Powerhouse (song)

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"Powerhouse" is a composition by Raymond Scott, most famous as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons.

Written in 1936, "Powerhouse" first appeared as the B-side of "The Toy Trumpet", a 1937 hit single by the Raymond Scott Quintette. Both songs remained a staple of Scott's repetoire for years, and both songs were later frequently employed in Warner Brothers cartoons.

The first appearance of "Powerhouse" in a cartoon was in the 1943 Warner Bros.-produced, Frank Tashlin-directed animated short Porky Pig's Feat. [1]. It has subsequently been featured in over thirty-five Warner Bros. cartoons as well as shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, The Bernie Mac Show, and The Simpsons. It has also featured in the film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and has served as a theme song for the Cartoon Network. A variation of "Powerhouse" was used in the American version of Pokémon, when Team Rocket introduced themselves, and in the Japanese show Gosei Sentai Dairanger, sometimes at the beginning of a battle, or when the Rangers are about to morph.

"Powerhouse" contains two distinct musical themes, played at different tempos, which have both been used in numerous cartoons. The faster theme, called "Powerhouse A" is a frantic melody often employed in chase scenes. The slower theme, "Powerhouse B" is the "assembly line" music, which accompanies scenes of machinery or heavy industry. "Powerhouse" in its entirety places "B" in the center while "A" is repeated to both open and close it in the sequence A, B & A.

The 1954 hit movie "White Christmas" had a musical allusion to this song in the "Abraham number rehearsal", featuring Vera-Ellen dancing, at approximately 1:30.

The rock band Rush borrowed the melody in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato" (5:49 into the track) on their Hemispheres album, as did Soul Coughing in their song "Bus To Beelzebub" from the album Ruby Vroom, not to mention They Might Be Giants, Devo, and many, many others.

In 2006, the "assembly line" theme was used in a highly choreographed commercial for the Visa credit card. The commercial, entitled "Lunch," was staged in a manner seemingly intended to be reminiscent of the song's cartoon uses.