The hottest album of 2021 is about to drop. The soundtrack of the hit ‘90s sitcom Seinfeld will be released on Friday, July 2nd (via Variety) on “all digital platforms,” though specific platforms weren’t stated. I expect to hear the bouncy slap bass-driven theme song that never fails to make me laugh blaring out of cars, apartments, and cafes this Fourth of July weekend. Believe it or not, there will be 33 tracks on the album, and it’s apparently the first time that this music will be made available in an official fashion.
The composer, Jonathan Wolff, told Variety that the soundtrack contains some music that was created for the show but never actually appeared in it. Three jazz songs were made for scenes where Elaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) goes to see a date playing in a jazz club in the seventh season. The scenes were eventually cut.
According to Variety, there’s plenty of variety on the album:
“The range of styles is surprisingly broad: hip-hop for “Kramer’s Pimpwalk,” happy whistling and guitars for “Jerry the Mailman,” a “Mission: Impossible” vibe for “Jerry vs. Newman Chase,” suspense-thriller scoring for “Cable Guy vs. Kramer Chase,” ’90s rock for “Kramer’s Boombox,” Eastern mysticism for “Peterman in Burmese Jungle,” and vintage guitar-and-harmonica blues for “Waiting for the Verdict” from the series finale.”
But let’s be honest. You, me, and everyone else are just going to absolutely crank that theme song. Soon it’ll be easier than ever to play at a moment’s notice, but it’s interesting to hear that the now-signature bass groove (which was actually created on a keyboard) and the scat-like sound effects that are sprinkled throughout each episode almost didn’t make the cut. NBC executives said it was “weird, distracting and annoying,” according to the composer in Variety’s interview.
Seinfeld co-creator Larry David had a predictably Larry David-like response: “Larry was deeply offended, and didn’t change anything,” the composer says.
