Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Buffy and Angel Love Themes

There are two different Buffy and Angel "Love" Themes, both by Christophe Beck and both quite beautiful: "Close Your Eyes" and "Moment of Happiness."

More About Buffy on Christophe Beck's Official Website
Amazon's Christophe Beck Store

The composer's biography from his website:

Canadian composer Christophe Beck started piano lessons at five, and by eleven he was learning Bee Gees songs by ear and performing with his first-ever band, the unfortunately-named Chris and The Cupcakes. During high school he studied piano, saxophone, and drums, and wrote many tender 80's love ballads.

While studying music at Yale, Beck wrote two musicals with his brother Jason (a.k.a. Gonzales, the Paris-based pianist-producer-TV Host-prankster), as well as an opera based on "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.

Upon graduation, Beck moved to Los Angeles to attend USC's prestigious film scoring program, where he studied with Jerry Goldsmith. A personal recommendation from the legendary Buddy Baker, head of the USC Music Department, led to his first assignment for a Canadian TV series called "White Fang." Several TV series later, he was asked to score the second season of WB Network's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Beck received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for his score to the "Buffy" episode, "Becoming, Part 1."

In 2000, the cheerleading comedy "Bring It On" launched Beck's film career, which has included such credits as "Under the Tuscan Sun," "Saved," "The Pink Panther," "We Are Marshall," "Year of the Dog," "What Happens in Vegas," and more recently, "The Hangover," now the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time.

Close Your Eyes plays in the Season Two Episode "Becoming." It is included on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999 Television Series)

The meaning of the title comes from the tragic fact that Angel can't be happy with Buffy because as soon as they find perfect happiness together, he loses his soul and she has to kill him. We see the flashback in "Becoming Pt. 1" just before the vampire Darla kills Liam in order to turn him to Angelus, she tells him to "Close your eyes." In "Becoming Pt. 2", just before Buffy kills Angel, she too says, "Close your eyes."


The "Moment of Happiness" version appears in "Innocence" and is included on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Score

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Nerf Herder

Nerf Herder wrote and performed the Buffy Theme song heard at the beginning of the show. For the first two seasons, a cover of the song by The Breeders was used. It's included on both the American and UK versions of Radio Sunnydale. Click the pictures to buy either album.



Nerf Herder themselves played the theme in seasons 3-7, and that version is included on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999 Television Series)




The name of the band comes, of course, from Star Wars: in "The Empire Strikes Back" Han Solo tells Luke that Princess Leia has expressed her "true feelings" for him. An embarrassed Princess Leia argues back that he's a "Stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-lookin' Nerf Herder," to which Han replies, "Who's scruffy-lookin'?"

From Wikipedia:

In an interview they explain how they came to produce the theme:
"They [the Buffy production staff] had hired some famous theme song composer to come up with a theme and they didn’t like the one he came up with so they were kind of on a low budget, and asked local bands to come up with theme song ideas." [1]

In the DVD commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth", Whedon explained that part of his decision to go with Nerf Herder's theme was that Alyson Hannigan had made him listen to the band's music.

Nerf Herder also played in the last season, "Empty Places," playing "Rock City News" at the Bronze.

In April 2003, Nerf Herder appeared as the musical guest in the final-season Buffy episode "Empty Places" – the very last band to play at The Bronze. Their special connection to the series was further acknowledged by a bit of dialogue, as "Rock City News" played in the background:

Kennedy: What kind of band plays during an apocalypse?
Dawn: I think this band might actually be one of the signs.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Velvet Chain

There is so much music to enjoy in the Buffy-verse, from the musical score of the series to the songs played by various bands at The Bronze. Where to start?

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday will be an ongoing feature of this blog until the music runs out, which will be years from now, or never, because remember there's also Angel and other shows and movies.

Let's start with a band from Season One of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode five which as called "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date," The artist is Velvet Chain, who played at the Bronze while Buffy danced with a boy named Owen.

But for this post, let's hear the two songs that were actually played in the show and which many fans associate with the relationship between Buffy and Angel, the remorseful vampire with a soul.

"Strong" is found on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999 Television Series), while Treason can be purchased from Amazon. Later Velvet Chain released The Buffy EP inspired by the show. Read more about it HERE.