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May 19, 2017 · “Here come the Reading Rainbow people.” I think we won in just about every category. ... Ganek: So many people today do their own version of the Reading Rainbow theme song on YouTube. I saw ...
For 30 years, a children’s TV show – and its now tablet app descendant – have been trying to convey a joy of reading and the adventure to be found inside a book. Reading Rainbow debuted on June 8, 1983 1 with the episode “Tight Times”, centred around the book of the same name by Barbara Shook Hazen 2 . A young girl beset by boredom ...
Jun 6, 2021 · The original theme song was written by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir was and performed by singer and actress Tina Fabrique. In a historic television moment it featured the Buchla synthesizer for the first time in a TV theme song. advertisement. Then, on January 3, 2000, legendary singer, Chaka Khan, rerecorded the theme ...
Dec 23, 2023 · Quickly following its debut in 1983, "Reading Rainbow" grew to become one of the most popular programs in the history of public broadcasting. Initially designed as a way to combat declines in child literacy during the summer months, this ragtag PBS series became a year-round hit that encouraged children to use reading as a way to explore the larger world around them.
- Larry Fried
- Overview
- The origin of the 'Reading Rainbow' theme
- What it's like to go viral decades into your career
Some might not recognize her name or her face. But for nearly four decades, Tina Fabrique's voice has been beloved by kids across the country.
Fabrique's voice crooning the catchy lyric "Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high" in the theme song of PBS’s “Reading Rainbow” has brought joy and prompted nostalgia in nearly anyone born after the show's debut in 1983.
In recent weeks, the song has found new life on TikTok as a new generation of young people has turned it into a trend.
The song is often used in videos in which people try to figure out something that seems impossible. The song is typically paired with a filter called “Space,” which takes a person's face and superimposes it gliding over images of the sun, math equations, planets and galaxies.
Fabrique, 77, said she recently learned about the trend through her grandson.
"He said, 'Grandma, did you know that your voice is streaming all over the place?' ... and I said, 'Oh,' because I don't have a clue about TikTok," she said.
Fabrique has been a singer, a stage and screen actor and a voiceover artist nearly her whole life.
When Fabrique was offered the gig to sing the theme ahead of the show's debut in the early 1980s, her management at Prism Records wasn't thrilled about her performing as part of a children's television show.
"I loved the song. And they were using a new sound to simulate the butterfly wings," she said.
And so Fabrique went ahead with the recording.
"I don't think I did more than three takes," she recalled.
Then she went on her way, performing on stage and screen, and forgot about her performance of the track.
About four decades after "Reading Rainbow" first brought Fabrique's voice into millions of homes, she's now being blasted on millions of phones via TikTok.
The first documented version of the trend was posted March 11 by a user named @homewithshelby, according to the meme database Know Your Meme. In her video, @homewithshelby showed her face floating through space with the words “When someone is trying to explain the board game rules to me.”
Another video shows a person's face in space as the person ponders whether it's the "S" or the "C" that is silent in the word "scent."
Another example shows a golden retriever questioning why she gets only two meals a day when "human eats eight times a day."
As the trend grew, it appeared few people knew whose voice was singing the song that had inundated "For You" pages. One user, Edward Champion, posted a video to TikTok identifying Fabrique as the singer.
Fabrique, who said two of her friends showed her the video, thanked Champion for shining a light on her.
Feb 2, 2023 · The Real Reason Reading Rainbow Was Canceled. For those of a certain age, the mere opening notes of the "Reading Rainbow" theme song invoke the glowing, carefree warmth of an 8-year-old huddled with a book on a sunny afternoon. Six years after host LeVar Burton made history in 1977's TV miniseries "Roots" as Kunta Kinte, he joined the "Reading ...
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Reading Rainbow Theme Song Lyrics. Reading Rainbow! Butterfly in the sky. I can go twice as high. Take a look, it's in a book, A Reading Rainbow! I can go anywhere. Friends to know, and ways to ...
