The Rembrandts tell BuzzFeed News about the version of “I’ll Be There For You” that was deemed too dark for TV, the original music video concept that the cast didn’t like, and how they learned to love the song they can’t escape. Plus, the band puts the number-of-claps debate to rest!
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The cast of NBC's Friends, from left: Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer
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The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There For You" is easily one of the most popular television theme songs of all time. But there's more to the song that introduced audiences to a sixsome of New York City twentysomething Friends — Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Ross (David Schwimmer), Monica (Courteney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) — than its catchy lyrics, upbeat tune, and accompanying clapping. BuzzFeed News recently sat down with the men behind The Rembrandts — Danny Wilde and Phil Solem — on Friends' iconic orange couch at the Central Perk pop-up shop in New York City to find out how "I'll Be There For You" came to be.
Friends executive producer Kevin S. Bright, who formed Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions in 1993 with Marta Kauffman and David Crane, was looking to do something a bit different with the Friends theme song. He was in the market for a melody similar to that of R.E.M.'s 1987 hit "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," which is the song that accompanied the Friends pilot when Bright first sent it to Wilde and Solem. "I think they thought it felt, tempo-wise, that was where they wanted to go," Wilde said. "Kevin had it in his head that he didn't want to have a jingle writer write the theme song for the show. He was a fan of The Rembrandts from other records that we had made, so he called our manager. Our manager called us on Monday and we said, 'Sure, we'll try it out. We'll see what happens.'"
As the bandmates recalled, that following Thursday in mid-September 1994, they sat down with Michael Skloff, the Friends theme song composer and also Kaufman's husband, and Allee Willis, the brains behind the lyrics. "Michael Skloff was the only guy who was responsible for the music and the vibe of the show. He had an idea for how the song ought to go, so we got together and we pitched some ideas," Solem said. "We Rembrandt-ified it. We were like, 'If it's gonna be us, it's gotta be this.' 'We wouldn't say that, we'd say this.'"
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Michael Skloff at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 19, 2003.
Paul Drinkwater / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
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