Pokémon Theme


"Pokémon Theme" is a song written by John Siegler and John Loeffler and performed by Jason Paige. It was the theme song for the first season of the English adaptation of the Pokémon anime. Since its release, the song has been virtually synonymous with the Pokémon franchise because the line "Gotta catch 'em all!" has become its official English slogan. It is derived from the Japanese slogan

History

Siegler and Loeffler wrote the lyrics to the song while Siegler produced the track, also playing keyboards, bass, and drums. David Rolfe, the vocalist for later themes of the series, played the guitar while Jason Paige provided the vocals. Although the theme song premiered on the debut episode "Pokémon, I Choose You!" on September 8, 1998, Jason Paige was called back again in 1999 to produce an extended version of the theme song for the album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master.
According to Norman Grossfeld, the then-president of 4Kids Productions, the line "Gotta catch ém all!" was created as a "tagline for marketing purposes that would also be included in the theme song". It is derived from the Japanese tagline "" Furthermore, "Gotta Catch ém all!" came from a series of contenders, which included "Catch ém if you can". Meanwhile, when first approached about the theme song, Siegler initially saw the show's concept as "incomprehensible" before realizing that the series was about friendship. Although he was reluctant at first, he saw the show's potential when he took his son to premiere of the debut episode in Columbus Circle.
In November 2005, the Internet comedy duo Smosh recorded a video for the song on YouTube. It became the most viewed video on the site before being surpassed by "The Evolution of Dance". Afterwards, Smosh's video was removed on YouTube due to a copyright notice. During the 2012 primary election, Paige himself performed a parody of the song in support of the Republican candidate Ron Paul. In 2015, the song was voted to be part of the annual Dutch Top 2000 radio marathon, after a call-for-action on Facebook went viral within the country.
The theme song has been covered by various groups and people. "Pokémon Theme" was first covered by Billy Crawford for '. Afterwards, it was covered again by Ben Dixon and The Sad Truth for the English broadcast of '. Ben Dixon once again covered it for Others who have covered the theme song included Postmodern Jukebox, Kurt Hugo Schneider with Lindsey Stirling, Eric Calderone, Baracksdubs, Tay Zonday, Powerglove, Pat Cashman & Xander Mobus as announcers from Super Smash Bros., Nathan Sykes, and Anthony Vincent. In 2014, Electric Six recorded a cover of the song as part of a pledge package for their "Absolute Treasure" Kickstarter campaign.
The theme song was also featured in the 2000 video game, Pokémon Puzzle League, as well as the 2004 video game, Donkey Konga.

Resurgence

In July 2016, after the release of the mobile game Pokémon Go, the song had a 382% increase in listeners on music streaming platform Spotify. There were instances of police cars playing the song through loudspeakers while driving near Pokémon Go players, as well as groups of people singing the song in public. Afterwards, Dutch electronic music artist Hardwell played the theme at the 2016 edition of Ultra Europe as one of his final tunes. The same month, after rising up to 1,079% in sales, the song hit number four on Billboard's "Kids Digital Songs" chart after initially peaking at 10 in 2010, as well as peaking at number three on the "Hot Dance Singles Sales" chart. Despite the resurgence, Paige did not receive any royalties from the song.
In response to the success of the mobile app Pokémon Go, Paige re-recorded the theme. In an interview with the New York Post, Paige claimed that he did not originally expect the song to become popular when he first recorded it, stating that he "didn’t really know much about Pokémon" when he did the demo, other than a scene in the animated series that caused bouts of epileptic seizures in Japan. Although Paige recorded the song in four hours, he received a large one-time payment for the song in 2000. Paige also performed another parody of the song, featuring Dwayne Johnson as a Pokémon as well as YouTube stars MatPat and Ali-A.
In December 2016, the song reached spot 232 on the Dutch Top 2000, a difference of over 1400 spots compared to its ranking in the previous year.
On November 16, 2018, an official trailer for featured the original theme song. On February 26, 2019, the song was used again in the film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, as well as the film's second trailer.

Lyrics

English

TV Size

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Teach Pokémon to understand
The power that's inside
Pokémon
It's you and me
I know it's my destiny
Pokémon
Oh, you're my best friend
In a world we must defend
Pokémon
A heart so true
Our courage to pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you
Pokémon
Gotta catch ém all!
Pokémon!

Short Version

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
Pokémon
A heart so true
Our courage to pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you
Pokémon
Gotta catch ém all!
Pokémon!

Charts

Chart Peak
position
US Kid Digital Songs 10

Chart Peak
position
Netherlands Top 20001666

Chart Peak
position
US Kid Digital Songs 4
Netherlands Top 2000232

Chart Peak
position
Netherlands Top 2000284

Chart Peak
position
Netherlands Top 2000115

Chart Peak
position
Netherlands Top 2000127

Cover versions