Who Sings Different Strokes Theme Song
Who Actually Wrote the Growing Pains Theme Song?
In the latest TV Legends Revealed, find out whether noted TV theme songwriter Alan Thicke actually wrote the theme to his own hit sitcom!
TV URBAN LEGEND : Alan Thicke wrote the theme song to Growing Pains.
Recently, two of my friends were discussing the Growing Pains theme song on Facebook, specifically the Season 4 version of the theme, which was the only season where the legendary Dusty Springfield stepped in to do the female side of the duet on the theme with the male side handled by the great BJ Thomas (Jennifer Warnes did the female side of the duet on the other seasons and BJ Thomas sang the song by himself in the first season).
My pal Jack mentioned that Alan Thicke, who starred on the show as Jason Seaver, the family patriarch, actually wrote the theme song for the show.
That's not true, so we'll clear that up right away. However, it is a bit curious as to why Thicke did NOT write the theme song. After all, Jack was correct (and this is obviously where the confusion comes in), Thicke WAS a prolific writer of TV theme songs. He wrote a lot of them, including the theme to his own shortlived late night talk show, Thicke of the Night (a theme song that was actually more successful than the show itself)...
However, he is best known by far for the theme songs to two shows that he wrote with Al Burton and his wife at the time, actress Gloria Loring (the mother, with Alan, of singer Robin Thicke), one of which was a spinoff to the other. I'm talking, of course, to the theme songs for Diff'rent Strokes (Thicke actually SINGS the theme)...
and The Facts of Life (which Loring sang with the show's star, Charlotte Rae)...
(I'll include the more famous version of the theme, by just Loring, from the second season, just because the first one was so weird)...
Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable that Jack would think that Thicke would have written the theme to his own hit TV sitcom...
After all, as noted above, Thicke did the theme to his earlier talk show.
However, the show's creator, Neal Marlens, instead turned to noted songwriter, Steve Dorff, who was just getting into writing theme songs at the time (and specifically pairing the songs with notable singers due to Dorff's connections in the music industry) and Dorff wrote the theme with lyricist John Bettis (Bettis was the one who came up with the idea of calling the song "As Long As We Got Each Other")...
It is worth noting that Elizabeth Ward played Carol Seaver in the original pilot and was replaced by Tracey Gold after Ward didn't test well, so it is very possible that Marlens wasn't even sure if Thicke would remain as Jason Seaver, so perhaps that is why he didn't want o bring him in on writing the theme for the series.
Whatever the reason, Dorff and Bettis wrote a great tune, although Dorff (who is the father of Deputy star, Stephen Dorff) noted in his recent autobiography, I Wrote That One, Too . . .: A Life in Songwriting from Willie to Whitney, that everyone he runs into still thinks that Alan Thicke wrote it.
The legend is...
STATUS : False
Thanks to my pal Jack for giving me a chance to do this as a legend!
Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of TV.
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.
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About The Author 
Brian Cronin (15112 Articles Published)
CBR Senior Writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over a dozen years now at CBR (primarily with his "Comics Should Be Good" series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
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Source: https://www.cbr.com/growing-pains-alan-thicke-theme-song-diffrent-strokes-facts-of-life/
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