In 2006, P!nk covered Joan Jett‘s 1988 hit “I Hate Myself For Loving You” and reworded the lyrics themed to the football season and Sunday night games. The song “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” has continued to be the staple theme song for Sunday Night Football, running throughout the entire season.
To better cater song to football fans, P!nk transformed Jett’s lyrics, from the original opening Midnight, gettin’ uptight, where are you? / You said you’d meet me, now it’s quarter to two / I know I’m hangin’ but I’m still wantin’ you / Hey Jack, it’s a fact they’re talkin’ in town / I turn my back and you’re messin’ around / I’m not getting jealous, don’t like lookin’ like a clown to something more NFL-friendly:
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All right Sunday Night where are you?
Just kicking back from the things that you do
You want the Big Game, we want it too!
Hey Jack it’s a fact, the best show in town
Sunday Night Football we ain’t messing around
Al and John will make you crank up the sound
A year later, Faith Hill took over as the annual performer, from 2007 through 2012, and performed her version of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” before Carrie Underwood became the resident NFL performer in 2013.
Throughout the past 11 years, Underwood has mostly performed “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” with altered lyrics and to incorporate the teams playing, except for two years when she introduced new theme songs into the seasonal mix.
Here’s a rundown of Underwood’s three NFL theme songs through the years.
1. “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night”
In 2013, Carrie Underwood took over as the resident NFL performer and kicked off the Sunday Night Football season with her version of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.” To keep the theme song fresh each year, Underwood records multiple versions of the song to fit all the possible pairings of the 32 NFL teams and on through the playoffs.
“It’s one main version, top to bottom, and then kind of filling in lines,” said Underwood. “When we go in to record, we do it all at once. I do the whole main version, but then we go through and pick up all the matchups for each week of regular-season football, and then we go into playoff football. And I then sing every possible combination of teams that could maybe play each other.”
2. “Oh, Sunday Night”
For the opening of the 2016 season, Underwood switched things up and recorded a new Sunday Night Football theme song, “Oh, Sunday Night,” which pulls from her 2014 No. 1 hit with Miranda Lambert, “Somethin’ Bad.” When Underwood took over singing the NFL theme song in 2013, NBC told her that they were open to new song ideas, so she started playing around with the lyrics of “Somethin’ Bad” and presented a demo of “Oh, Sunday Night” to the network.
To rework the song, Underwood collaborated with her “Somethin’ Bad” co-writers Brett James, Chris DeStefano, and Priscilla Renea, to rewrite the lyrics.
“It has such a great stomp-clap, a ‘We Will Rock You’ kind of feel to it,” said Underwood. “This is such a high-energy song.”
3. “Game On”
By 2018, Underwood switched things up again with an original song, “Game On,” which she co-wrote with Brett James and Chris DeStefano. “We wrote a new song for it, because I feel like they’re always open to that, and they’re always looking for ways to freshen things up,” said Underwood. “So, they always just say, ‘Hey, if you’ve got anything else back there, whatever you’re working on, bring it. We’ll see how we feel about it.’”
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That year, Underwood also co-wrote “The Champion,” with Ludacris, Brett James, and Chris Destefano. Also featuring Ludacris, the song was released as an opening theme for Super Bowl LII.
Underwood retired to singing “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” for the 2019 through 2024 seasons.
Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images for CMT
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