Culture

Track of the Day: 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'

By Chris Bodenner
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021.

Reader Doug tosses out another song for the series, and this one is based on two places really:

A little bit of a curveball, but after four years living in West Philly, I feel like this might be one of the closest connections between a location and a song (among people of a certain age). EVERY time you mention West Philly to an ’80s/’90s kid, there’s almost a 100% chance they start quoting the Fresh Prince theme song back at you.

Even if you watched the show religiously, as I did, there’s a good chance you haven’t heard the full version of the song, embedded above. Here’s the uncut version of the show’s intro, which is a few scenes short of the one that aired every episode. For a different kind of bonus track, here’s one of many examples of someone getting prank-called under the guise of the Fresh Prince:

That same Christian show actually got Fresh Prince’d a second time. And then there was C-SPAN.

(Submit a song via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)