From SpongeBob to Mr. Hankey: 11 of the best original songs from cartoons

My all-time favorite cartoon song, “The Night Begins To Shine” from Teen Titans Go!, technically (even if it was only ever released because of the show), so I’ll have to go with “The Compliments Song” from . The series has no shortage of brilliant musical cuts, but none of them are remotely as funny as Brendan Small and H. Jon Benjamin’s screechy tribute to tricking people into doing nice things for you. It’s hilariously annoying, particularly the way Benjamin’s character (Jason, as The Captain Of Outer Space) loses track of the lyrics at the end and slowly starts to fall behind Brendan (as Starboy). In his defense, though, the end of the song is phrased to awkward perfection: “We wish it was different but that’s the way it seems to be, cause you need to compliment because that’s what people need.” Oh sure, the Franz Kafka rock opera is objectively better, but it lacks the utter joy of “The Compliments Song.” [Sam Barsanti]

I couldn’t have been more excited when was first announced. Matt Groening’s love for mid-century science fiction was evident from his earliest Life In Hell strips and it felt like kismet that he and David X. Cohen would develop a show dedicated solely to loving/poking fun at sci-fi. I was a bit worried when the show’s first episode was heavy on place-setting and not particularly funny. Fortunately, the second episode, “The Series Has Landed,” was an immediate improvement; the team visits the theme park on the moon, peaking with Luna Park’s historical reenactment of earth’s first visitors to Luna, “Whalers On The Moon.” Almost more than the song itself, which is a brief five-stanza ditty about the thwarted efforts of a group of particularly adventurous commercial fishermen, is how the scene encapsulates all my favorite things about Matt Groening’s flavor of humor: Half-assed rinky-dink spectacle, crazed-looking singing rodents, and gleeful ignorance. Even Fry, whose sole insight into the actual history of the moon landing comes simply from being alive in the same century it occurred, has his protests shot down by Leela’s dismissive “I don’t see your fungineering degree.” [Nick Wanserski]

I’d be remiss not to mention in a discussion regarding original music from animated television. From a duet about man-on-elephant love, to a handful of pitch-perfect boy-band parodies, any song from the Fox sitcom’s weird, wonderful catalog would probably feel at home on this list, but my favorite track from the bunch has to be “It’s Valentine’s Day” from season six’s “The Gene And Courtney Show.” Unlike the majority of songs on the show, which lean toward goofy and cheerful in tone, “It’s Valentine’s Day” is an earnest and bittersweet ballad. It represents a rare moment of emotional maturity for the middle Belcher child, as a fun, holiday-themed announcement over the Wagstaff School PA system by Gene and Courtney turns into a poetic address after Gene hijacks the set to sing to the students (and Courtney, his former beau) about unrequited love and life after heartbreak. Sure, there are other songs in the Bob’s Burgers catalog that musically outshine “It’s Valentine’s Day,” like “Electric Love” and “Work Hard Or Die Trying, Girl,” but neither of those pack the same emotional gut punch. [Baraka Kaseko]

Sam’s right: The Franz Kafka rock opera is the superior Home Movies composition. In fact, it’s several superior Home Movies compositions, and unlike some of my other animated favorites—“,” Dan Harmon’s —those compositions are more than just an ornate joke-delivery system. Presenting Home Movies’ in-house metal band Scäb at their most Andrew Lloyd Webber, the songs express a believably boneheaded teenage take on the author, hitting the encyclopedia signposts (“He’s steel, it’s to the core / Born in 1883, died in 1924”) before lacing in plot points from Kafka’s best-known, insect-related short story. And there’s an impressive stylistic variety to the whole thing, from the Flash Gordon falsetto of the bookends to the balladry of the “living like a bug ain’t easy” passage, which I’ve long contended would make a great New Pornographers cover. might be funnier, and I listen to the goofy Bob’s Burgers interstitial “” (“There’s Jimmy Pesto / He’s so mad”) at least once or twice a week, but I gotta take a stand for Dwayne, his warrior of words, and his tiny little bug feet. [Erik Adams]

At the risk of getting pounded for bringing this up months too early, my favorite cartoon song is one written for the 1965 holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s not only my favorite Christmas special, but my favorite holiday album, as the mix of Vince Guaraldi trio’s spare jazz mixed with children’s voices adds a necessary dose of melancholia to the season—like the feeling you get when the days start shrinking and winter adds its moments of bleakness as well as coziness. “Christmastime Is Here” is the perfect song to kick off Charlie Brown’s holiday season; while it elaborates on seasonal delights like “snowflakes in the air” and “carols everywhere,” there’s a pervasive sense of longing: “Oh, that we could always see / Such spirit through the year.” Since I can easily slide into the holiday season with too-high expectations, Charlie Brown’s kickoff song helps keep those aspirations in check, even as I happily get absorbed in the usual December mania. [Gwen Ihnat]

A lot of my favorites are already representing hard here—primarily Home Movies—so it seems fitting to end with a classic, one that still gets stuck in my head at least once a month, and probably has ever since I first heard it 20-some years ago. (Back when I wore an onion on my belt, .) I refer, of course, to the iconic and eternal earworm known as “The Monorail Song.” was at the height of its powers, was in the writer’s seat, and this song from season four’s “Marge Vs. The Monorail” should be Exhibit A for the sheer visual, musical, and structural ingenuity of the series. A note-perfect riff on The Music Man, Phil Hartman’s slick salesman voice was never put to better use than this ode to an expensive, underfunded, and ill-conceived addition to a town with little to no use for it. Of course, if I wanted to convince people of my argument, I probably should’ve written a song, like that guy in the clip. [Alex McLevy]