The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: “Can I have everyone’s attention please?”

If you thought I would end this musical journey with any other song than the one that started it all — you’re nutso. There’s no way I wouldn’t include the one song where you only have to hear the opening beats in order to be instantly be taken back to Tree Hill.

For the first four seasons, “I Don’t Want To Be” by Gavin DeGraw served as the opening credits theme song and that in itself makes it the “ultimate OTH tune. These days television shows don’t really include theme songs anymore, including One Tree Hill.

More than just a catchy beat and a incredible soulful voice, the lyrics Gavin wrote embodied the show. We’ve watched these characters grow up, and through all of the drama, happiness, tears, love, friendships and horror, the people of Tree Hill have always been trying to just find themselves. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: “When the light gets into your heart…”

During this trip down a musical memory lane, we’ve relived Nathan and Haley’s first kiss, as well as Lucas and Peyton’s post-basketball championship lip-lock. For the last week before the series finale, I thought I would share a little memory with one of our other favorite couples — Brooke and Julian.

Who could forget Julian’s reason for arriving in Tree Hill? He wanted to produce a movie version of Lucas’ novel, “An Unkindness of Ravens”. When it came to the costumes for the film and Brooke was asked to design them [episode #6.12 "You Have To Be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil's Brain)"], Julian may or may not have walked in on Ms. Davis as she got her “groove on” to the 80′s classic, “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds. Okay, he definitely did … right in the middle of the Clothes Over Bros’ boutique. Later on, Julian would tell Brooke that it was the very moment he fell in love with her. *Collective sigh.*

The song was played once again in the fifteenth episode of season seven, which was actually entitled #7.15 “Don’t You Forget About Me”. However, this time around, it served as the opening track for the episode, but that still wasn’t the last time we got a dose of Brooke’s musical guilty pleasure. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: “It’s just a hill… come on, we’ll climb it together.”

This could have been the last song we ever heard on “One Tree Hill”.

When “One Tree Hill” went on location to Park City, Utah to film the final episode of season seven (episode
#7.22 “Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said the Last Time I Saw You”), we thought it was going to be the last time they all stepped on set.

To celebrate the possible ending of our beloved show, creator and executive producer, Mark Schwahn teamed up with musicians to form a one-time band that had all been a part of OTH at one point or another; Matthew Ryan, Courtney Jaye, Michael Grubbs of WAKEY!WAKEY! Also, Dallas Green of City and Colour, and they created the track “Carry You Home”, under the name Nashville Skyline to play during the last moments. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: A Song For Your Mistakes

I was never a fan of the relationship between Lucas and Lindsey in season five, so there was no love lost for me when their wedding didn’t work out in the 100th episode of “One Tree Hill” — Not at all. In fact, I may have fist-pumped.

Episode 5×12 entitled “Hundred” wasn’t just about broken wedding bells; it was also the episode Dan saved Jamie from that psycho Nanny Carrie after he was kidnapped from the church; crazy nanny, indeed.

The song that played during the CODA was probably one of my favorite moments during the show. It’s interesting that when some of the most dramatic scenes take place I can’t help but think “I need to download this song to my iTunes playlist”. That was the case here with “Apologies” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: We Were Here

Sometimes I feel like “One Tree Hill” fans are privileged fans. Our show made headlines in 2007 when it decided to jump forward four years into the future and skip over “the college years”, after the Tree Hill gang graduated high school that fourth season.

When the show picked back up for its fifth year — and four years later, the storylines were different, the characters looked and acted different, but it was still our show; it was just basically a “sequel” of sorts. With that said, I look at the final song of season four (episode #4.21, “All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone”) as somewhat of a “first finale” song. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: “One night of magic rush…”

I believe there was a collective gasp of pure ‘awe’ from Leyton fans all over when the Tree Hill Ravens won the State Championship in ninth episode of the fourth season from “One Tree Hill”.

After over two seasons of waiting, the couple we fell in love with in the Pilot episode reunited in a swirling heap of confetti, happiness… and “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez.

Peyton asked Lucas in the first episode of that season who he wanted standing next to him when all of his dreams came true — the heartbroken guy was quick to say “Brooke” after recently being dumped by her. It wasn’t until he had his high school dream come true, after he made that winning basket, that he realized it had always been Peyton that he wanted next to him.

Duh, we could have told you that Luke! [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: Haley’s Popstar Moment

As you know, there have been many times the last nine seasons where Bethany Joy Galeotti has performed on “One Tree Hill“. In the first season, Joy introduced the vocal ability of her character Haley James Scott, and over the years we’ve watched Haley grow from a singer in the privacy of her own home (or Karen’s Cafe), to a local talent, a national touring upcoming star with a song on the charts — and back again.

Joy has mostly performed love ballads or mid-tempo melodies, but in season three we got the only glimpse there would ever be of a bona fide popstar in Mrs. James Scott. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: “Does this Darkness Have a Name?”

It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since the school shooting-themed episode of “One Tree Hill“. I’ll never forget that powerful hour in which a gun-toting bullied Jimmy Edwards held his former friends and school class-mates isolated in a classroom as Peyton, whom he had shot, nearly bled out in the library with Lucas as their friends and family waited helplessly outside of Tree Hill High.

The entire episode was filled with amazing performances and haunting scores, created by composer John Nordstrom, which played in the back-drop of great dialogue and direction.

Episode 3.16 “With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept” hit close to home to everyone watching; school shootings weren’t something of fiction — we had experienced them in everyday life; some more closely than others.

There was some controversy from OTH viewers and critics, but all in all I was glad Mark Schwahn paid attention to the voices of the students in these real life situations and let them be heard through this series. Maybe it spoke to you, maybe it spoke to them. Maybe a high school student watching the episode that identified with the bully or the bullied found some solace that changed the outcome of something in their lives.

It’s not like everyone had the perfect experience as a teenager. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: A Scorching Moment in Sound

So far, there have been eight season finales of “One Tree Hill”, and in those eight finales, I can’t think of one song that stood out more to me than the ending track from season two — “Lavinia” by The Veils.

Now, that’s not to say there haven’t been some incredible songs, because there definitely have been, but none of them give me chills as much as the haunting vocals on this incredible piece of music.

Let’s not forget that this particular season finale set in motion one of the biggest story-lines of “One Tree Hill” history. [READ MORE]

The Music of ‘One Tree Hill’: When the Melodic ‘Stars’ Aligned

The music of “One Tree Hill” was addictive from day one; throughout the first season and into the second, these songs came to be more significant to fans. As I always say: the new music became just as important to us as the new episode was.

A few episodes into the second season OTH took a different direction with the songs on their show after bringing on a relatively new singer — but an unknown actor — Tyler Hilton as the wise-cracking Chris Keller. The character of Haley (played by Bethany Joy Galeotti, née Lenz) was no longer who we found out — halfway through season one — was just ‘a girl who just liked to sing’.

Oh no, Haley became ‘a singer’. [READ MORE]

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