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"You've Got Time" is the main title theme song for the Netflix Original Series Orange Is the New Black, written, composed and performed by Regina Spektor . The song was nominated in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

About[]

The song was written specifically for Orange Is the New Black by Regina Spektor, who was approached by the show's creator, Jenji Kohan. Kohan said: “I listened to Regina’s albums obsessively while writing the series, so I immediately thought of her for our theme song." Additionally Spektor had previously performed a cover of "Little Boxes," the theme song used on Kohan's series Weeds.

Kohan gave Spektor access to watch rough edits of the episodes while the first season was still in production. Spektor said she composed the song while "thinking about the idea of what it must be like to be in prison and the different states of mind." After recording the song with producer Rob Cavallo, she brought the demo to Kohan, initially apprehensive that Kohan would not like it. "We took out the rough mix and listened to it with headphones and sort of held our breath, like, 'Is she going to like it?' And then she said, 'This is fucking awesome, I love it! It’s going to fit really well!'"

The song has been well received. Casey Cipriani of Indiewire wrote that the song's lyrics suggesting animals trapped in a cage was ideal for Orange Is the New Black. Garin Pirnia of Rolling Stone noted that after the song begins with Spektor's "aggressive" guitar playing, "'You've Got Time' softens during the bridge, though, generating an aura of hope. When Spektor sings the title refrain, it works literally for the prison motif but also alludes to the show's themes of redemption and forgiveness."

Lyrics[]

The animals, the animals
Trapped, trapped, trapped 'till the cage is full
The cage is full, the day is new
And everyone is waiting, waiting on you
And you've got time


Think of all the roads
Think of all their crossings
Taking steps is easy
Standing still is hard
Remember all their faces
Remember all their voices
Everything is different
The second time around


And you've got time
And you've got time

Opening Video[]

Orange_is_the_New_Black_-_Opening_Credits_-_Netflix

Orange is the New Black - Opening Credits - Netflix

In the opening video to Orange Is The New Black we see up to 77 different faces. Many of them seem to be the faces of characters we already know from the series, but actually they are of real prisoners. One face is even of a very special person - the writer of the novel Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women's Prison on which the series is based, Piper Kerman.[1] A special edition of the song was created for the series' finale.

References

  1. Bigger than Boo (October 1, 2015)
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