Walter Murphy was roped in to compose the film's musical score as he previously did the same for MacFarlane's animated television series: Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show.[1] When MacFarlane sent the script to Murphy, he mentioned that he wanted an old school orchestral score that would have themes for the individual characters and a main title song which he could quote throughout the film, that eventually became the song "Everybody Needs a Best Friend".[2]
MacFarlane sent different sets of lyrics than the one he used for the actual song, and he wrote the theme based on it. But he rewrote them so as the song being sung from the standpoint of Ted, and also felt it funnier if a woman sung it track. MacFarlane then discussed it to singer Norah Jones who agreed to perform it, and Murphy arranged in the style of Nelson Riddle's work. According to Murphy, "It's not only well sung, but Norah's attitude also just fit the main title section perfectly."[3]
Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote "Witty and distinctively MacFarlane, the soundtrack shows he can translate his musical ideas, as well as his comedy, to the big screen."[6] Daniel Schweiger of Assignment X wrote "Walter Murphy hits all the right Williams and Mancini notes for a foul-mouthed Teddy Bear".[7]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Walter Murphy, except where indicated.
Bass – Chuck Berghofer, Dave Stone, Dominic Genova, Ken Wild, Richard Shaw, Steven Edelman*, Trey Henry
Bassoon – Rose Corrigan
Cello – Cecilia Tsan, Dennis Karmazyn, Earl Madison, Jen Kuhn, Jerome Kessler, Maryanne Steinberger, Matthew Cooker, Maurice Grants, Miguel Martinez, Nancy Stein-Ross, Vanessa Freebairn-Smith
Clarinet – Gary Bovyer
Drums – Bernie Dresel
French horn – James Thatcher, Joe Meyer, Justin Hageman, Tawnee Lillo, William Lane
Guitar – Thom Rotella
Harp – Katie Kirkpatrick, Marcia Dickstein
Percussion – Bob Leatherbarrow, Brian Kilgore, David G. Shank, Greg Westhoff
Piano – David Loeb, Tom Ranier
Trombone – Alex Iles, Alex Kaplan, Ira Nepus, Bill Reichenbach, John Van Houten
Trumpet – Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Jon Lewis, Larry Hall, Rick Baptist, Rob Schaer
Tuba – Bill Reichenbach, John Van Houten
Viola – Andrew Duckles, Dan Neufeld, Darrin McCann, Denyse Buffum, Harry Shirinian, Jimbo Ross, Jorge Moraga, Lynn Grants, Michael Nowak, Michelle Jiao Liu, Ray Tischer, Robert Berg, Victor De Almeida
Violin – Ana Landauer, Bob Peterson, Cameron Patrick, Charlie Bisharat, Cheryl Norman, Chris Reutinger, Christine Frank, Daphne Chen, Franklyn D'Antonio, Gil Romero, Helen Nightengale, Isabelle Senger, Jeremy Cohen, John Wittenberg, Kathleen Robertson, Kenneth Yerke, Kevin Connolly, Lorenz Gamma, Marcy Dicterow Vaj, Marina Manukian, Mark Baranov, Mark Robertson, Michele Richards, Miran Kojian, Nancy Roth, Ovsep Ketendjian, Phillip Levy, Razdan Kuyumjian, Serena McKinney, Sharon Cooper, Songa Lee
Woodwind – Alan Estes, Bob Carr, Chris Bleth, Dan Higgins, Fred Selden, Jennifer Hall, John Yoakum, Steve Kujala
^Schweiger, Daniel (September 1, 2012). "CD Review: TED soundtrack". Assignment X. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
^Murphy, Walter. Ted (For Your Consideration – Best Original Score) (Media notes). Universal Studios.
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