Music plays a pivotal role on the show, Sopranos, which is known for its diverse music scores, and has gained a lot of critical acclaim for this and for the very successful use of earlier recorded numbers. The creator of the show, David Chase, himself chooses all the music featured on the show, along with Martin Bruestle, the producer of the series and Kathryn Dayak, the music editor. He also at times seeks opinion of Steven Van Zandt, who portrays the role of Silvio Dante on the series and additionally plays guitar for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Once, the production and edition of a particular episode is finished, then comes the turn of selection of the music, but there have been times where some specific scenes were shot to suit them up with prior selected music pieces.

The British band, Alabama3, wrote and performed the opening theme of The Sopranos, which was titled as “Woke Up This Morning” (Chosen One Mix). Barring few instances, separate song is played over the closing credits at the end of each episode.

There are episodes, where song scores recur several times through out the episode. Like, for example, in the episode, “University” (Season three), the song, “Living on a Thin Line” by The Kinks is repeated lot of times. Similarly, throughout the episode “All Due Respect”, which was the season finale of the fifth season, the song, “Glad Tidings” by Van Morrison could be heard.

There are other songs well, which are included all through the series. For example, Italian singer, Andrea Bocelli’s Con te partirò”, which is the main song for Carmela Soprano, a lead character.

Although the show makes use of a large database of earlier recorded music, it is noteworthy that it surely misses out on genuinely incidental music, in contrast to other TV drama shows.

Till date, two soundtrack albums of the show have been released which includes the music, featured on the series. The first album, which was launched in 1999, was termed, The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series and had music pieces from the first two seasons of the show. On the U.S. Billboard 200, the album scaled up till no. 54.

The second music compilation was released in 2001 and was named The Sopranos: Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Original Series. The double-disc collection had songs as well as dialogues from the first three seasons of the series. It ranked at number 38 on the U.S. Billboard 200 list.

Sopranos Lyrics

You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Mama always said you’d be
The Chosen One.

She said: You’re one in a million
You’ve got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
All the love has gone,
Your Papa never told you
About right and wrong.

But you’re looking good, baby,
I believe you’re feeling fine,(shame about it),
Born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Thing’s ain’t been the same
Since the Blues walked into town.

But you’re one in a million
You’ve got that shotgun shine.
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
You got yourself a gun.