MDA Labor Day Telethon - Theme Songs

Theme Songs

• Since the show's inception, its theme has been "Smile," a song from Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times.

• The telethon's toteboard theme song is an instrumental version of Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now Is Love" (1965). It was used from 1970 through 1989 in different arrangements. At the show's 25th anniversary in 1990, it was not used, but returned for the 1991 edition. In 1992, the song was replaced by various orchestral fanfares to give the show a fresh effect, but it returned in 1996 at Lewis' request. The 2008 and 2009 versions used the song only for the final tote while a generic fanfare marked the others; the 2010 edition used a generic fanfare for all totes, including the final tote, with "What The World Needs Now Is Love" relegated to a medley of songs that played during the closing credits.

• The song Jerry Lewis perennially sings to conclude the event, "You'll Never Walk Alone," was originally written for the 1945 Broadway musical play, Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Lewis has given conflicting accounts on the air as to the origin of his use of the song. According to his account at the end of the 2007 telethon, the song was suggested to him in 1964 by a disabled child, walking with a cane; it was suggested to Jerry as a song that would specifically represent physically disabled children. In the 2010 broadcast, however, Lewis mentioned that he knew the song by heart, and was singing it that year for the "59th time", which would mean he had been singing it annually since he began hosting MDA telethons in 1952. Also, a recording of Lewis singing the song for a poster child was released as a cardboard record in 1959; that year, Rodgers and Hammerstein gave the MDA permission to use the song as the official theme for the organisation. When Lewis was removed as telethon host in 2011, the song was retired and the closing theme was changed to "God Bless America", a patriotic standard written by Irving Berlin.