Neil Gaiman reveals that “Everyday” was supposed to be the Good Omens theme song

Good Omens, Amazon’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s tongue-in-cheek story about the Biblical apocalypse, has a great opening credits sequence, a kind of Monty Python-esque animated promenade set to a jaunty tune by composer David Arnold:

It’s whimsical but also a little creepy, which very much fits with a show about an angel and demon teaming up to stop the end of the world. But originally, Gaiman had a very different idea in mind for the opening song, as he reveals in The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book. According to Gaiman, the opening credits were originally going to feature the Buddy Holly love song “Everyday,” which begins with the lyric, “Every day, it’s a-getting closer.” Because the apocalypse. Get it?

According to Gaiman, Pratchett originally suggested using “Everyday” way back in 1991, right after the base book was published. There were supposed to be cover versions of “Everyday” running through the whole first season. According to the script book, we were initially going to hear it in the first episode as Crowley and Aziraphale talk in the Garden of Eden. In other episodes, the song would sound like a 1960s pop tune, a lullaby, a choral song, a medieval folk piece, and a heavy metal thrasher.

How “Everyday” was originally going to be used in Good Omens

So what happened? Why didn’t the song feature in Good Omens season 1? “Our composer, David Arnold, created several different versions of ‘Everyday’ to run over the end credits,” Gaiman writes in the script book. “And then he sent us his ‘Good Omens’ theme, and it was the ‘Good Omens’ theme.”

"Peter Anderson made the most remarkable animated opening credits to the ‘Good Omens’ theme, and we realized that ‘Everyday’ didn’t really make any sense any longer, and, reluctantly, let it go. It’s here [in the scripts], though. You can hum it.”"

Of course, if you watched Good Omens season 2, you know that Gaiman managed to bring back the idea of making “Everyday” a season-long runner. The song played a big part in the new episodes; it was at the center of the mystery surrounding why the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) showed up without any memories (or clothes) on Aziraphale’s doorstep.

Eventually, the use of “Everyday” was revealed to have nothing to do with the apocalypse. Rather, it was all about the unlikely romance between Gabriel and the demon lord Beelzebub; it’s their song. Cute. We’ll see if it makes a return if and when Good Omens gets a third season.

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h/t Slashfilm