"Pokemon Theme" (also known as "Gotta catch ’em all!")[1][2] is a song written by John Siegler and John Loeffler and performed by Jason Paige. It is the original theme song for the first season of the English adaptation of the Pokémonanime. Since its release, the song has been virtually synonymous with the Pokémon franchise because the line "Gotta catch ’em all!" has become its official English slogan; it is derived from the Japanese ポケモンGETだぜ! ("Pokemon [getto] da ze!").[3]
"Pokémon Theme" is a fast-paced pop rock song in the key of G Minor, with continuous male vocals intermixed with backup vocal accompaniment that also sings the chorus: "Pokémon! (Gotta catch ’em all!").
Lyrics
The song is sung in first person by an aspiring Pokémon trainer. He is determined to become the very best, "like no one ever was". To do this, he intends to travel far and wide, catching new Pokémon. He exhorts the listener to follow him, knowing they will encounter a lot of challenges, but promising to surmount them all together, and that they will learn a lot of new things along the way.[4]
History
Siegler and Loeffler wrote the lyrics to the song while Siegler (previously a bassist for bands including Todd Rundgren's Utopia and Hall & Oates) produced the track, also playing keyboards, bass, and programming drum machines. David Rolfe, the vocalist for later themes of the series, played the guitar while Jason Paige provided the vocals.[3] Although the theme song premiered on the debut episode "Pokémon, I Choose You!" on September 8, 1998, Jason Paige was called back again in 1999 to produce an extended version of the theme song for the album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master.[3]
According to Norman Grossfeld, the then-president of 4Kids Productions, the line "Gotta catch 'em all!" was created as a "tagline for marketing purposes that would also be included in the theme song". It is derived from the Japanese tagline "(ポケモンGETだぜ!, Pokémon getto da ze!)" Furthermore, "Gotta Catch 'em all!" came from a series of contenders, which included "Catch 'em if you can" (which made it in an earlier version of the theme song).[5] Meanwhile, when first approached about the theme song, Siegler initially saw the show's concept as "incomprehensible" before realizing that the series was about friendship. Although he was reluctant at first, he saw the show's potential when he took his son to premiere of the debut episode in Columbus Circle.[5]
In November 2005, the internet comedy duo Smosh recorded a video for the song on YouTube. It became the most viewed video on the site before being surpassed by "The Evolution of Dance".[6][7][8] Afterwards, Smosh's video was removed on YouTube due to a copyright notice. The original video was later reuploaded by fans. Then in 2010, Smosh themselves recreated the video, this time with altered lyrics being critical of the original video being taken down.[8][9] During the 2012 primary election, Paige himself performed a parody of the song in support of the Republican candidate Ron Paul.[10] In 2015, the song was voted to be part of the annual Dutch Top 2000 radio marathon, after a call-for-action on Facebook went viral within the country.[11][12] It has since remained in the chart in subsequent years, peaking at number 115 in 2018.[13]
In July 2016, after the release of the mobile gamePokémon Go, the song had a 382% increase in listeners on music streaming platform Spotify.[14][15] There were instances of police cars playing the song through loudspeakers while driving near Pokémon Go players, as well as groups of people singing the song in public.[16][17][18][19][20] Afterwards, Dutch electronic music artist Hardwell played the theme at the 2016 edition of Ultra Europe as one of his final tunes.[21] The same month, after rising up to 1,079% in sales, the song hit number four on Billboard's Kids Digital Songs chart after initially peaking at 10 in 2010, as well as peaking at number three on the Maxi-Singles Sales chart in January 2000.[22]
Despite the resurgence, Paige did not receive any royalties from the song.[23] Due to the popularity of Pokémon Go he re-recorded the theme.[24][25] In an interview with the New York Post, Paige claimed that he did not originally expect the song to become popular when he first recorded it, stating that he "didn’t really know much about Pokémon" when he did the demo, other than a scene in the animated series that caused bouts of epileptic seizures in Japan. Although Paige recorded the song in four hours, he received a large one-time payment for the song in 2000.[26] Paige also performed another parody of the song, featuring Dwayne Johnson as a Pokémon as well as YouTube stars MatPat and Ali-A.[27]
During the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, the Norwegian representative, russ music artist Andreas Haukeland, better known as Tix, sang a parody of the theme song as a love serenade to the Azerbaijani representative, Samira Efendi, whom Tix had shown an affection for since the beginning of the contest. The song contains lyrics such as “I will travel across [Rotterdam] Ahoy / Searching far and wide / Teach Efendi to understand / The power that’s inside”.[47]
