On This Day in 1995, an Unforgettable TV Theme Got a Chart-Topping Upgrade
31 years ago today, The Rembrandts released a song that would go on to become one of the most recognizable pop culture references of the modern day.
On May 23, 1995, the alt-rock duo released their third studio album, L.P., which featured an expansion of the Friends theme song "I'll Be There for You"-a song they originally recorded just a snippet of (because only a snippet existed) for the iconic sitcom that premiered in 1994.
Singers Danny Wilde and Phil Solem weren't even credited on the show's theme song, which was co-written by lyricists Allee Willis, David Crane, Marta Kauffman, and the show's music director, Michael Skloff. The duo typically wrote their own music, but "liked [the track] immediately [and] thought, 'Why not? Nobody will even know it was us, anyway,'" Wilde once toldThe Independent.
But the theme quickly skyrocketed in popularity, and there was more than enough demand for a full track to be made available, so Wilde and Solem got to work, earning writers' credits by adding a bridge and a second verse.
Willis, who died in 2019, once detailed how it all came to be in an interview with Songfacts, admitting that she wrote the lyrics to music that Skloff had already composed "very, very fast," as there were just weeks to go before the series premiered.
Related: Lisa Kudrow Gets Brutally Honest About ‘Friends' Fame
Though "the song exploded," it was never released as a single-just pushed by DJs who ripped their own cassettes of the track. With their help, "it became the #1 airplay record of the year."
It was mere happenstance that The Rembrandts ended up recording it at all, since Warner Brothers, the studio behind Friends, required that the performer be on its own label, and they "were the only act on Warner Brothers who was available at that time."
They were essentially given no choice in the matter. According to the songwriter, The Rembrandts "never wanted it out as a single because they didn't write the song," quipping that they "kind of bit off their nose to spite their face." Despite their lack of effort behind the track, it reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for eight weeks, and made the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100.
And, of course, today you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who can't jump right in to sing along to the heartfelt tune and lyrics. They just don't write TV music like they used to!
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 2:05 AM.