--- title: "Monk won two Emmys with two different theme songs, Jeff Beal’s in 2003 and Randy Newman’s in 2004" url: https://badiyaa.com/monk-theme-songs-emmys-randy-newman/ published: 2026-11-14T20:15:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-14T20:15:00+00:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Monk won two Emmys with two different theme songs, Jeff Beal’s in 2003 and Randy Newman’s in 2004 Monk is the first TV series to win the main title theme Emmy with two different songs in a row: Jeff Beal's in 2003 and Randy Newman's in 2004. Most TV shows are lucky to win one Emmy for their opening music. *Monk* won two, with two completely different songs, in back-to-back years. Jeff Beal’s jazzy instrumental opener took the Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in 2003, and Randy Newman’s “It’s a Jungle Out There,” which replaced it, won the same award in 2004. That made the Tony Shalhoub detective series the first show ever to have two different theme songs win that category in consecutive years. The twist is that a lot of viewers did not want the second song at all. ## Theme one: Jeff Beal’s instrumental *Monk* premiered on the USA Network on July 12, 2002, following Adrian Monk, a brilliant former San Francisco homicide detective whose obsessive-compulsive disorder and long list of phobias got worse after his wife’s murder. For its 13-episode first season, the show opened with a breezy, wordless jazz piece by composer Jeff Beal, with guitarist Grant Geissman playing the melody. It fit the show’s light touch, and it won the 2003 Emmy for main title theme music. ## Theme two: Randy Newman’s “It’s a Jungle Out There” After that first season, producer David Hoberman asked Randy Newman for a new theme. Newman wrote a song with lyrics, played it for Hoberman and Shalhoub, and it debuted in the Season 2 premiere, “Mr. Monk Goes Back to School,” in June 2003. The words catalog the everyday dangers that a man like Monk sees everywhere, and warn that a bit of caution is the only way to stay alive. The switch went down badly with part of the audience. The USA Network said it received many complaints from viewers who wanted Beal’s tune back. The writers even poked fun at the fuss: in the Season 2 episode “Mr. Monk and the TV Star,” an obsessive fan of an in-world detective show complains that her program changed its theme song, makes Monk promise never to change his if he ever gets a show, and the episode closes on the original *Monk* theme. Shalhoub defended the new song, saying its dark, mournful and darkly funny sound fit the tone of the series. Television Academy voters apparently agreed, giving Newman the 2004 Emmy for main title theme music. ## A short timeline of Monk’s music - **July 2002:** *Monk* premieres with Jeff Beal’s instrumental theme. - **2003:** Beal’s theme wins the Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. - **June 2003:** Randy Newman’s “It’s a Jungle Out There” debuts with Season 2. - **2004:** Newman’s song wins the same Emmy, a first for any series. - **2009:** Newman writes “When I’m Gone” for the finale, “Mr. Monk and the End.” - **2010:** “When I’m Gone” wins the Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. Add those up and *Monk* collected three Emmys for music alone, out of the eight Emmy Awards the series won from 18 nominations, according to the Television Academy’s records. On Badiyaa’s count, that means more than a third of the show’s Emmy haul came from its songs; Shalhoub’s three wins for lead actor in a comedy, in 2003, 2005 and 2006, account for another three. ## The song kept going Newman’s theme stayed for the rest of the eight-season, 125-episode run, though the title sequence was re-cut three times as the cast changed. Snoop Dogg covered it for the Season 6 episode “Mr. Monk and the Rapper,” in which he also guest-starred, and Newman recorded a longer version for his 2017 album *Dark Matter*. On the versions now streaming, even the original two-part pilot has been edited to use Newman’s theme, so new viewers may never hear the Emmy-winning song that started it all. Theme songs that outlive their shows are a favorite subject here; our story on how [the Doug theme is almost entirely Fred Newman’s voice scat-sung over homemade sounds](https://badiyaa.com/doug-fred-newman-music-scat-theme/) tells another one. More TV history lives on our [Entertainment page](https://badiyaa.com/category/entertainment/). The category is still producing surprises: the most recent Main Title Theme Emmy went to Dave Porter’s music for Vince Gilligan’s *Pluribus*. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Monk (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk_(TV_series)) - [Wikipedia: It's a Jungle Out There (song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Jungle_Out_There_(song)) *Image: Greg2600, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*