{ Lick That Riff! }

Hello and welcome to another weekly riff where I take usually take a classic rock riff and show you how to play it. This week will be slightly different as it won’t be a rock riff. Instead I’ve picked one of the biggest television theme tunes of all time. Now I’m sure a few of you may be critical of this weeks riff as it shows a sign of a band selling out and cashing in, but I still think it is a spectacular riff, and one that is iconic of the 90′s. It reminds me so much of my youth in the 90s and early 00′s and also reminds me of the Friends TV show obviously. It is played at least two times a day in the UK as Friends is aired at least twice and it must be played thousands of more times a day around the world. So this weeks great guitar riff comes from a band called The Rembrandts and it is the hugely popular, I’ll Be There For You.

The Rembrandts are an American pop-rock duo that formed in 1989 and had an early Alternative Rock sound. They had 5 Studio albums throughout their career. During their efirst two albums they had minor American hits with Just The Way It Is, Baby, and Johnny Have You Seen Her. But their real commercial success came when they were asked to perform the theme tune to a new sitcom called Friends. They met with the writers and decided to go for it. Most of the song was already written by other songwriters and lyricists but the band were asked to try and make the song their own. The sitcom aired in 1994 and after so much airplay of the 40-second clip the band were asked to produce a full version of the song. It reached #17 in the Billboard Hot 100 and came in at #3 in the UK charts. So here’s how to play it:

And here’s how it should sound:

So there it is for another weekly riff. I hope you have enjoyed it and it has reminded you of the simpler 90s.

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