Album: Here Comes Science
Year: 2009
. . .
As I mentioned yesterday, I kinda lost touch with They Might Be Giants after Apollo 18, while Johns Linnell and Flansburgh kept churning out albums and EPs and singles and comps, though I probably got 1999s download-only Long Tall Weekend at some point. That said, the next time I encountered them was doing the theme song for Malcolm in The Middle, a FOX show that depicted an alternate-universe Walter White as a seemingly harried father whose secret identity as a meth kingpin was never even once mentioned.
That song is called “Boss of Me,” and while it’s probably not TMBG’s most popular song, it’s definitely their most-heard song, as Malcolm in the Middle ran 151 episodes between 2000-2006, roughly averaging 10 million viewers over those episode, meaning it got around 1.5 billion impressions — as we said back then — during its run on FOX. And, of course, it’s been in syndication and streaming ever since. And it won They Might Be Giants their first Grammy for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” in 2002.
Just after that, TMBG released their first children’s album, titled No!, the first in a series of five, including three educational albums, which is really when I checked back in, preferring 2009’s Here Comes Science to either 2005’s Here Come The ABCs and 2008’s Here Come the 123s, both of which went gold on video and the latter of which won them their second Grammy. I’d like to think that there is at least one millennial reading this whose former hipster Gen-X parents remembered how much they loved Flood and got one or more of these records for their kids.
“Roy G. Biv” is, of course, based upon the mnemonic device used to remember the colors of the visible light spectrum, as John Flansburgh almost instantly points out over a rumbling bassline.
R is for red
O is for orange
Y is for yellow
And G is for green
B is for blue
I for indigo
And V is for violet
And that spells Roy G. Biv
All of this leads to a fantastic chorus, with gorgeous counterpoints and harmonies from John Linnell, and loud guitars as well.
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And he proudly stands at the rainbow’s end (So you’ll see him)
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And his name spells out the whole color spectrum (So you’ll see him)
Which is immediately followed by a more pensive post-chorus which kinda contradicts the actual chorus.
You’ll never see a unicorn
But you’ll see a rainbow
And inside every rainbow
Is the spectrum of lightYou’ll never see Roy G. Biv
But he’s inside the rainbow
‘Cause inside every rainbow
Is the spectrum of light
For what it’s worth, Here Comes Science was the first TMBG album to the U.S. Album charts top 100 — 93, but still — since 1996’s Factory Showroom. It was also their first album ever to make the U.S. Rock charts (#34) and the U.S. Alt albums chart (#23), the latter of which doesn’t make any sense, depending on when that chart actually started. It also made #4 on Billboard’s Children’s chart.
“Roy G. Biv” (Official Music Video)
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