The 8 Show, the Netflix TV series has a famous theme song in the opening credits: let’s discover its story.
It’s true, after Squid Game, the entire world started to pay special attention to TV series coming from South Korea, especially those that feature mysterious competitions that take you out of society for a private game. That’s the main reason why The 8 Show, the Korean series that landed on Netflix in May 2024, has stolen the spotlight: it’s again a group of ordinary people, victims of society’s harsh economic conditions, entering a cryptic game that promises a lot of money “if you stay alive.”
Among the several things that caught the viewers’ curiosity, there’s certainly the opening credits: a frenzy sequence of images that gives an idea of the many things involved in the TV show. And while all those shots keep arriving, we hear an old song in the background. It’s a song coming from the 60s, but many recognized it for another reason.
The theme song featured in The 8 Show opening credits is Mr. Lonely by Bobby Vinton. You can listen to the original version below.
Mr. Lonely is a beautiful ballad written by American singer Bobby Vinton in 1964. The song achieved significant commercial success, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States and enjoying international acclaim. The lyrics are about solitude: the protagonist is a soldier who feels isolated and longs for his home and loved ones, crying his melancholy in the chorus:
Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
I have nobody for my own
I am so lonely
I’m Mr. Lonely
Wish I had someone to call on the phone
The opening credits we see in The 8 Show play with the song in an unexpected way: initially, the song arrives at normal speed, but after a while, things get frantic, its frequency changes and the track becomes a fast, scary lullaby. From this point of view, “Mr. Lonely” becomes a symbol of how things go in The 8 Show, episode after episode.
Although the song was a commercial success in the 1960s, there is another reason why the younger generation recognized it: it was sampled in 2005 by the Senegalese-American singer Akon in what became his most popular song. In Akon’s single, the original voice is high-pitched but still perfectly recognizable: you can find it below.
At the beginning of every episode, the power of “Mr. Lonely” becomes stronger while we watch The 8 Show. It’s what typically happens with old music: if a song worked 50 or 60 years ago, there is a good chance people can still enjoy it today. Which is the reason why so many Netflix users went online to find out more about it.
