Six Feet Under Theme Song

Great show with a great opening theme—as with most HBO originals.

The theme from Six Feet Under is the work of one of the most recognized American film composers, Thomas Newman. He has had multiple Academy Award nominations, ten in total, but has yet to win one. Examples of his nominated works include the scores for the films Little Women and The Shawshank Redemption, which were both nominated in 1994.

Now, the theme is officially entitled “Six Feet Under Title Theme”. The album version—from the first of two soundtracks—lasts 1 minute and 36 seconds, which is exactly what you get in the title sequence. However, in the same disc, two remixes (longer ones at that) were added.

The first is called the “Rae & Christian Remix”, after the British production duo Rae & Christian, comprised of Mark Rae and DJ Steve Christian. Below is their take on the song—version taken from the soundtrack.

The other remix is called the “Photek Remix”. After some snooping around, I found out that Photek is the artist name of Rupert Parkes, another British, who is a producer and a DJ. Below is his rendition of the song (as it appears in the album).

I think I like the Photek version more.

So, what else? Well, “Six Feet Under Title Theme” is an award-winning song. In 2002 it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, besting the titles from the likes of Justice League (cartoons) and the short-lived Wolf Lake. And, in 2003, it won two Grammy Awards namely Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement—remember that these awards are not only limited to film and television music.

So I guess that’s it for this one. So, without further ado, I give you the theme. (Below are two versions of the opening sequence—one has the names of the stars but I’m not sure what’s the story behind it or when the change happened.)