This Is Us has an eclectic soundtrack that spans many genres and eras – here’s every song featured during season 1. NBC’s critically acclaimed time-jumping drama This Is Us tells the tale of the Pearson family – parents Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and their three children Randall (Sterling K. Brown), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley). As the show details the ups and downs of the Pearson family in both the past and present, it’s had its share of tearjerking moments. One of the ways This Is Us conveys the emotion of its characters and tugs on heartstrings is through its use of music.
The people responsible for crafting the show’s sound are music supervisor Jennifer Pyken and composer Siddhartha Khosla, who previously collaborated with This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman on sci-fi sitcom The Neighbors. Pyken is a veteran music supervisor having worked on shows and movies like One Tree Hill, Felicity, and Happy Gilmore and selects most of the songs featured on This Is Us. Khosla – whose other work includes Marvel’s Runaways – composes the show’s score and has also has some of his band Goldspot’s songs featured too. Both Pyken and Khosla have received well-deserved Emmy nominations for their work.
An official This Is Us season 1 soundtrack was released in 2017 featuring a selection of the show’s more prominent tracks but here’s a breakdown of every song featured, episode by episode.
Episode 1, “Pilot”
- Sufjan Stevens – ‘Death With Dignity’
- Katherine Crowe – ‘9 Crimes’
- Selena Gomez – ‘Hands To Myself’
- Adam Cohen – ‘Put Your Bags Down’
- Labi Siffre – ‘Watch Me’
Episode 2, “The Big Three”
- Dire Straits – ‘Romeo And Juliet’
- Blind Faith – ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’
- Spekrfreks & L10 – ‘Music’s Got U’
- Brian Page – ‘Wish Away’
Episode 3, “Kyle”
- Jackson C. Frank – ‘Blues Run The Game’
- Cyndi Lauper – ‘Time After Time’
Episode 4, “The Pool”
- Andrew Gold – ‘Lonely Boy’
- Wang Chung – ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’
- Animotion – ‘Obsession’
- The Escape Club – ‘Wild, Wild West’
- Wages – ‘Spiritesque’
- Zadie Grey – ‘I’m Unstoppable’
- REO Speedwagon – ‘Keep On Loving You’
- Alexi Murdoch – ‘Some Day Soon’
Episode 5, “The Game Plan”
- Tolo – ‘Easy Love’
- Little Feat – ‘Willin’’
Episode 6, “Career Days”
- Sydney Wayser – ‘Dream It Up’
- Wilco – ‘If I Ever Was A Child’
Episode 7, “The Best Washing Machine In The World”
- Sly and The Family Stallone – ‘Best Day Ever’
- The Nat King Cole Trio – ‘Straighten Up And Fly Right’
- Mile Me Deaf – ‘Where Else’
- The Sheila Divine – ‘Spacemilk’
- Goldspot – ‘Come Talk To Me’
- Cat Stevens – ‘The Wind’
Episode 8, “Pilgrim Rick”
- Nick Drake – ‘Time Of No Reply’
- Paul Simon – ‘You Can Call Me Al’
- Broken Anchor & Brad Gordon – ‘Bottle’
Episode 9, “The Trip”
- Richard & Linda Thompson – ‘The Calvary Cross’
- Maria Taylor – ‘If Only’
Episode 10, “Last Christmas”
- Sufjan Stevens – ‘Only At Christmas Time’
- Sufjan Stevens – ‘The Little Drummer Boy’
- The Weepies – ‘All That I Want’
Episode 11, “The Right Thing To Do”
- Nick Drake – ‘Northern Sky’
- Badfinger – ‘Without You’
- Labi Siffre – ‘Watch Me’
- Gene Clark – ‘Because Of You’
Episode 12, “The Big Day”
- Stevie Wonder – ‘Uptight (Everything’s Alright)’
- Damien Jurado – ‘Kola’
- Goldspot – ‘Evergreen Cassette’
Episode 13, “Three Sentences”
- Labi Siffre – ‘A Little More Line’
- Davie – ‘Testify’
- Madonna – ‘Borderline’
- John Coltrane – ‘Cattin’’
Episode 14, “I Call Marriage”
- Ringo Starr – ‘Photograph’
- Amy Stroup – ‘This Is My Time’
- Wizardz of Oz (ft. Robyn Johnson) – ‘Party Go Boom’
- Mandy Moore – ‘My Funny Valentine’
Episode 15, “Jack Pearson’s Son”
- Jim James – ‘The World’s Smiling Now’
- Sam Cooke – ‘Bring It On Home To Me’
Episode 16, “Memphis”
- The Emotions – ‘My Honey And Me’
- Brian Tyree Henry – ‘We Can Always Come Back To This’
- Junior Kimbrough – ‘Feels So Good’
- Memphis Slim – ‘Frisco Bay’
- Sidney Carter – ‘Pharaoh’
- Janleigh Cohen – ‘Blues Run The Game’
- Romare – ‘The Blues (It Began In Africa)’
- Hannah Miller – ‘We Can Always Come Back To This’
Episode 17, “What Now?”
- Chris Pierce - ‘We Can Always Come Back To This’
- Ryan Adcock – Compasses And Maps’
- Sufjan Stevens – ‘Death With Dignity’
- Toadies – ‘Possum King’
Episode 18, “Moonshadow”
- Blind Faith – Can’t Find My Way Home
- Danny Adler – ‘Lackawanna’
- Jefferson Airplane – ‘Good Shepherd’
- Danny Adler – ‘Appleshack’
- Van Morrison – ‘Into The Mystic’
- The Guess Who – ‘Share The Land’
- Cat Stevens – ‘Moonshadow’
In-keeping with the show’s frequent flashbacks, the season 1 This Is Us soundtrack features plenty of retro classics from the likes of Cat Stevens and Stevie Wonder alongside 80s pop anthems like Wang Chung’s ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’. A lot of contemporary indie and folk music features too, like Alexi Murdoch, Sydney Wayser and Sufjan Stevens who has several songs on the season 1 soundtrack.
Episode 16, “Memphis”, was a standout episode music-wise. It followed Randal and his biological father William (Ron Cephas Jones) as they took a road trip to the latter’s hometown of Memphis and flashed back to William’s youth playing in a band with his cousin Ricky (Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry). Alongside classic blues from artists like Junior Kimbrough and Memphis Slim, the episode also features ‘We Can Always Come Back To This’ which was written specifically for This Is Us by Siddhartha Khosla and soul singer Chris Pierce