“Hey! D.W!”
One of the most iconic children’s shows of all time is Arthur, which ran for over 250 episodes between 1996 and 2022.
Based on the book series written and illustrated by Marc Brown, the show centred around an anthropomorphic aardvark named Arthur Read, as well as his family and friends and their interactions.
Part of the show’s enduring appeal is undeniably its catchy and upbeat theme song, instilling in children a simple but heartfelt message about the importance of making “things better by working together”.
And if you need a reminder of the tune, listen below:
People are only just finding out Ziggy Marley sang the theme song for Arthur
Did you know though that the song was actually sung by acclaimed Jamaican reggae musician Ziggy Marley, who also happens to be the son of reggae icon Bob Marley?
Reflecting on how the theme tune came about in a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brown said: “I and [executive producer] Carol Greenwald wanted a theme song that celebrated children in a way that felt right.
“All of those things that are in the theme song reflected what our goals were at the time, what we wanted to do with the series.”
As for how Marley became involved, Greenwald said that a track he had created for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s family concert event For Our Children caught her ear.
“Ziggy did a lot of music for it and there was this one song [and] we thought: ‘Oh, this is so fun and it has a really great feel and wouldn’t it be great to get Ziggy Marley?’” she stated.
Marley subsequently agreed to record the song, so long as he could do it in Jamaica.
As such, Greenwald travelled to the country with Arthur‘s music producer Jeff Zahn and together they spent a day in the Bob Marley Museum laying down the track.
The executive producer described the experience as “amazing” because they got to work with “the whole Marley family”.
She told The Hollywood Reporter:
“Bob was obviously gone, but many of his kids sang the background vocals. Rita Marley came into the control room while we were there and I’m like fangirling. She said: ‘Oh yeah, I like the sound of this.’ The engineer was Bob Marley’s engineer who always worked with him.
“Ziggy came in, he did his piece, and the rest of the kids came in — they were from very young to teenagers. It was just a fabulous day.”
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