Will Smith Created The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Theme Song In A Surprising Amount Of Time

If you were an early '90s kid, there's little chance you grew up without hearing Will Smith's iconic intro to "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" at least a hundred times. Nobody really planned for it, but the song blew up in a way no one expected. Perhaps even more surprisngly, according to a 2017 Entertainment Weekly interview with series co-creator Andy Borrowitz and co-star DJ Jazzy Jeff, the beloved earworm was created in about 15 minutes.

As Jeff recalled, as soon as Smith secured his breakout role in L.A., they went right in the studio to come up with the tune. "One of the things Will used to always say is the hardest part to come up with for a song is the concept, but the concept behind 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' was already laid out," Jeff shared. "I ended up just going in and programming some music, and he wrote something and laid it down. I did a rough mix and sent it in, and in about three weeks it was on NBC." 

It was one of those rare moments where everything organically aligned and popularity followed. Jeff added, "In my mind, it was just kind of like, 'Oh my God, so that's how it works? It's that easy?'"

"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was Will Smith's stepping stone to worldwide fame, which he mainly owed to the late record producer and composer Quincy Jones, who would later become an executive producer on the show. On his YouTube channel, Smith told the story of how his "audition" for "The Fresh Prince" took place at one of Jones's legendary birthday parties.

After meeting Benny Medina (the real life inspiration for "Fresh Prince") at "The Arsenio Hall Show," Smith was invited to Jones's home. Smith found himself at Jones's house in December 1989, which was full of actors, producers, NBC executives, and practically everybody you need to make a TV show happen. As Smith recalled, "Benny walks me in and introduces me to Quincy. He's like, 'Hey, man, I saw your music videos, I love what you're doing .... " 

Jones handed Smith a script for a failed pilot and told him to go and study it for a few minutes until he cleared his living room for an audition. Panicked, Smith suggested they hold off the audition for a few weeks, to which Jones replied, "Yeah, three weeks from now would be good. Or you can take ten minutes right now and change your life forever." With that, Smith took the plunge, the guests loved it, and  a few months later he became the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — and the rest is Hollywood history.