Theme to Neighbours

The Neighbours theme song is the theme tune to the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Composed by Tony Hatch with the lyrics written by his then wife, Jackie Trent, it was once voted the world's most recognised television theme song. Neighbours was originally recorded by Barry Crocker, who also recorded the updated version. Subsequent versions have been recorded by a variety of artists. Composition After Trent and Hatch relocated to Australia in the 1980s, they were asked to write the theme song for Neighbours. The soap opera was going to be called Ramsay Street, before the couple penned the song. Trent told Jessie Stoelwinder from The West Australian, "We wrote the song as Neighbours because we said Ramsay Street was too close to Coronation Street, which was the major soap in Britain." The theme was written and recorded in a day and Trent said "We called in Barry Crocker at about 10pm to put his voice on it and it was on the producer's desk by 10am the following morning. And they loved it, so the series was then called Neighbours." Theme song Since 1985, there have been ten different renditions of the theme broadcast on television. They were sung by the following artists: Depending on the broadcaster, each theme has received edits for timing purposes, the most edited versions being broadcast by the BBC in the UK. To begin with, this was due to the fact the BBC could not broadcast the advertising featured at the end of Neighbours credit roles; it was also due to a 30-second timing restriction imposed on all programming. Other broadcasters have usually shown the credits uncut, leaving the theme song at its original length.