The Ukulele Alphabet: Where You Lead by Carole King & Louise Goffin

I realized recently that the course of my life can be pinpointed with TV theme songs (more on that in its own post next year).

Apologies to Cheers and Friends and even The Big Bang Theory, I suppose, but if we’re talking TV theme songs… Carole King and Gilmore Girls are the pinnacle for me.

I love that Carole reworked the lyrics to be more inclusive of a lifelong partnership than a specific hetero attachment for the Gilmore Girls version of this song — which might have initially gotten lost in the shuffle of seriously major hits on Tapestry, but which deserves the spotlight it finally received.

And honestly, I love this version more than the original.

Gilmore Girls has been a part of my life for 25 years and that’s both comforting and unbelievable.

Once Dan and I were at a party and I was recounting a conversation I had, saying “I can’t remember who was telling me this but…” and he was like, “Casey, that’s something Paris Gellar was saying. Not a real person you actually know!”

But in a way, Paris and Kirk and Miss Patty and of course Emily Gilmore are people I actually know. And I still check in on them almost nightly as my 2- or 3:00 am reset show, listening to their conversations as I fall back asleep, punctuated every 45 minutes or so by this song.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know: Sam Phillips’ acoustic la-la-la score is finally available as its own soundtrack!

Listen to the Gilmore Girls theme version of “Where You Lead”:

What’s the Ukulele Alphabet?

Read all about my 2025 ukulele performance project (and its rules) here.

I want to A-B-SEEEE some more!

Watch all the performances in the Ukulele Alphabet project.