I think all of us where shocked to hear of the passing of Matthew Perry at the age of 54 over the weekend. The actor who starred in “Friends” was very open about his struggles with drug & alcohol abuse and he shared more details about those experiences in a memoir released last year titled, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” Today we remember happier times with today’s Forgotten 45 at 3:45 with the theme from “Friends” by the Rembrandts with “I’ll Be There for You”.
The group R.E.M. was first approached about using their song “Shiny Happy People” for the Friends theme, but they passed. Warner Brothers then decided they’d like The Rembrandts to record, but they didn’t want to either, but they relented to corporate pressure. The original song was only one verse long and one minute long for the TV show, when a DJ in Nashville looped the song together into a 3 minute song. The band then re-recorded a full length version of the song which then went to #1 and stayed there for 8 weeks.
“Friends” remains popular on reruns to this day, in large part to the talented cast including Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing. Check out the video to “I’ll Be There for You” the Friends theme, today’s Forgotten 45.
