it’s possible for you to thank Larry David for saving that slap bass.
“And, yes, guilty I did a lot of that kind of music!
But I knew it wasn’t going to work here.”
‘Seinfeld’ stars Michael Richards, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jerry Seinfeld.Andrew Eccles/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
Enter Wolff’s secret weapon: the slap bass.
“Slap bass had not yet enjoyed ‘celebrity status’ as a solo instrument,” Wolff said.
“I knew I wanted to use that.
“I pitched Jerry the idea that Jerry’s voicewould be the melody of theSeinfeldtheme,” Wolff explained.
“And my job would be to accompany Jerry in a way that worked organically with his human voice.
And it was going to enable me to use those sampling technologies that I really wanted to use.”
But realizing his strange vision wasn’t quite so simple.
They’re all smart people.
And their objections were natural and realistic,” Wolff said.
“They thought the music sounded odd and weird: ‘Is that real music?
What instrument is that?
Could we not afford an orchestra?'”
He continued, “[NBC Entertainment’s then-president] Warren Littlefield laid it out.
He said, ‘It’s weird.
It’s annoying.’
When he said that word… oh, Larry, he loves annoying!
He lives for annoying!
That’s his primary goal in life!”
The composer offered to scrap it, telling David and Seinfeld, “Look, guys.
Look at that list.
you’re free to see on the notepad, there’s other [connection complaints] on there.
So, choose your battles.
I can change the music.
You’ll love it.”
But David wasn’t having it.
“Larry got so mad at me!”
Wolff said in the interview.
“He just started yelling at me: ‘Get out!
Wolff, you’re done here, get out!’
He was just so offended at the notion that I would cave.
And he threw me out of the meeting!…
Larry was not having it.
Larry did not like being told to change things.”
His enthusiasm uncurbed, David ultimately won the battle, and Wolff’s theme music stayed.
