That '90s Show Will Bring Back In The Street As Its Theme Song

Nobody who's seen "That '70s Show" will ever forget its iconic theme song, "In the Streets," a song originally by power pop band Big Star covered by Todd Griffin in the first season and Cheap Trick after that (per MTV). Writing for AV Club in 2014 for their "100 Episodes" series on shows that reached at least 100 episodes, Erik Adams had this to say about the iconic theme song, "Big Star's 'In The Street' makes an ideal introduction to life in fictional Point Place, Wisconsin. The words of the band's dueling pop geniuses, Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, set a fitting scene of adolescent boredom in the suburbs: No plans, no car, no sex, ... no rock 'n' roll." The show would truly not have been the same without the song.

In a 2022 poll on Reddit in the r/That70sshow subreddit, u/redalbumrivers asked which version of the theme song fans prefer, and the Cheap Trick version won out over the Todd Griffin version by a vote of 904 to 459. However, despite the Cheap Trick version winning out, the fans of the Season 1 version of the song were more vocal in the comments. "First season. It was rock and roll man! The later one was too poppy imo," wrote u/ordrius098. "Season one. It rocks out a little more," wrote u/ThatsMyBounce.

Well, now there's going to be a third version of the song to add to the debate, as now the upcoming sequel series "That '90s Show" will have a new cover of "In the Streets" as its theme song for a whole new generation of kids to rock out to.

In a recent interview with Variety, "That '90s Show" showrunner Gregg Mettler, who also wrote for "That '70s Show," explained that the new theme song would be a '90s style cover of Big Star's "In the Streets." Mettler arranged the new version of the song and recorded a demo with his daughter singing the vocals, then Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and former Donnas frontwoman Brett Anderson recorded the final version based on Mettler's demo. Said Mettler about using '90s music in the new show, "I love all the music from the 90s, all the genres, and we try our best to weave them all into the show. And so, there's something for everybody inside the show."

According to that Variety article, Iha also serves as the composer, which is a perfect choice given his history with a '90s band and his background as a composer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Iha started out his career as a composer for some Canadian and Japanese independent films before moving on to his first job on a television series, Hulu's "Deadbeat." Iha told THR that working as a composer is significantly different from being in a band. "It's 100 percent different from being in a rock band and jamming and writing songs," the multi-instrumentalist explained. "You serve the picture, mood and character — what the director is trying to get across. So if you're in a rock band and it's guitar, bass and drums, going into a picture can be a totally different set of instruments, whatever kind of fits the feel of the TV or the film." So it sounds like Iha is prepared to bring the nostalgia of the '90s to "That '90s Show."