A Love Letter to the Gilmore Girls Score
Graphic by Cate Banks
By Minna Abdel-Gawad
It’s that time of year again, go check on your most insufferable pop culture loving friends: it’s Gilmore Girls season.
Autumnal activities tend to consist of apple picking, visiting pumpkin patches, or watching “Halloween-town” on repeat. But for a select few of us autumn means turning on Netflix, playing season 1 episode 1 of Gilmore Girls, contemplating our relationships with our mother and truly asking “Were any of Rory Gilmore’s boyfriends a good choice?”
Aside from the witty lines, fast monologues, endless coffee refills, and questionable mothering choices, Gilmore Girls also features the most heavenly score and soundtrack. Everything about the CW show’s music choices exudes comfort, solace, and warmth; mirroring many of the home-y sets that Gilmore Girls features.
The perfect reflection of the set and the show's themes in the music are all thanks to the phenomenal work of Sam Phillips and Carole King. Both of these women are able to encapsulate comfort in their acoustic guitars and their gritty yet comforting voices.
Sam Phillips was the leading composer on the seven seasons run of the dramedy. Phillips shared in an interview that creator and writer Amy Sherman-Palladino asked her “to sing on the score as the musical voice inside Rory and Lorelai's heads.” She shares “I wrote little songs and kept the instrumentation simple: acoustic guitar, piano... sometimes bass and drums.”
Phillips also said she “had a commitment to try using all real instruments and not use any kind of programmed sound… The Gilmores have a unique sound. It’s a unique score that we kind of created by accident.” The stripped back vocals and simplistic guitar built the town of Stars Hollow and led them to be labeled as the “Gilmore Girls la-la’s.”
The involvement of the creatives allowed the show’s competition to be excellent. During the original run of the series, Phillips said, she would watch the episodes and place her strumming over the scene and then she and Sherman-Palladino would discuss what did and didn’t work. For the show's Netflix reboot in 2016, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, Phillips was invited to the table read and had the chance to compose the ‘la’s’ in real time.
Some of the most iconic moments in the show are accompanied by Phillips’ “la-la’s.” The largest points of tension between characters features a solemn finger picking guitar piece that exudes isolation, or a “la” with layers of harmonies and a slow guitar with a tambourine. The more chaotic moments feature an “ah” accompanied with a plucky guitar and a chime of sorts.
The soundtrack also features Phillips' songs during its most climactic moments. My personal favorite moment was when Phillips’ song “Reflecting Light” was featured in the season four episode “Last Week Fight, This Week Tights.” In the episode main characters Luke and Lorelai have had a “will they, won’t they” dynamic for seasons, viewers watch as they attend a wedding together.
The first dance begins and Phillips’ dreamy vocals ring out saying “Now that I’ve worn out, I’ve worn out the world / I’m on my knees in fascination / Looking through the night / And the moon’s never seen me before / But I’m reflecting light” accompanied by soulful guitar and hypnotizing violins. We watch as the two take the dance floor and this is the pinnacle of what all the characters, townspeople and viewers have been waiting for over the four seasons. The song makes the romance. What’s even better is *spoiler alert* when the two get married in the reboot almost a decade later the song plays once more during their first dance at their long awaited wedding.
Alongside Phillips, certified icon Carole King was also involved in the Gilmore Girls soundtrack. King is best known for her stellar songwriting, having co-written over 400 songs for more than 1,000 artists and released her 15 week chart topping album “Tapestry.” The singer also performed the show's theme song “Where You Lead I Will Follow.” This song had existed outside of the show but what’s so special about the Gilmore Girls rendition is the fact that King sings the song alongside her daughter, Louise Goffin. While viewers bop their heads along and watch the intro that features clips of their favorite mother-daughter duo they are also listening to a mother and daughter sing the theme.
While King did not contribute to the composition the same way Phillips did she was involved in the show in other ways. King guest starred in a handful of episodes as Sophie Bloom, the music shop owner in Stars Hollow. King’s character contributes to the formation of Rory’s best friend, Lane, band Hep Alien and occasionally plays her own music in the store, a meta reference to all King fans in the audience.
The show itself is a 2000s times capsule and executes its deeply flawed yet still likable characters to perfection and Gilmore Girls’ soundtrack only adds to its artistry. I hope one day someone will finally add the iconic “la’s” to spotify so we can all pretend to walk through Stars Hollow on our hot girl walks.