Country music icon and four-time Grammy winner Steve Wariner got an unexpected call in 1986 when the producers of the sitcom Who’s the Boss? were looking for someone to record the show’s already-written theme song.
I spoke with Wariner about the opportunity on Taste of Country Nights, and he revealed there was one key thing the producers didn’t know about him.
“I was on tour out west and I got a call from my producer,” Wariner recalls. “He said, ‘Larry Carlton called’—you know, the great jazz guitar player. He said, ‘They’re looking for you. Are you going to be in L.A. anytime soon? They’re looking for a voice to sing a TV theme song. Would you at all be interested?'”
Wariner says his answer was immediate.
“I said, ‘Hell yeah, I’m going to be in L.A. in a couple of days.'”
When he arrived in Los Angeles, he headed to a studio in North Hollywood to meet Carlton.
“We talked, and he said, ‘Well, this is a show called Who’s the Boss? They already had a guy whose voice was on it for the first season, and they were looking to change it up.'”
Steve Wariner Sang the ‘Who’s The Boss?’ Theme Song But Hid A Major Secret From the Producers
When Wariner met with Carlton in North Hollywood, the legendary guitarist had one unusual request.
“He leaned over and said, ‘We can’t tell them you’re a country singer because the TV people won’t go for that,'” Wariner recalls.
A few days later, Carlton called with good news.
Wariner says Carlton told him the TV producers loved his recording and wanted to use it. The only catch? Carlton never revealed who the singer was, worried that if the producers found out Wariner was a country artist, they’d replace him with someone else.
Wariner said “He [Carlton] said ‘I didn’t tell them who you are they would never let you do it if they knew you were on country radio, they wouldn’t have let you.'”
Read More: Remember Which Country Singer Sang the ‘Who’s the Boss?’ Theme Song?
While Steve Wariner’s version wasn’t the first version, it was used for more than half of the episodes. From time to time, he would even play it at live shows as a gag.
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