The Theme Song

The theme song was done by a band called Polaris which is just basically the lead singer from Miracle Legion, Mark Mulcahy, with some help from Miracles Legion's drummer Spot, Miracle Legion's bassist Dave McCaffery, and Drew Waters.

According to Drew (who got them directly from Mulcahy), the lyrics to the theme song run like this:

"Hey Sandy"

by Mark Mulcahy

Hey smilin strange, you're lookin happily deranged
@##$%^&&*(),.....;';-0&^$#@ [unknown line]
And have you picked your target yet, Hey Sandy ai yai yai yai...
Dont you talk back, Hey Sandy
Four feet away, end of speech its the end of the day
We was only funnin', but guiltily I thought
you had it comin', Hey Sandy,
Don't ya talk back, Hey Sandy

The unknown line will remain missing. It seems that Mark does not want to reveal it, and that's a reqest I plan on keeping. If you're really curious, there are other websites that have the lyrics, or you can turn on the subtitles while watching your Pete & Pete DVDs.

The chords to the song are as follows:

• A-D-F#-E for the verses,
• E-D-C#-B-A for the "ai yai yai yai".

Read the next section for more details about Polaris.

The Bands of Pete & Pete

Many bands have contributed to The Adventures of Pete & Pete. This is a list of many of these bands with some of their albums. To get a complete listing of the albums by a particular band, follow the Web links below or check The Ultimate Band List. The albums which are listed below have been identified as albums which contain music which was used on the show. Each such album has a sentence or two after it to indicate what song was used in what episode.

You will notice that very few identifications have been made so far. I have exhausted my own knowledge of these things, so I'm relying entirely on you to help me. If you recognize any music in the show and it isn't already identified, please let me know.

You have two options for finding these albums: try an online cd store (like Amazon.com) or take the name of the band and album to your neighborhood cd store.

Robert Agnello

• Pete & Pete participation
  • Agnello wrote many odd pieces of music for the show.
  • He was little Pete's band.
• Albums
  • Lamb to Slaughter
• Websites
  • On the Lamb Productions, includes some of the music Agnello wrote for the show.
  • Blog

The Apples in Stereo

• Albums

  Fun Trick Noisemaker

  This album contains "Tidal Wave" which can be heard at the end of "Allnighters".

Chug

• Albums

  Kisser (EP)

  This album contains the song "Flowers" which has been on the show many times: it's the song the Petes crank out on the stereo in "35 Hours"; it's also the song played during The Wrigley 500, the bike race in "35 Hours". It is played after Ellen gets rid of Mr. Zank in "X=Why?". It is also in "Das Bus".

Drop Nineteens

• Albums

  Delaware

  The song "Delaware" off of this album is played in "X=Why?" several times, including when Ellen leaves her father's office. It is also played several times in "Farewell, My Little Viking".

Fat Tulips

• Album

  Starfish

  This is the only album put out by Fat Tulips. "So Unbelievable" was used in "Splashdown!" as Yonger Pete and his friends run through the woods.

Gothic Archies

• Albums

  The New Despair (EP)

  "Your Long White Fingers" is on this EP; this slow, droning harmonica song was used several times in "The Trouble with Teddy".

Tara Key

• Albums

  Bourbon County

  The song "Long Trail" was used in several episodes like "Crisis in the Love Zone" (during Nona's flashback) and "Das Bus".

Lamb to the Slaughter

No available information

Luscious Jackson

• Albums

  In Search of Manny

  "Satelite" from this ep is played in "Dance Fever".

  Natural Ingredients

  Every song but one played at the dance itself in "Dance Fever" is a Luscious Jackson song off of this album.

Manic Moose

I got this message from a production coordiantor for Manic Moose:

Manic Moose Music is a Manhattan Music studio, formed in 1988. We create songs, sound design and underscoring for both television and commercials with a primary focus on projects directed at kids. Our list of clients encompasses the top ten international advertising agencies as well as major television and cable networks. Current projects include TV series for Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, and Disney.

Past projects include The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Aliens in the Family, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Muppet Time!, four seasons of PBS's ZOOM, Sesame English (a version of Sesame St. broadcast around the world to help teach english as a second language to children), The Kermit Channel, Elmo's Magic Cookbook, and Telling Stories with Tomie DePaola.

For Pete & Pete, we composed songs and underscoring for Episode #16 "The Call", Episode #17 "The Big Quiet", Episode #25 "Yellow Fever", and Episode #26 "Sick Day."

Good luck with everything. We can be reached at (212) 465-8540 or by email at manikmoos@aol.com.

David Hein
Production Coordinator
Manic Moose Music

Magnetic Fields

• Albums

  Holiday

  Part of the song "The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent" from this album is looped during "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation".

  The Wayward Bus

  This album contains the song "Lovers from the Moon" which is featured during a moment on the football field in "Valentine's Day Massacre".

  Get Lost

  This album contins the song "Why I Cry" which can be heard at the end of "Farewell My Little Viking" and in several other episodes.

Miracle Legion

• Web sites
  • Mezzotinit Records is the recording label started by Miracle Legion.

Miracle Legion appeared in "Hard Day's Pete".

Jeff Newman

Jeff Newman is a film composer who has worked on several projects which are listed on his Web site at Total Sound Productions ®. His music was released through DSM Producers in New York, which is the name in the credits.

• Miscellaneous
  • The song "Mysterious" was used in "Nightcrawlers" when younger Pete declares that he's a Nightcrawler.
• Albums

  Firepools

  The song "Firepools" was used in "When Petes Collide".

Nice

• Albums

  Nice

  The song "Circuit Diagram" off of this album can be heard in the background when Pete announces that "the end is near" on WART radio in the "X=Why?" episode. It is also used in "New Year's Pete" when Pete races to help Frank the Crossing Guard. You can also hear the song in "Nightcrawlers" during one of the night scenes.

Polaris

• Albums

  Happily Deranged

  This was a promotional cassette in 1995 and 1996 from Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats. It contained "Hey Sandy" (the Pete & Pete theme song), "Staggering" and "Coronado II".

  Television's Greatest Hits Volume 7: Cable Ready

  This cd features "Hey Sandy" along with the theme songs from several other shows. Check out the Pete & Pete merchandizing page.

  Music from the Adventures of Pete & Pete

  This album contains a longer version of the theme song, "Hey, Sandy" as well as eleven other tracks from the show (all done by Polaris people).

• Web site
  • Mezzotinit Records is the recording label started by Miracle Legion, and it contains information about Polaris and their Pete & Pete album.

Poi Dog Pondering

• Albums

  Poi Dog Pondering

  "Living with the Dreaming Body" is found on this album and is played during younger Pete's ice block race in "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation".

RACECAR

• Albums

  Girlish

  This album contains "wonderment" which is heard when younger Pete is waxed up and slides through the halls in "Dance Fever".

• Web site
  • RACECAR WWW Symposium

Semi-Gloss

• Albums

  Semi-Gloss

  Their song "The Sunburn Song" was used in an episode.

The 6ths

• Albums

  Wasps' Nest

  This album contains the song "Falling out of Love (with You)" which can be heard in many episodes including the beginning and ending of "Das Bus".

Syd Straw

• Albums

  War and Peace

  The song at the end of "X=Why?" appears in a slightly different form on this album as "Water Please".

• Web sites
  • The Official Syd Straw Fanpage

Syd Straw has also appeared in several epsiodes.

How Do They get these bands?

One of things I find most curious is how the producers of Pete & Pete got the stars and musicians that they did. Brian Gray of RACECAR (email: bgray@go-racecar.com) told me this story about how they were approached to contribute to an episode:

We never met any of the Pete & Pete folks ourselves. Apparently, though, they got in touch with Chin-a Panacione, who ran our (now-defunct) record label. They already had the "Dance Fever" script in hand, and wanted a band to play the dance, with a girl singer to be the "love interest". We made a sporty little video of ourselves playing in a field of flowers with a hand-held camera, and sent it as a try-out. Jina, our singer, has plenty of stage charisma, but I'm guessing that the producers thought the rest of the band looked just a little too old to pretend to be high schoolers. Putting [our] song in the show was sort of a consolation prize, but it has gotten us a lot of good attention.

I now find it quite curious how many shows since Pete & Pete make a big deal about the music played on the show.

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Last modified: Tue Mar 18 15:56:22 EDT 2008 .

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© Copyright 1996--2007, Jeremy D. Frens. Permission to copy by any means is granted as long as this copyright is preserved. Jeremy D. Frens is in no way associated with or endorsed by The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Wellsville Productions, or Nickelodeon. He's just a fan who felt there should be a Web site.