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

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

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 i ...

''. Written by the series' theme song composers

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

and

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

for the seventh episode, "

Breaking the Fourth Wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th centu ...

", the song was performed by star

Kathryn Hahn Kathryn Marie Hahn (born July 23, 1973) is an American actress. She gained prominence appearing as a supporting actress in a number of comedy films, including '' How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'' (2003), '' Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy'' (2 ...

, 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 about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

'' 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 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' between 193 ...

''. "Agatha All Along" went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

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 advertis ...

''s

Digital Song Sales The Digital Song Sales (previously named Digital Songs and Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Luminate and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally started tracking so ...

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

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics is an award presented annually by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It is awarded to the best original song or score created specifically for a television program. The a ...

, 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 character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in ''Fantastic Four'' #94 (October 1969). Agatha Harkness is a powerful wi ...

and the manipulator of Wanda Maximoff'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 fantasy 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 ( ...

''. "Agatha All Along" was written to be similar to the theme song for ''

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

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

Oompa-Loompa The Oompa-Loompas are a fictional race of people in the ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' franchise based on the original book by Roald Dahl. In all versions of the story, they are depicted as little people who form the workforce of Willy ...

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 television 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 hometo ...

" by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

, 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 (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") 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 saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

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

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a interval (music), musical interval spanning three adjacent Major second, 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 ...

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

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

and a "

Shave and a Haircut "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" is a seven-note musical call-and-response couplet, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comedic effect. It is used melodically or rhythmical ...

" 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Hahn recorded her vocals over

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Zoom'' (2006 film), starring Tim Allen * ''Zoom'' (2015 film), a Canada-Brazil film by Pedro Morelli * ''Zoom'' (2016 Kannada film), a Kannada film * ''Zoom'' (2016 Sinhala film), a Sr ...

. The ''WandaVision'' spin-off series centered on Agatha, with Hahn reprising her role, is also titled '' Agatha All Along'' (2024).

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 S ...

and

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group which focuses on pop, rock, alternative, hip hop and country genres, also specializing in recordings for a more mature audience not suitable for the flagship Wal ...

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 journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

'' speculating the release was moved up due to the popularity of the song. On September 6, 2024, Hollywood Records released a

Dave Audé Dave Audé () is an American DJ, producer and remixer. He operates his own label Audacious Records, and is known for having more number ones than any other producer on the ''Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart. He has done production for artists ...

remix of the song.

Reception

Critical response

Upon the release of "Breaking the Fourth Wall", "Agatha All Along" went

, with viewers particularly drawn to the theme, creating various remixes, memes, and

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

videos in the following days. A trap 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 operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

for the song had become a trending topic on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, 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 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 Thrones''. He also directed the up ...

, 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'' (, ) is a series of 9 fantasy novels and 15 short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Witchers are monster hunters given superhuman abilities for the ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

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 episode 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 De ...

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 machin ...

'' 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 produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...

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

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' 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 made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'', 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 that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...

''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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

Commercial performance

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

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

' 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. The song charted for three weeks on OCC's UK Singles chart, from March 3 to March 18, 2021, peaking at 53rd in its second week.

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 pr ...

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

Dorian Awards The Dorian Awards are general and LGBTQ-themed accolades for excellence in film, television and Broadway / Off-Broadway, as voted by the members of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. GALECA is an association of professional jour ...

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. Alan Menken has won five awards (out of nine nominati ...

References

External links

Lyrics to "Agatha All Along"
on '' Marvel.com'' () {{Portal bar, 2020s, United States, Television, Music, Rock music, Disney, Speculative fiction, Fantasy, Comics 2021 songs The Addams Family Hollywood Records singles Internet memes introduced in 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe songs The Munsters Songs about witches Songs written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez Songs written by Robert Lopez Songs written for television series Surf rock songs WandaVision