

Good to hear. There’s plenty of “Not-One-Hit-Wonders” left to learn more about!

squeesh
squeesh
8 years ago

Never liked the show Friends (never though it was in the least bit funny,and couldn’t relate to it at all, even though I was young and single in the ’90s) and never cared for the song—–I really liked “That’s Just The Way It Is”, though,even though I hardly recall hearing on the radio—I mainly heard it on a 32-track tape at the place I was working back then. @Hansen You are so right about TV show theme songs being a thing of the past. I can’t even think of a single hit TV show in the past decade that actually… Read more »

lebeau
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  jeffthewildman

I like Seinfeld. I think it’s highly over-rated. I know a few people who quote it constantly.

Friends is okay. The cast is talented and some parts are genuinely funny. But it’s comfort comedy. Very safe.

daffystardust
Editor
8 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

After the initial popular explosion of Friends and the Rachel/Ross relationship did its thing for the first couple of years Friends took a little dip creatively. Then the last half of the 4th season and the 5th season really excelled at both growing the characters and being very funny. Unfortunately it was a very inconsistent show from there on out. A pre-ordained target series end after season 7 (instead of season 10) might have been best. But that’s not how American TV works. As long as a show continues to be popular we will beat it into the ground until… Read more »

lebeau
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

That’s definitely true. Although Friends was at least always watchable. There were definitely ups and downs. Ross and Rachel ran out of steam. Then they started doing interesting things with Joey. So they tried to hook him up with Rachel which just tanked things for a while. Usually anything involving Ross was less likely to go over with me whereas any scene Phoebe or Joey was in had a high chance of being funny.

daffystardust
Editor
8 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I was always a fan of the wacky interpersonal stuff that mostly involved the characters interacting with one another. Particularly memorable were the episode when Joey and Chandler faced Monica and Rachel in a game show run by Ross with high stakes and the episodes dealing with Monica and Chandler hiding their relationship from the other friends.

brokencandy
brokencandy
8 years ago

Actually, you got the year wrong for “That’s Just the Way It Is Baby”- it was 1990, not 91. I looked it up because I felt sure I remembered it from my top 40 days back in my tweens- by 91 I didn’t listen to pop radio stations anymore, so it seemed strange to me that I would remember that song as well as I do if it had been released in 91. It’s actually strange that the ‘Friends’ theme song would be their trademark song when it’s so horrible and cheesy, and people usually don’t know or care who… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Friends theme song band The Rembrandts reflect on their surprising success 25 years later https://www.dailynews.com/2019/08/20/the-rembrandts-look-back-25-years-of-friends-and-release-their-first-new-album-in-18-years/ The Los Angeles-based pop duo consisting of Phil Solem and Danny Wilde topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and earned a Grammy nomination for “I’ll Be There For You.” On Aug. 23, they’ll release their first album in 18 years. “At the time, we thought it was pretty cool,” Wilde says of the song’s enormous popularity. “But we were a little apprehensive about becoming that sort of TV theme band, you know? At the time it set our career off at an angle we… Read more »

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