The 10 Best ‘Gilmore Girls’ Music Moments

The song that kicks off the entire series is none other than “There She Goes” by The La’s. Viewers are introduced to Stars Hollow as the tune plays and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) treks through town, giving viewers the illusion of following her but never quite catching up. The combination of the camerawork and the song’s titular lyrics — “There she goes, there she goes again” — make it clear that this is Lorelai’s world, and we’re all just living in it. It matches Lorelai’s personality perfectly, and also leads the audience to Luke (Scott Patterson), therefore hinting that he just might become very important to both Gilmore girls.

Throughout the series, Lorelai and Rory (Alexis Bledel) attend several concerts, resulting in cameo performances from bands including The Bangles and The Shins. In Episode 13 of the first season, Lorelai and Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) take Rory, Paris (Liza Weil), Madeline (Shelly Cole) and Louise (Teal Redmann) to a Bangles show in New York City, during which the band performs “Hero Takes A Fall” and “Eternal Flame.”

A couple of episodes later, Chad Michael Murray’s character, Tristan, invites Rory to a PJ Harvey concert, but she rejects him on principle. Though her denial means Harvey didn’t make a cameo, her song “One Line” plays at the end of the episode.

And, in Season 4, Paris and Rory travel to Florida for spring break and just so happen to stumble across a club where The Shins are playing an intimate set. The band performs “So Says I,” and moments later Paris and Rory share a spur-of-the-moment smooch.

Season 3, Episode 18, entitled “Happy Birthday, Baby,” sees Lorelai celebrating her birthday for the only time in the series. While Rory attempts to build her the world’s biggest pizza, the Independence Inn’s night manager, Tobin (Bruce McCulloch), presents Lorelai with the ultimate gift: Joe Strummer’s leather jacket. As a big fan of ’80s New Wave, she is both shocked and delighted with the gift, which Tobin informs her is from The Clash’s “Pearl Harbour” tour in 1979. “This is by far the coolest thing I have ever gotten!” Lorelai exclaims before smelling the jacket, as any true fan of The Clash would.

Music fans were treated to a surprise in Season 4 when heavy metal veteran (and world-renowned pretty boy) Sebastian Bach made a cameo as Gil, a guitarist auditioning for Lane’s (Keiko Agena) band. And, he went on to act throughout the remainder of the show, appearing in a total of 13 episodes. When Lane and the rest of Hep Alien first meet Gil in the episode titled “The Festival of Living Art,” they are shocked at his age — even though he totally shreds. “He was our age when we were born,” Brian (John Cabrera) says, in shock. “There were no CDs when he was born.”

It’s nearly impossible to imagine “Gilmore Girls” without Sam Phillips’ rousing score, known to many as the “La La’s.” Serving as the transitional music between scenes, the simple guitar and piano instrumentals give Phillips’ voice the spotlight — but who knew just one syllable could convey so much meaning and emotion?

“Amy’s direction was for the ‘La La’s’ to be the music inside of Lorelai and Rory’s heads — and not just Lorelai’s or just Rory’s, but it was the music that they shared,” Phillips tells Variety. “But I think any kind of emotion really does come from the melodies, because obviously there weren’t big swells or crashes.”

Looking back on the show two decades later, Phillips also believes that the show’s writing and themes helped to make her score more emotive.

“The series — even though it’s funny and tough — is really emotional at times, especially compared to what was on that network at the time,” Phillips says. “It was just a whole other level, it had a lot more depth and I think it was a lot funnier than a lot of the shows at the time. A lot of shows don’t have a life like that. It just strikes a certain chord.”

It wouldn’t be Stars Hollow without Grant-Lee Phillips, who is known simply as Town Troubadour in the series. Similarly to Phillips’ score, he also serves as a musical interlude between scenes, delivering acoustic covers of songs like Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” Beach Boys’ “Be True To Your School” and Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard.” But, appearing on the series also gave Grant-Lee Phillips the opportunity to showcase his own music from his band, Grant Lee Buffalo, as well as his solo career, for which he just released his 10th album.

Phillips also got to act in a few episodes of the show, most notably, “Love, Daisies and Troubadours” in Season 1, during which he must reassert his dominance as the town’s one and only troubadour when competition arises on his corner of the street.

“I think of it as being sort of a cartoon version of myself,” he tells Variety about the role.” I always got a kick out of the fact that it seemed as though my character was always worked up about something. It might have to do with some other troubadour treading on my turf — a war with my sister played by Louise Goffin. But I wondered, ‘What am I projecting that they keep writing all of this anger into my character?'”

Though Carole King’s “Where You Lead” was a hit long before “Gilmore Girls” was, the two are now nearly synonymous. King actually re-recorded the song especially for the show, changing some of the lyrics to reflect a mother-daughter relationship, and having her own daughter, Louise Goffin, sing with her as a duet.

“My mom said, ‘I don’t want to get your hopes up, probably nothing will happen with it. It’s just a pilot and it’s rare that pilots get picked up,'” Goffin tells Variety.

They recorded the duet in Goffin’s home studio with her then-husband, producer Greg Wells, in a single afternoon, while Goffin’s baby son watched. 

“It was so cool because here we were, doing this song about a mother and daughter living together, and we were in my house singing in the laundry room with my baby,” Goffin says. “It was just very true to life.”

As for the impact of “Gilmore Girls,” Goffin says she didn’t even realize how big the show had become until it was time to film the revival — she had been too busy releasing ten albums of her own. 

“Then of course I caught up, and it’s such a great show and the writing’s so good,” Goffin says. “The themes and the dramas and the struggles, and the things that everybody feels are so relatable. I don’t think you could rip the song from the actual thing because it fits so well.”

After recording the show’s theme song, it’s only fitting that both King and her daughter have cameos in the show. King first appears in Season 2, Episode 20, entitled “Help Wanted,” as Sophie Bloom, the owner of Stars Hollow’s music store. Lane wanders into the store and becomes enamored with a cherry red drum kit just as Wilco’s “Heavy Metal Drummer” begins to play in the background. At first, Sophie is stern with Lane wanting to test out the kit without buying it, but the two eventually strike a deal allowing Lane to practice in the store after hours. King also appears as Sophie in the “Summer” episode of the revival, even performing her own hit, “I Feel The Earth Move.”

Goffin makes a cameo in the revival episode “Winter,” as town troubadour Phillips’ sister. She performs a few verses of her song, “Archives,” before being chased away by Phillips, shouting: “I told you: my town, my corner!”

The Season 6 finale is perhaps one of the most musically significant episodes to ever exist in the history of television. After Stars Hollow’s resident town troubadour goes on tour with Neil Young, other musical acts flock to the town in hopes of being discovered themselves. This results in performances from Sonic Youth, Sparks, Yo La Tengo, Joe Pernice, Mary Lynn Rajskub and show composer Sam Phillips scattered throughout the episode. Sonic Youth’s appearance is especially notable, as Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore are joined by their daughter, Coco Gordon Moore, on bass. Sherman-Palladino’s husband (and executive producer of the show), Daniel Palladino, also joins one of the hopeful bands to perform a tune he wrote, known as “A Beaver Ate My Thumb.” Really, the episode is a must-watch.

One component of “Gilmore Girls” that makes it so memorable is undoubtedly its depiction of teenage romance. And, whether you’re Team Dean or Team Jess, no one can deny that the long-awaited second first kiss between Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rory is butterfly-inducing. In the eighth episode of the third season, appropriately titled “Let The Games Begin,” the two lock lips just as the first notes of XTC’s “Then She Appeared” ring out. The song’s romantic lyrics and signature riff do just as much to set the mood as Jess and Rory’s playful banter.

In the very next episode, the show employs another classic tune — David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” — in a similar way, as the background music to Lane and Dave’s (Adam Brody) first kiss. Since the two bond over their love of rock and eventually start a band together, it’s only natural that the start of their romantic relationship would be soundtracked by one of their favorite musicians.