ALF Theme Song

1986–1990

Now that I have a little more time, I’ll write about a really cool theme song.

ALF lasted four seasons, between 1986 and 1990, and it had two distinct opening theme songs. However, in reality, the second song is just a “toned down” version of the first. The first version was used in seasons 1 and 2, and seasons 3 and 4 for the second. Let us first relive the opening and tunes before going through some information.

ALF theme song seasons 1 & 2

ALF theme song seasons 3 & 4

(Yes, I know the videos are un-embeddable—that’s how it is with NBC—so just please click on the “Watch on YouTube” links.)

Below is the embeddable, but non-opening credits version of the first theme.

Now for some information. The only irrefutable information we have for the theme is for the composer—or rather, composers. Alf Clausen (yes, “Alf”) and Tom Kramer are both listed for theme music composer for all episodes in IMDb. See here and here for proof. Alf Clausen worked on The Simpsons and Tom Kramer on Mulan (both among others).

As far as the official title of the song is concerned, nothing can be found. So informally, it can be called “Theme from ALF” or the like, or even simply “ALF”.

As we all know, the playing (instruments) on the songs are just exquisite and world-class. This YouTube video opened up a discussion on the first theme, naming legendary jazz musicians Vinnie Colaiuta (on drums) and Abraham Laboriel (Sr., on bass) as part of the performers. If this were true, then this easily makes it to the best themes of all time list.