"Agatha All Along", also known as "It Was ______ All Along", is an original song from the

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Mar ...

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

miniseries ''

WandaVision ''WandaVision'' is an American television miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It is the first television series in ...

''. Written by the series' theme song composers

Kristen Anderson-Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez (born March 21, 1972) is an American songwriter and lyricist known for co-writing the songs for the 2013 computer-animated musical film '' Frozen'' and its 2019 sequel ''Frozen II'' with her husband Robert Lopez. The couple ...

and

Robert Lopez Robert Lopez (born February 23, 1975) is an American songwriter for musicals, best known for co-creating ''The Book of Mormon'' and '' Avenue Q'', and for co-writing the songs featured in the Disney computer-animated films '' Frozen'', its sequ ...

for the seventh episode, "

Breaking the Fourth Wall Breaking or breakin' may refer to: Arts * Breakdancing (also breaking), an athletic style of street dance * ''Breakin, a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film * "Breakin, a twelfth-season episode of the American animated television se ...

", the song was performed by star

Kathryn Hahn Kathryn Marie Hahn (born July 23, 1973) is an American actress and comedian. She began her career on television, starring as grief counselor Lily Lebowski in the NBC crime drama series ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001–2007). Hahn gained prominence ap ...

, with Lopez, Eric Bradley, Greg Whipple, Jasper Randall, and Gerald White serving as backup singers. The song drew inspiration from the theme songs from ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Anoth ...

'' and ''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...

''. "Agatha All Along" went viral after appearing in "Breaking the Fourth Wall", and was officially released on February 23, 2021, as part of the '' WandaVision: Episode 7 (Original Soundtrack)''. It debuted on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s

Digital Song Sales The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally start ...

chart at number 36, and earned Anderson-Lopez and Lopez a

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, awarded to both the composer and lyricist. The award has gone by several names: * Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special M ...

, among other accolades.

Background and production

In December 2020, songwriting couple

and

were announced to have written theme songs for some of the episodes of the

miniseries ''

''. The seventh episode of the series, "

", which was released on Disney+ on February 19, 2021, ended by revealing that

's character Agnes was actually

Agatha Harkness Agatha Harkness is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a powerful witch, typically portrayed as a friend and teacher of Wanda Maximoff, as well as the mother of Nicholas Scratch. Agatha is ...

and the manipulator of

Wanda Maximoff Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Her first appearance was in '' The X-Men'' #4 (March 1964) ...

's idyllic suburban lifestyle inspired by American sitcoms in Westview, New Jersey. The reveal was accompanied by a title sequence for the series ''Agatha All Along'', which featured Anderson Lopez and Lopez's theme and sequences showing moments Agatha had been behind. The credits for "Breaking the Fourth Wall" list the song's name as "It Was ______ All Along". When developing the episode, the ''WandaVision'' writers wrote placeholder theme songs into the episodes before Anderson-Lopez and Lopez were brought on board, with Cameron Squires, the writer of "Breaking the Fourth Wall", originally naming the Agatha theme "That's So Agatha", as a reference to the television series ''

That's So Raven ''That's So Raven'' is an American television teen sitcom that was created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman, and aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between January 2003 and November 2007. The series centers on Raven Baxter (Raven-Sym ...

''. "Agatha All Along" is similar to the theme song for ''

'' and " ''The Addams Family'' Theme" from ''

''. The couple were drawn to the past monster-centric series' music in order to give Agatha's theme song a "witchy, ghoulish feeling" with "a little bit of an

Oompa-Loompa This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', his 1972 sequel ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', and the former's film adaptations, ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971) and '' ...

tenor feel to it too" and the feeling of something in a haunted house. Initially, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez tried creating a song in a similar vein to "

That Girl ''That Girl'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from September 8, 1966 to March 19, 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as the title character Ann Marie, an aspiring (but only sporadically employed) actress, who moves from her hometown of Brewster ...

" by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

, but they felt it was not the right fit. They then began thinking of the song as being about witches, leading them to shows about witches and Goth figures as well as "Halloween-y" songs with a "grinding, growling"

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

. "Agatha All Along"s chord progression begins in E minor before moving a

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...

to B-flat in the bass, with a bridge centered in

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

and a "

Shave and a Haircut "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" is a seven-note musical call and response (music), call-and-response couplet, Ostinato#Riff, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comedic e ...

" ending. The tritone is the same interval used by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez in the final two notes of their four-note ''WandaVision'' motif used in their other theme songs. The song includes "a big-band horn riff", "kitschy" electric harpsichord for the repeated chorus, "cheery baritones", a "clap-clap, clap' snare", and is sung in "kooky-spooky voices", with lyrics that reveal how Agatha had been behind all of the show's tragedies. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez produced the song, with Anderson-Lopez conceiving the lyrics and Lopez composing the music. "Agatha All Along" was arranged and orchestrated by Dave Metzger. Hahn is the lead singer on the theme, with Lopez singing backup alongside Eric Bradley, Greg Whipple, Jasper Randall, and Gerald White, the other male backup singers from previous theme songs. Because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Hahn recorded her vocals over

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

Release

"Agatha All Along" was released digitally by

Marvel Music Marvel Music was a short-lived imprint of Marvel Comics, introduced in 1994 to publish comics developed in collaboration with musicians. The concept descended from previous Marvel collaborations with Kiss (which starred in a ''Marvel Comics Sup ...

and

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...

on February 23, 2021, as the second track on the soundtrack '' WandaVision: Episode 7 (Original Soundtrack)''. The soundtrack was originally scheduled to be released on February 26, with ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...

'' speculating the release was moved up due to the popularity of the song.

Reception

Critical response

Upon the release of "Breaking the Fourth Wall", "Agatha All Along" went viral, with viewers particularly drawn to the theme, creating various remixes, memes, and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

videos in the following days. A

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

remix created by Leland Philpot received the attention of Anderson-Lopez, who called it "the most glorious thing", while Lopez enjoyed a rock remix from Timmy Sean, saying it was "incredible" that Sean was able to release it shortly after the episode without any sheet music available. By February 23, the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

for the song had become a trending topic on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, with Disney linking the hashtag to their Agatha emoji. Disney's president of marketing Asad Ayaz called the moment "a zeitgeisty thing" and his team quickly released the official clip after unofficial ones were going viral. Ayaz noted that the marketing team had a plan around the reveal of Agnes really being Agatha and allowed the fans to help "drive the conversation". Lopez admitted that they did not anticipate "Agatha All Along" would have garnered so much popularity, since by that point they had assumed none of their themes would have become hits since the previous one had not reached any level of popularity.

Matt Shakman Matt Shakman is an American film, television, and theatre director, and former child actor. He produced and directed ''WandaVision'' and has directed episodes of ''The Great'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', '' Fargo'' and ''Game of Thro ...

, the episode's director, and Hahn were also taken aback by the song's popularity. Commentators called the song "catchy", with "delicious" lyrics, and likened it to " Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" from ''

The Witcher ''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are bea ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series, which also went viral. The song was also called "the official

song of summer ''Song of Summer'' is a 1968 black-and-white television film co-written, produced, and directed by Ken Russell for the BBC's '' Omnibus'' series which was first broadcast on 15 September 1968. It portrays the final six years of Frederick Delius ...

2021", the song of the year, and a song that would be requested at celebrations and nightclubs following the

. Alex Zalben at ''

Decider Decider is both a real word and a "Bushism". It may refer to: * ''Decider'' (website), a pop culture website operated by the ''New York Post'' *'' Bill Maher: The Decider'', a stand-up comedy special * Decider (Turing machine), a Turing machine th ...

'' expanded on why this theme appeared to be more popular than the past ''WandaVision'' themes, saying that emulating ''The Munsters'' theme allowed it to have "a catchy riff that works, a tried and true earworm" and adding that songs for villains, as seen in many of

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

' films, are more fun and let the villain "ham it up". The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' August Brown agreed with Zalben that "Agatha All Along" was ''WandaVision''s villain song, describing it as "a meme-able, deliciously vampy single that gleefully twisted the plot of the show" and one that would "likely live on outside it as entrance music for anyone looking to stir chaos". Brown called Hahn's singing perfect with "brassy conviction". Antonio Ferme of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called "Agatha All Along" "the greatest character introduction song of all time" and "arguably the most aggressive earworm" of the ''WandaVision'' theme songs. Writing for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

'', Joshua Rivera felt "Agatha All Along" was Anderson-Lopez and Lopez's "finest moment" of ''WandaVision'', calling the song the series' "first real earworm: short, sticky, and extremely meme-able". ''

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

''s Gregory Lawrence felt the theme was an "objectively great surf-rock banger" with "pitch-perfect aping of '60s surf rock nd horror sitcom themetropes". Lawrence's colleague Emma Fraser ranked "Agatha All Along" as the best of the ''WandaVision'' theme songs, believing it would lead to Anderson-Lopez and Lopez winning an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

Commercial performance

Following its release, "Agatha All Along" peaked at number one on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

' Soundtrack chart, and by February 24, 2021, reached fifth on iTunes' Top 100 singles chart. For the week ending February 25, 2021, "Agatha All Along" placed 36th on ''

''s

chart, with 3,000 downloads, while also garnering 1.6million U.S. streams.

Accolades

"Agatha All Along" was nominated at the

2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards The 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards were an awards presentation held on May 16 and 17, 2021 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. It was the 29th edition of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, and the fourth to jointly honor movies and television. The pre ...

for Best Musical Moment; the song and Hahn were nominated at the 2021

Dorian Awards The Dorian Awards are film and television accolades given by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, founded in 2009 as the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association. GALECA is an association of professional journalists and c ...

for Best TV Musical Performance; for the

73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards The 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards honored the best in artistic and technical achievement in United States, American prime time television programming from June 1, 2020, until May 31, 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts ...

, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez won Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the song; and the song was nominated at the

64th Annual Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, ...

for the

Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Recipients * Each year is linked ...

References

External links

Lyrics to "Agatha All Along"
on ''

Marvel.com Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York, formed by the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group and Toy Biz. The company is a wholly own ...

'' {{EmmyAward MusicLyrics 2021 songs Film and television memes Hollywood Records singles Internet memes introduced in 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe songs Songs from television series Songs written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez Songs written by Robert Lopez Surf rock songs WandaVision