Woke Up This Morning

{{Infobox song

| name = Woke Up This Morning

| cover = A3 - woke up this morning.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Alabama 3

| album = Exile on Coldharbour Lane

| released = June 1997

| recorded = 1997

| studio =

| genre = Alternative dance, trip hop, acid house, acid jazz, blues rock

| length = 5:18 (album version)
4:05 (Chosen One Mix)

| label = * Geffen

Elemental

| writer = * Jake Black

Rob Spragg

| producer = Alabama 3

| prev_title = Ain't Going to Goa

| prev_year = 1996

| next_title = Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

| next_year = 1997

}}

"Woke Up This Morning" is a song by British band Alabama 3 from their 1997 album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. The song is best known as the opening theme music for the American television series The Sopranos, which used a shortened version of the "Chosen One Mix" of the song.

Background and writing

Described as "a propulsive hip-hop song complete with Howlin' Wolf samples and a swelling gospel choir",Murray Smith, "Just What Is It That Makes Tony Soprano Such An Appealing, Attractive Murderer", in Ward E. Jones and Samantha Vice, eds., Ethics at the Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2010), {{ISBN|978-0199793167}}, p. 78. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QdP_xLImIugC&dq=%22Woke+Up+This+Morning%22+sopranos&pg=PA78 Excerpts available] at Google Books. the song has been cited as a paradigmatic example of a "great theme song", which "generates anticipation, immediately puts the viewer in a focused frame of mind, and creates the kind of sonic familiarity that breeds audience loyalty."Ron Sobel and Dick Weissman, Music Publishing: The Roadmap to Royalties (Routledge, 2008), {{ISBN|978-0203895689}}, p. 101. [https://books.google.com/books?id=X2g93TMt14QC&dq=%22Woke+Up+This+Morning%22+sopranos&pg=PA101 Excerpts available] at Google Books. Alabama 3 frontman Rob Spragg wrote the song after hearing about the 1996 Sara Thornton murder case,Duncan Campbell, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/27/usa.art "Face off"], The Guardian, September 27, 2007. who stabbed her husband after claiming to be the victim of two years of his abuse, mistreatment and neglect.David Johannson, "Homeward Bound" Those Soprano Titles Come Heavy", in David Lavery, ed., Reading The Sopranos: Hit TV from HBO (I.B. Tauris, 2006), {{ISBN|978-1845111212}}, pp. 35-36. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jnfbWTeAr6YC&dq=%22Woke+Up+This+Morning%22+%22alabama+3%22&pg=PA36 Excerpts available] at Google Books. The song is co-written with Piers Marsh, Simon Edwards, and Jake Black.

"We started with a Howlin' Wolf loop, but a lot of blues lyrics are quite misogynist[ic]," Spragg explained. "So I turned it round to be about a woman who's had enough and gets a gun – it's quite ironic that it's become a New Jersey gangster anthem."Q (May 2001). The track contains elements of "Tell Me" performed by Howlin' Wolf, a sample from "Standing at the Burying Ground" by Mississippi Fred McDowell and a sample from "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters. Howlin' Wolf himself recorded a song titled "Woke Up This Morning" for Chess Records that was released in 2009.

The cover art for the single is in the style of the cover art of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 album Déja Vu.

Use in other media

In film

The song is used in the film The House (2017).
The remixed version "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)" that was used for The Sopranos plays over the end credits of the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

In television

A remixed version of "Woke Up This Morning" plays during an episode of MTV's music documentary series BIOrhythm{{cite web |title=BIOrhythm |url=https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/biorhythm/ |website=The Peabody Awards |access-date=26 October 2024}} for Tommy Lee.{{cite news |title=MTV GETS PERSONAL |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/1998/11/08/mtv-gets-personal/ |access-date=26 October 2024 |work=New York Daily News |date=8 November 1998}}
The remixed version "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)"{{cite web |author1=Alabama 3 |title=Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix / Theme to the HBO series The Sopranos) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oT7JeEShlE |website=YouTube |publisher=Universal Music Group |access-date=26 October 2024 |date=1997-01-01 |quote=Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group}} was used for the opening credits of the HBO television series The Sopranos.

::Spragg later quipped, "Since it's been on The Sopranos, we've met some nice men in Armani suits with fat hands and eaten some nice Italian food. But we're very happy to be associated with a programme of that calibre. While in no way endorsing the use of guns in any fetishistic manner, obviously."

In The Sopranos episode "Boca", "Woke Up This Morning (Urban Takeover Mix)" can be heard in a tense scene as Tony Soprano ponders retaliation against his daughter's soccer coach for sexually abusing an underage player.
On the Region 4 DVD release of the show's first season, the music video for "Woke Up This Morning" is included as a special feature but is incorrectly credited to "Alabama 5".
A shortened alternate version of "Woke Up This Morning" can be heard in The Simpsons episode "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge", while Fat Tony and his gang are on a ride to the Simpsons' house; the sequence is a parody of the opening sequence of The Sopranos.{{cite news|author=Gilbert, Gerard |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/tv-credit-where-credits-are-due-2297040.html |title=TV credit where credits are due|work=The Independent|date=June 14, 2011}}
"Woke Up This Morning" is also heard in a later Simpsons episode "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", which guest-starred Sopranos regulars Michael Imperioli and Joe Pantoliano.
"Woke Up This Morning" was used in an episode of the BBC series Top Gear, in which the trio was driving through Florida in cheap old American cars.
"Woke Up This Morning" was used in the Lilyhammer episode "Ghosts", in which Frank Tagliano (Steven Van Zandt) and his Norwegian crew are driving through New York City; Van Zandt's breakthrough role as an actor was Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.
"Woke Up This Morning" was used in the fourth episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law when inexperienced magician Donny Blaze inadvertently transports a volunteer to Wong's home in Nepal while he's watching The Sopranos.

In sport

An edited version of the remix "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)" was used as an official song for the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup women's soccer tournament.