Deadliest Catch - Theme Music

Theme Music

The opening theme for the U.S. TV airings is "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, although this song is not used on the official DVD releases nor in the European version of the show.

Commercials for season 3 shown on the Discovery Channel family of networks featured an updated and faster version of the hit Styx song "Come Sail Away", performed by the punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Commercials for Season 7 featured the song "Ain't No Grave", by Johnny Cash.

Incidental music used in the episodes themselves is provided by Amygdala Music, a music production group run by Leslie Beers, wife of Deadliest Catch creator/producer Thom Beers.

In addition to incidental music, entire compositions written and performed by well-known recording artists are also added as "episode themes." An example would be the song "Always a Rebel," written, performed, and produced by folk-rock recording artist Vinnie James, at the request of the show's producer, Matt Renner, when the two met in Dutch Harbor during the filming of the 2008 season of Deadliest Catch. The song appeared as the theme track to "The Final Hour," which was the season finale for the 2008 season. Lines of the song were inspired by accounts of life on the Bering Sea by Josh Harris of the Cornelia Marie and series director of photography Zac McFarlane.

The song "Between" by singer/songwriter Vienna Teng was used on a few episodes during season 2.

The final four minutes of the season 6 episode "Redemption Day" features Johnny Cash's rendition of Sheryl Crow's "Redemption Day"; the song plays over a montage of the crab vessels fighting through a massive Arctic squall and of Josh Harris sitting in a waiting room with friends as doctors struggle to revive Phil Harris, whose health has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. As Josh calls his brother Jake to deliver the news that "we lost Dad, dude", the song's final chorus—"Freedom"—repeats solemnly four times and fades out over a simple shot of the Bering Sea raging. The instrumental version of the song was used on Discovery Canada.