Believe in Yourself (song)

Believe in Yourself (A Wonderful Kind of Day) is a reggae song recorded in 1996 by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Bob Marley's family, for the Arthur children's TV series theme song. For all 25 seasons (1996–2022), episodes of Arthur start with an approximately minute-long version of the song paired with an animated sequence. The opening lyric appears as Arthur is shown confidently walking outside: "Every day when you're walking down the street, everybody that you meet has an original point of view". NBC News named among the catchy theme songs of the 1990s and called it "one of the most timeless".^[1]

The author and creator of Arthur's book series, Marc Brown, maintained a deliberate goal to distance the TV show and specifically its theme song from Barney & Friends, known for an "I love you, you love me" jingle perceived by some as annoying. "As a parent, I wasn't crazy about the theme song", Brown said, and searched for a song that "celebrated children in a way that felt right."

The show's executive producer, Carol Greenwald, assisted in development, and lyrics were written by Judy Henderson and Jerry de Villiers Jr. The Arthur team eyed Ziggy Marley, the son of Bob Marley, to record the song, specifically eyeing one of his compositions for an AIDS charity event as the ideal sound.^[2] Greenwald wanted to expose kids to music that some might not listen to regularly, saying "Some kids are really familiar with it but some others aren't, like how some kids know classical and others will maybe learn from seeing Yo-Yo Ma."

Ziggy Marley agreed. Because he would be recording with kids in the Marley family, as Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, he requested they record in Jamaica. Greenwald and an Arthur music producer flew to the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston for the day of recording, and she said "it was an amazing experience because we worked with the whole Marley family", with many of his kids on background vocals. The engineer was Bob Marley's longtime engineer. Greenwald said, "Rita Marley came into the control room while we were there and I'm like fangirling. She said, 'Oh yeah, I like the sound of this.'"

"All of those things that are in the theme song reflected what our goals were at the time, what we wanted to do with the series" Greenwald said.

The song debuted with the first episode of Arthur in November 1996, on PBS Kids, and became popular among parents and children as Arthur beat Barney as the top children's TV program in cities.^[3]

It was released as the first track of "Arthur and Friends: The First Almost Real Not Live CD (or Tape)" in 1998, which was described as "the best children's album of 1998 so far" in Billboard magazine.^[4] In 2002, a remix of the song appeared on "Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix".^[5]

The lyrics have been used by Chrissy Teigen in reference to her husband John Legend, who she says looks like Arthur.^[6] In 2022, Marc Brown used the title "Believe in Yourself" for the title of his book reflecting on Arthur.

Believe in Yourself has been covered by prominent artists including the Backstreet Boys, who guest starred in the 2002 television special called "Arthur – It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" with two original songs in addition to the theme song cover.^[7]

In 2014, Chance the Rapper released a loose cover of the track with the title "Wonderful Everyday: Arthur" on SoundCloud, featuring many liberties with the tempo and song structure, and performs with The Social Experiment and Wyclef Jean, featuring layers of vocals from Frances and the Lights. Chance the Rapper performed it at Governor's Ball and Lollapalooza that year.^[1][8][9]

In 2017, Chance the Rapper joined Ziggy Marley and Jon Batiste in a performance for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.^[1][10][11] In 2018, he recorded a cover for the closing credits of the Arthur episode, "Muffy Misses Out/Arthur Takes a Stand."

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