After eight minutes, a few white walkers, and a Night Watchman head tossing, we heard one of the most legendary and astonishing opening themes ever. You know the one that goes DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun.
According to HBO, around 2.2 million viewers tuned into this Game of Thrones pilot in April 2011 and heard this instantly famous theme for the first time 12 years ago.
Almost 10 million people tuned into the House of the Dragon premiere HBO announced in 2022. This Game of Thrones prequel uses the same title theme for its opening sequence. That’s as if almost everyone living in North Carolina, minus Raleigh’s population, watched The Heirs of the Dragon.
Imagine the reach and all the engagements this piece of music accrued over this time. Especially with all the viewership growth Game of Thrones saw during its eight seasons and the massive success of House of the Dragon. Billions? I definitely can’t count to that high of a number. Where’s the math master or algorithm to figure that out?
Another impressive and high thing about this Game of Thrones composition is all the EPIC covers on Youtube. Type “Game of Thrones theme cover” into the Youtube search bar, and you get a variety of vocal covers, violin covers, woodwind covers, and piano covers. There’s even a Western version and one where two dudes blow into a bottle. The ones I’ve listened to are amazing, but my favorite cover absolutely shreds.
Now without further ado. Watch what happened when Dan Weiss (Game of Thrones creator), Tom Morello (Audioslave/Rage Against the Machine), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Brad Paisley, and Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones composer) gathered in a Fender Custom Shop. The result is my favorite Game of Thrones theme cover.
What a great alternative to all the other theme covers. Each guitarist rocks, rolls, and electrifies the melody in their way.
Tom Morello’s performance is my favorite. I’m partial to him listening to Rage back in high school. My ears are a sucker for his guitar effects.
The two big surprises were how Dan Weiss and Brad Paisley played their guitars. I might’ve prejudged their parts on the cover. Before watching both of their solos, I thought Dan was there simply for people placement, and Brad was there to attract some country listeners to the video. Also, I thought Dan couldn’t keep up and had never seen Brad play guitar. My new opinion of them after watching is that Dan is good at the guitar and Brad is excellent.
As of now, this video has 716,000 likes and 39,638,618 views since its upload to Youtube on May 14, 2019. Now there’s some reach and engagement.
This video definitely deserves more likes based on the number of views. I’m optimistic you’ll hit the like button for The Game of Thrones Fender cover. Check it out repeatedly, and all the other EPIC Game of Throne theme covers on Youtube. And take the KingsRoad to your favorite theme cover if needed.
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