R.I.P. Alf Clausen, long-time composer for The Simpsons
Whether writing many of its most iconic songs, or driving the emotions in its most heartfelt scenes, Clausen's music was the sound of Springfield for 27 years.
Alf Clausen has died. A prolific composer of music for TV shows, Clausen is best known for the 27 years he spent writing music for The Simpsons, filling the series with ear-catching songs and affecting background music for the most influential years of its run. (To be completely clear: Clausen did not compose the show’s main theme, which was created by Danny Elfman—although his music often riffed on Elfman’s woodwind-heavy composition. He also rearranged and re-recorded the theme throughout the series to adjust it to different music styles.) A two-time Emmy winner for his Simpsons work, Clausen also scored shows like Moonlighting and ALF—although the sounds of Springfield make up the bulk of his iconic career. Per THR, Clausen’s death on Thursday was confirmed by his daughter. He was 84.
Originally from the Midwest, Clausen studied music in college, ultimately moving out to Los Angeles in the late 1960s to pursue work as a full-time composer. Early jobs included gigs on The Partridge Family, Donnie & Marie, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but Clausen first made a major name for himself in the 1980s, when he landed the composing gig for Moonlighting. His work on the comedy—which gleefully jumped between tones, genres, and even into whole other realities as its whims dictated—proved an early sign of Clausen’s ability to work in multiple styles at a rapid pace.
In the late ’80s, Clausen served as the series composer for Alf (no relation), but when the NBC show abruptly ended, he spent several months out of work. Then, he received an offer he actually initially turned down, expressing a distaste for cartoons: A composer job had opened up on the second season of an animated Fox comedy, and a friend thought he might be a good fit. A conversation with Matt Groening, the series’ creator, convinced Clausen that The Simpsons might actually make for an interesting challenge, and he signed on for the series; his first episode was the very first “Treehouse Of Horror.”
Clausen’s impact on 27 years on The Simpsons is both extremely obvious, and sometimes extraordinarily subtle. As both the show’s composer, and the conductor of its dedicated orchestra, he was responsible for translating nearly three decades’ of writers’ jokes and goofy musical ideas into some of its most iconic tunes, writing music for “The Monorail Song,” “We Do (The Stonecutters’ Song),” Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off, “Canyonero”… Honestly, it’s extremely tempting to just sit here and list every earworm Clausen ever assembled for the show, from obvious parodies, like the (arguably superior!) Cheers riff “Flamin’ Moe’s,” to goofy one-shot songs like “Skinner & the Superintendent Theme,” from the famous Steamed Hams segment. (And, seriously, we’re trying to move on to our next point, but, whoops, now we’re re-listening to “Oh, Streetcar.”)
But even beyond the songs that are easy to list by name, Clausen’s contributions to the texture of The Simpsons are impossible to discount. His music was integral to the series’ jokes, yes—a quick, original James Bond stinger here, a noir-ish bit of mobster music there—but also an inextricable part of its heart. The best episodes of The Simpsons have a naked and honest emotion to them that belie the show’s 10-jokes-per second structure, and Clausen’s music is a huge part of selling the all-important family bond. If you need proof, listen to how much musical emotional lifting happens just in the climax of season 7 classic “Marge Be Not Proud.” In a mere 90 seconds, Clausen takes the scene from tension and anxiety into something incredibly warm, selling the reconciliation between Bart and his mom at every step.
Sadly, the end of Clausen’s tenure with The Simpsons wasn’t an especially happy one: In 2017, it was announced that Clausen was being fired from the series, replaced by a company called Bleeding Fingers Music. (Co-founded by Hans Zimmer, who was also tapped to score 2007’s The Simpsons Movie; at the time, Clausen noted, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.”) Although Clausen was given a “composer emeritus” credit for the series, he ended up suing Fox over the termination, saying he was discriminated against for “perceived disability and age.” (Clausen would later reveal that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a month before his termination.) Producers on the series suggested they were looking to change up the musical style of the show, and stated, in a legal filing, that their “creative possibilities were limited by Clausen’s abilities,” citing a rap-focused episode that he’d received outside help on from Empire‘s Jim Beanz. Clausen dropped the suit in 2022, although he was reportedly devastated by its conclusion.
It was a sad ending for a legendary career—but also one that can’t change the fact that Clausen was indispensable to The Simpsons becoming, not just a cultural institution, but the touchstone for TV that could be both funny and deeply emotionally affecting without sacrificing either quality. Springfield would not live in our minds, and our memories, in the same way without his music powering it; his work was a core part of one of the greatest TV shows of the 20th and 21st centuries, at at the very height of its creative peak.
