Why We Have The Creators Of How I Met Your Mother To Thank For Its Catchy Theme Song
The way "How I Met Your Mother" used music was a big part of the show's charm. Rolling Stone even compiled a list of the show's five most essential music moments, and The Hollywood Reporter compiled their own list of the top 10. From the way popular songs are incorporated into the show to the original songs like "Two Beavers are Better Than One" and "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit," the show wouldn't be the same without the unique way it utilizes music. One of the most effective uses of music is the Season 4 finale "The Leap," where Ted takes the symbolic leap from his building's rooftop to the rooftop of the neighboring building to the tune of A.C. Newman's song, "Prophets."
Josh Radnor, who played the lead character Ted Mosby, is still hard at work on his acting career, according to IMDB, but he's also been working on a music career as well, and in 2021 Radnor released his debut EP as a solo musician entitled "One More Time Then I'll Let You Go." According to an interview in Riff Magazine, Radnor looks at acting and music as two related disciplines, with there being a certain sense of musicality to a screenplay. "I don't think they're wildly dissimilar art forms," Radnor explained. Radnor even started his musical journey because of his role on the show, as his interest was really piqued after meeting indie-pop artist Ben Lee on the set of "How I Met Your Mother."
So, with such close ties to music on the show, there surely must be an interesting story to the opening theme music. Well, luckily enough, there is!
The creators' band wrote the song
The opening theme music to "How I Met Your Mother" is actually a song called "Hey Beautiful" from a band called The Solids, a band which just happens to contain both creators of "How I met Your Mother," Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.
At a talk at their alma mater, Wesleyan University, Bays and Thomas were asked what would have been different about the show had they never gone to Wesleyan, to which Bays responded, "There would be no show." Thomas then chimed in, joking, "We probably would have done 'Big Bang Theory.' That made real money. That wasn't depressing at all. No one died!" But all jokes aside, the two definitely credit their chance meeting in college with their current success.
A few fans expected the opening theme to play a role in the show that it never did. A 2014 Reddit thread in the r/HIMYM subreddit suggested it could be the song that the show's titular mother could be playing with her band when Ted finally meets her. "The part that we all know and love doesn't occur in the until the very end of the song," wrote u/kudrew12. "I was thinking ahead and thought about how wonderful it would be if the wedding band was playing that song as Ted happened to see The Mother on stage." While fans liked the idea, the prediction failed to come true.