In the 1970s, TV theme songs were big business. The opening song from The Rockford Files became one of the biggest radio hits of 1975, and the instrumental Theme From S.W.A.T hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February the following year.
But it was another iconic ‘70s opener that was ranked “The Greatest TV Theme Song” of all time. A ranking posted by Rolling Stone listed The Jeffersons theme song, “Movin’ On Up,” as the best TV theme song ever. The Jeffersons theme beat out the openers for the Twilight Zone, Game of Thrones, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and even The Brady Bunch for the honor.
Rolling Stone noted that “Movin’ On Up” was “everything you want from a theme song” and described it as “a rat-a-tat gospel number designed to get viewers out of their seats like they’re leaping up from a church.”
The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All in the Family, starred Sherman Hemsley as George Jeggerson, the owner of a successful dry cleaning franchise, and Isabel Sanford as his wife, Louise. Marla Gibbs played maid Florence Johnston, while Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker played wealthy neighbors Tom and Helen Willis. The series debuted on CBS on Jan. 18, 1975, and ran until 1985.
The “Movin’ On Up” theme song became an anthem for the American Dream as the Jeffersons “moved on up” from their humble Queens abode to a deluxe apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Jeffersons was one of the first primetime television shows to feature an affluent Black family.
The song was co-written by songwriter Jeff Barry (“Chapel of Love,” “Da Doo Ron Ron”), and actress and songwriter Ja’net DuBois, who played Willona Woods on the Norman LearsitcomGood Times. DuBois was also the singer of The Jeffersons theme song with a gospel choir providing backup.
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The theme song had special meaning for DuBois, who had helped her real-life family move on up.
In an interview posted by Pop Goes the Culture TV, DuBois recalled that she approached Lear with an offer to create some music for him. While he was skeptical, the legendary TV producer gave her a shot.
“What he didn’t know was I’d written music before in New York, that I knew about music,” DuBois said of Lear. “But he looked at me like, ‘All right.’ He said, ‘Okay, I tell you what I’ll do. I have a new show coming up, I won’t tell you too much about it.'”
With few details to go on, DuBois said she went to her mom for advice, and her mother advised her to write about her own childhood dream of moving to the East Side. Lear ultimately loved the song and asked DuBois how she knew what to write about.
“The song was everywhere,” she added of the success of the TV theme. “Everywhere I’m known for the song. Churches, I sing the song everywhere because people want to hear the song. I called myself ‘The One Song Chick.'”
“The reason why it’s famous is because it was my dream,” she added.
DuBois died in 2020. Her daughter Kesha Gupta-Fields shared that “Movin’ on Up” was really written in honor of DuBois’ mother.
“She wrote that song as a promise to her mother, that when she obtained a certain level of stardom, that her dream was to essentially have her mom live in a deluxe apartment,” Gupta-Fields said, per The New York Times. “That was written and sung as a gift to her mother, Lillian DuBois.”
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