Bob and Linda Belcher own a burger shop near a harbor somewhere on the east coast. They’re raising their kids, Tine, Gene, and Louise, largely in the restaurant, and have witty, yet hilariously mundane banter and delightfully bizarre adventures that make their show one of the few that I watch and rewatch, and never seem to enjoy less. I'm always up for more Bob's.
But it’s not just the plot or the characters that make Bob’s Burgers a winner for me. The music in this show communicates with the viewer in ways that make the stories and character moments that much more memorable. The music not only spans the lives of the family, but also a cascade of musical genres and styles. The soundtrack for Bob’s Burgers is a real treat. Here are few of my favorites. I’ll be talking a little bit more about the context of the songs that the songs themselves, you’ll just have to listen for yourself to hear how awesome the music from the show is.
This up beat parody came in the middle of a Christmas episode with action/suspence elements that hovered around a townwide mystery, and a Christmas myth about a terrifying monster that steals kids’ presents from under the tree. The kids go on a quest at night to track down the monster before he comes to do his work and rob their christmas tree. The costumes, the music, everything about this moment is perfect.
The kids use the local arcade as the target for a classic heist to win an epic prize, a go kart. However, their inside man, Mr. Fischoeder has a secret, and in order to best him, the kids have to go one step farther, and sweep an even better prize, a gigantic Wooly Mammoth wearing roller skates.
Tina, the oldest and the closest to adulthood, is a devoted fan of the boy band, Boys 4 Now. A short but nevertheless confident heartthrob from the group, Booboo, takes a seat on a stool and leads to this confusing but somehow compelling love ballad.
So this song plays during the credits and recaps Tina’s business venture at school as part of a project where she made herself into an successful entrepreneur. As a kid who grew up watching adults move through the latest MLMs, and seeing the hustle culture still alive and well today, the “business monster” title has some very clear application to real life.
In this episode Tina, (isn’t she just awesome?) reports as an investigative journalist for the school newscast. However, she is framed in a series of drive-by poopings around the school. However, her coverage of the fecal felon eventually helps her exonerate herself from the accusations. The song here is just plain awesome.
So, Tina again. Good thing we all love Tina so much, lol. In this episode, Tina takes a lifeguard training, mostly just to explore her inner feelings and physical attractions, and thus does not adequately address her terror of getting in the water. But she still gets to roll in the sand with her classmates, because sand is the sugar, and they're the cookies.
This is one of the many songs which is composed by Gene, the most musical of the Belcher kids. He and Louise collaborate to produce a musical for a school project, and get back at an annoying substitute teacher all at once. I definitely belt this in the car weekly.
Louise has many interests, one of them is collecting cards part of the Burobu game. The Burobu characters are numerous types of slugs as you would find in nature like “slugodactyl”, “slugocopter”, and “slugzilla”. I’m pretty sure I would have been a devoted fan if Burobu had been an action anime for kids back in the day, if this theme song is any indication of the quality of the show that would have accompanied it.
Louise also collects figures and toys, her favorite being a light-up doll called Kuchi-Kopi. Well, at one point Kuchi gets accidentally dropped into the toilet, and to dry him off the family puts him into the oven. Louise is sick at the time of all this, and when she finally gets Kuchi back, he has melted into a shocking sight. Needless to say, the episode takes the family on a long journey of reconciliation, and lots of singing.
So Louise has a classmate named Millie who has an unhealthy and terrifying obsession with Louise. In this episode, Louise is on a mission to clear her name from some horrifying acts against the school counselor’s crocheted teaching dolls. Millie uses Louise’s predicament as leverage to spend as much time playing with Louise as possible, triggering a long sequence of play dates, play dates.
This Wedding is My Warzone/I Do
This is a great example of Linda and Bob’s ability to pull off a great duet together. This episode features a wedding, catered by Bob and family. The song highlights Bob’s fierce dedication to his craft, and Linda’s brutal honest about the bride and groom, whose wedding encounters one mishap after the other.
I chose a song from one of the newest episodes because, man, I either got something in my eye, or Bob’s burgers got me feeling emotional. This entire episode follows Linda trying to hold onto her kid’s childhood by encouraging the writer of one of the family’s favorite children’s books to continue the series. The author though, of Snail and Newt has already moved on, which Linda cannot accept. Anyway, this song is a fond farewell to childhood, and I need to stop writing now because just singing it to myself give me, as a dad, ALL of the feels.
Boys 4 Now release a song and music video around Halloween that pays homage to Thriller, and creates a brilliant pop Halloween tune that I have been known to blast in my kitchen from time to time. Do yourself a favor, listen to this one.
With over 150 songs to choose from, Bob's is jam packed with great puns, great music, everything you could want if you're looking for a heartwarming and saucy adult cartoon.
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