The story of the long-lost theme song from ‘Daria’
The title sequence for the cult-classic 1990s cartoon Daria opens with the titular Daria Morgendorffer sitting in a crowded cinema.
With her customary dead-eyed stare and mouth resting in a half-formed scowl, she is surrounded by an audience maniacally laughing. “La la la la la,” mocks the opening of her theme song, ‘You’re Standing On My Neck’, sung by the short-lived Splendora, a band that disappeared just as soon as they rose to prominence.
Where Daria came to be a defining character for strange, literary, misunderstood young people trapped in the soul-sucking environs of adolescence and academia, Splendora offered a soundtrack as reprieve. ‘You’re Standing On My Neck’ stands as a truly iconic theme song, with few themes before or since defining the genesis of a piece of media so well. Only Daria could be afforded a song that encapsulates the feeling of being neither seen nor heard, suffocated by the frustration of one’s demeanour warranting a certain mistreatment.
“Look right through me / Say I’m gloomy / Well, so sue me,” vocalists Janet and Tricia Wygal drone, their voices a perfect match to Daria’s legendary drawl. The title itself is a repeated plea for escape. With literal dry humour, it is also a metaphorical picture of being stuck beneath the weight of expectation and the harsh reality of remaining unseen. For any young person who has been scolded for their presumed apathy, the Wygal sisters’ “La la la la la” is haunting, but also a reminder of Daria’s stark individuality.
The Wygals formed their band, Splendora, in the early 1990s, a period ripe for indie rock with its slow evolution of grunge and alternative. Both had been in bands prior: Janet had moved to New York to study art at the Pratt Institute when she joined a band called The Individuals, while Tricia followed in her footsteps a few years later; a seasoned ballet dancer, she found herself equally enchanted by her sister’s musical tastes.
Splendora came together after tenures in various groups and, with Janet on guitar, Tricia on bass, Delissa Santos on drums, Cindy Brolsma on cello and Jennifer Richardson on violin, they honed a sound influenced by the CBGB world of Television and the Ramones coupled with a 1960s pop sheen, an “aggressive-sounding bed, with pretty vocals floating over it,” as Janet described to Billboard.
Splendora secured a development deal with Geffen Records, but were quickly overshadowed by their fellow new label-mate, Beck. Prioritising publicity for the latter’s single ‘Loser’ ensued. “‘You know, I’m just so busy with Beck,’” Janet remembers their contact at the label attempting to reason. “‘I just don’t really have time [for Splendora]… but I’m gonna get this other guy to be your A&R guy.’” The “other guy” dealt Splendora a similar hand, reasoning that he either prioritise them or another female act, Lisa Loeb, whose hit ‘Stay (I Missed You)’ made her the apparent choice.
Splendora later signed to Koch Records and released their debut album, In the Grass, in 1995. In its songs, the band achieved their original sonic vision in a perfect blend of soft and hard melodies, but were unfortunately subject to little promotion, leading to their songs climbing nowhere near a hit single. With no booking agent of their own, Janet recalled having to do as much self-promotion as she could handle, to little avail.
While In the Grass lurked in the indie rock pantheon, Splendora would try their luck in an unexpected fashion, thanks to Brolsma’s role as a producer on MTV. There, she was working on a new show, Daria, a spin-off of the channel’s wildly successful, absurdly addictive cartoon, Beavis & Butt-Head (where Daria first appeared as a cynical classmate, foil to Beavis and Butt-Head’s ridiculousness). Daria needed a theme song, and Brolsma, armed with an In the Grass CD to leave on producer Susan Lewis’ desk, set out to make Splendora a (finally) obvious choice.
“It just felt like, ‘Wow, this is so much better than being asked to be in some car commercial,’” Janet says. “Although that probably would’ve paid more.”
Splendora was chosen to record a four-track demo, writing their songs around specific phrases that they were asked to include in the lyrics. “You’re standing on my neck” became the clear winner, with the producers most excited at its possibility of becoming the defining refrain of the series. “It was pretty clear that the song they picked was the strongest one,” Tricia says. The song became its own popular culture phenomenon, an ideal counterpart to a character and series that came to resemble a generational icon.
But still, in a bizarre twist, ‘You’re Standing On My Neck’ never had an official release, and Splendora would never go on to release new music. Only two songs were composed for made-for-television Daria movies, ‘Turn the Sun Down’ and ‘College Try’, followed by band members’ marriages and subsequent departures, leaving Splendora dormant. Janet likens their quiet disappearance to a simple, half-joking factor: “Just a lack of entrepreneurial skill or interest.”
‘You’re Standing On My Neck’ was finally released digitally on streaming platforms on July 6th, 2020, as well as Splendora’s sole album, In the Grass, which, before, had only been available through finding a rare physical CD. Prior, a version of the song could be heard with the Daria video game, Daria’s Inferno; otherwise, only playing of an episode could keep the song alive.
As of 2017, as reported by Billboard, the Wygal sisters both worked for Penguin Random House, and Janet continues to play music in the band Wygalator. They maintain that they have no regrets about the way Splendora’s short-lived career transpired, looking back on the whole ordeal with a supposed shrug of their shoulders, as Daria would.
