Alf Clausen: The man who scored The Simpsons
There are lots of things that make The Simpsons great. The stellar writing, the phenomenal voice acting, the dozens and dozens of memorable characters that have been introduced over the years, but the show has another significant weapon in its arsenal: the music. The Simpsons has always gone above and beyond to provide excellent original songs, especially during its heyday. While numerous talented musicians, singers, and lyricists have contributed to the long-running sitcom, one man and one man alone deserves the majority of the credit.
Alf Clausen was working for his namesake sitcom ALF prior to that show wrapping up in 1990. A friend put him in touch with Simpsons creator Matt Groening, as the series was looking for a new composer to take it into its second season. After initially worrying that working on an animation would be a step backwards, Clausen took the job. He would remain a part of the show for the next 27 years.
He didn’t write the main theme – that was the work of Tim Burton collaborator Danny Elfman – but he contributed almost every other significant piece of music to the show during its glory years. Lyrical duty often fell to others (see Conan O’Brien for ‘The Monorail Song’), but it was Clausen’s job to put those funny words to music. His ditties ranged from all-out show tunes like ‘We Put the Spring in Springfield’ to the Bob Dylan-pastiche ‘Union Folk Song’ to ‘Canyonero’, an outstanding jingle for a car that nobody can ever drive.
For a show that isn’t directly about music, The Simpsons has contributed more memorable tunes than perhaps any other. The characters’ ability to burst into song at any given moment made the series stand out from other live-action fare. Even the incidental music between scenes, which Clausen composed tirelessly each week using a full orchestra, added something special. Few fans will ever forget the image of Homer staring up at the stars after bidding farewell to his long-lost mother, a moment gorgeously soundtracked by Clausen’s deft hand.
Outside of Springfield, he supplied additional music to a number of major feature films and TV shows. His work can be heard on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Splash, and The Naked Gun, all classics of the 1980s. Very early in his career, he was a copyist on the film Planet of the Apes. Years later, he had a full-circle moment when he composed two tracks for a Planet of the Apes parody musical, as part of the Simpsons episode ‘A Fish Called Selma’. Looks like they finally made a monkey out of him.
Unfortunately, Clausen’s final years on the show were not happy ones. He was dismissed from the programme in 2017, which led to a lawsuit. The music man claimed that the Fox Network had let him go due to his age and his progressive supranuclear palsy diagnosis. It would be this disease that would eventually get the better of him, as he passed away on May 29th, 2025, at the age of 84.
When Clausen died, he left behind a body of work to rival any of his contemporaries working in film. Countless people have contributed to The Simpsons over its gargantuan run, but few of them did so much over such a long period of time as he. For the man who soundtracked the childhoods of several generations of kids, what else is there to say but ‘thank you’?
