"Meet the Flintstones", also worded as "(Meet) The Flintstones", is the theme song of the American 1960s animated television series The Flintstones. Composed in 1961 by Hoyt Curtin, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, it is one of the most popular and best known of all theme songs, with its catchy lyrics "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern Stone Age family".
Background
The opening and closing credits theme during the first two seasons was called "Rise and Shine", a lively instrumental underscore accompanying Fred on his drive home from work. The tune resembled "The Bugs Bunny Overture (This Is It!)", the theme song of The Bugs Bunny Show, also airing on ABC at the time, which may have been why it was changed in the third season.
Before being adopted as the TV theme, "Meet the Flintstones" was released on the Golden Records 78 rpm children's record release Songs of the Flintstones (Golden R680, 1961), as the A-side to a version of "Rise and Shine" with lyrics. It includes verses related to Barney and Betty Rubble and to Dino that are not heard in the later TV version. The melody of "Meet the Flintstones" can also be heard as incidental music in some episodes of the first two seasons.
Starting in Season 3, Episode 3 ("Barney the Invisible"), "Meet the Flintstones" became the opening and closing credits theme. This version was recorded by a 22-piece big band conducted by Curtin and performed by the Randy Van Horne Singers. The melody is believed to have been inspired from part of the B section of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 (The "Tempest"). The "Meet the Flintstones" opening was later added to the first two seasons for syndication, with "Rise and Shine" restored when the series was rereleased to syndication and, later, home video in the 1990s. The musical underscores were also credited to Curtin for the show's first five seasons; Ted Nichols took over in 1965 for the final season. During the show's final season, "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)", performed by Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm in a clip from that season's first episode, was used as alternate close music.
Popularity
In 2010, a PRS for Music survey of 2,000 adults in the UK found that the "Meet the Flintstones" theme tune was the most recognised children's TV theme, ahead of those for Top Cat and Postman Pat.
Jazz standard
Recorded in E-flat major, "Meet the Flintstones" has become a jazz standard; it conforms to the structure known as rhythm changes, a well-known kind of jazz composition. It is often played to amuse audiences as part of a medley, in what is known as "jazz humor". The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors calls it "campy" and "cheek by jowl". Often performed at an exhilarating pace, it is technically challenging for some. The song has been recorded by Barry Harris on his album Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume Twelve in the middle of a jazz medley with "It Never Entered My Mind" and "I Love Lucy". In 2015, The Brian Setzer Orchestra recorded a version with Christmas-themed lyrics, "Yabba-Dabba-Yuletide", on its Christmas album Rockin’ Rudolph.
The song was featured in the sitcom Full House and its successor Fuller House.
The BC-52's cover
"(Meet) The Flintstones" was covered by American new wave band the B-52's as "the B.C. 52's", a fictional band from the film The Flintstones, with an additional verse added. The song was released by MCA as a single from the movie's soundtrack, peaking at number 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was the band's joint highest entry on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart at number three, tying with "Summer of Love" from 1986. The song was also the band's second-highest-charting single in the U.K. (the highest being "Love Shack" at number two), also peaking at number three. Its accompanying music video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA in August 1994.