"Woke Up This Morning" is a song by British band Alabama 3 from their 1997 album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. The song is best known as the opening theme music for the American television series The Sopranos, which used a shortened version of the "Chosen One Mix" of the song.

Background and writing

Described as "a propulsive hip-hop song complete with Howlin' Wolf samples and a swelling gospel choir", the song has been cited as a paradigmatic example of a "great theme song", which "generates anticipation, immediately puts the viewer in a focused frame of mind, and creates the kind of sonic familiarity that breeds audience loyalty." Alabama 3 frontman Rob Spragg wrote the song after hearing about the 1996 Sara Thornton murder case, who stabbed her husband after claiming to be the victim of two years of his abuse, mistreatment and neglect. The song is co-written with Piers Marsh, Simon Edwards, and Jake Black. "We started with a Howlin' Wolf loop, but a lot of blues lyrics are quite [misogynistic]," Spragg explained. "So I turned it round to be about a woman who's had enough and gets a gun – it's quite ironic that it's become a New Jersey gangster anthem." The track contains elements of "Tell Me" performed by Howlin' Wolf, a sample from "Standing at the Burying Ground" by Mississippi Fred McDowell and a sample from "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters. Howlin' Wolf himself recorded a song titled "Woke Up This Morning" for Chess Records that was released in 2009. The cover art for the single is in the style of the cover art of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 album Déja Vu.

Use in other media

In film In television In sport

Charts