Singer and songwriter Alanis Morissette has recorded and released a new cover version of Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” main title theme song, “No Return.”
Viewers who watched the fourth episode of “Yellowjackets,” which dropped on Showtime’s streaming service on the night of April 13, may have been surprised to hear Morissette’s new version of the song over the show’s opening credits. The new version of the song is a one-off for Episode 4, and the original theme song will return for its fifth, look for Morissette’s song to pop up at other points in this season.
“No Return,” the haunting and psychedelic opening theme of “Yellowjackets,” was originally composed by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker, who write the music for the show.
Says Morissette, “I love the original version of ‘No Return,’ It’s just a perfect song. It was a little daunting to be asked to reinterpret it but I see parallels between ‘Yellowjackets’ and my perspective while songwriting: the sheer intensity, that going for the jugular with no fear around going for the profane.”
She added, “I’ve strived my entire career to support the empowerment of women and sensitives and see the world through the female lens, and what’s so wonderful about this show is that each character is allowed to be dynamic and complex as opposed to oversimplified, reduced versions of women.”
Speaking with Variety last year, Wedren and Waronker knew the main title theme needed something “spooky.” The perfect instrument to help deliver that was a vintage Farfisa organ, Wedren told Variety‘s Chris Willman, because “There’s nothing more fun and spooky than a Farfisa, because that’s a classic (thriller sound).”
As for writing the lyrics, Waronker said they went with “whatever kind of came to mind that felt like the right thing to say, whether it made sense or not. Because does the show even make sense?”
Added Wedren, “They took a while to kind of find the right combination where it was like, “Oh yeah, that feels like ‘Yellowjackets’; that totally evokes the images and the feeling and the relationships and the weirdness of ‘Yellowjackets’ without giving aaaanything away.”
Listen to Morissette’s “No Return” below.