Not all unforgettable musical moments in TV shows happen in musical series. Sometimes, hit dramas, sitcoms, and even supernatural shows surprise us with amazing musical performances. Get ready to explore a list of surprisingly delightful (and sometimes hilariously bad) musical moments from your favorite non-musical shows.
Friends
Friends gave us so many rememberable moments. But beyond the laughs and the friendship, this iconic show featured some unexpected musical delights. Who could forget Phoebe’s hilarious “Smelly Cat?” However, a truly awesome musical moment happened when Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, graced Central Perk with her rendition of “Angel of the Morning.”
Chris Isaak also made a cameo, singing “Smelly Cat” with Phoebe and showing off his incredible vocal range. It’s a surprising and delightful intersection of music and comedy.
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory, includes some terrible music moments including Raj and Howard singing “Hammer & Whip”, Raj and Leonard singing “Bust a Move” and Howard and Bernadette singing “I Got You Babe” during a car trip. All these musical moments are done in jest.
A standout performance happens when Howard and the group sing “If I Didn’t Have You” to Bernadette who is quarantined in hospital. While the singing is not amazing, the performance has heart. It makes for a beautiful moment.
Grey’s Anatomy
“Song Beneath The Song” from Grey’s Anatomy divided viewers. Performances include an all-cast version of “How To Save A Life”, “Breathe”, a toe-tapping version of “Running on Sunshine”, and “Wait”.
Sara Ramirez gave an outstanding rendition of “The Story”. The scenes accompanying the performance are strange, with Sara’s character, Callie Torres, simultaneously lying prone in a hospital bed while also walking around and singing. It is a fantastic performances.
Riverdale
Riverdale may seem like a musical series, with more than 50 music performances over four seasons, but it is billed as teen drama. There are some cringey performances such as “Exquisite Corpse”, “Our Love is God”, “You Shine”, and “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage.”
Some of the better performances include “Candy Girl”, “Kids in America”, “Amazing Grace”, and “Back to Black”.
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is a 90s comedy-drama TV series. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and weird. There were many performances by Elaine and celebrity cameo performances including Barry Manilow, Elton John, Barry White, Anastasia, Tina Turner, Gloria Gaynor and more.
Josh Groban’s emotional performance of “You’re Still You” during a prom scene. In the show, Robert Downey Jr. plays Ally’s love interest. He sings Joni Mitchell’s “River” during a Christmas episode and also sang Ally a song he wrote for her called “Chances”. Downey even had a duet with Sting which was intended as both a belated birthday gift and apology to Ally. On top of that he also performed a rousing rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s Sherry Darling.
Once Upon A Time
In the 20th episode of the 6th season of Once Upon A Time a musical episode was featured. Some of the most beloved characters showed off their musical talents with original songs.
Charming and Snow White had their own “Disney” moment and kicked off the episode, with the Evil Queen following soon after. Captain Hook and Emma have their own moment as well.
The Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) gave an outstanding performance of “Wicked Always Wins”.
Dawson’s Creek
There were some musical moments in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek. There was a drama-laden rendition of “Daydream Believer” that unleashed a cloud of teen angst and a drunken duet by Dawson and Andie.
A fitting performance in Season 1 by Joey Potter of “On My Own” from Les Miserable, had some fans reaching for the tissues. In this clip she sings “I Hate Myself For Loving You” alongside Chad Michael Murray’s character Charlie.
Stranger Things
During a tense scene in the finale of the third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things 3 Dustin and his long-distance girlfriend Suzie start singing “The NeverEnding Story” at Suzie’s insistence.
The result is a fantastic performance of the song by the two teenagers and fans still excitedly talk about it.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a great soundtrack featuring songs by Sarah McLachlan, Joss Whedon, Christophe Beck, Garbage and Alison Krauss.
During the seventh episode of the sixth season, the plot centers around a demon compelling the people of Sunnydale to randomly break into song. Buffy sings of her boring life when she performs “Going Through The Motions” and there is a big closing number with everyone singing “Where Do We Go From Here?”. There are a number of hits in the episode with a fan favorite being “Rest in Peace” sung by Spike.
House
Hugh Laurie is pretty much the last TV actor you would expect to start singing at any given time. And yet, House dons a top hat and magician-looking suit and sings a creepy version of “Get Happy” with Lisa Edelstein’s character, Lisa Cuddy.
These musical moments remind us that our favorite shows can surprise us in the best ways, blending drama, comedy, and music into unforgettable scenes.
