Since its goggle box debut in 1995,Friends ’s " Smelly Cat " song has become omnipresent in pop music culture ’s collective consciousness . Lisa Kudroweven joined Taylor Swift onstage to do it live during a Los Angeles concert in 2015 . “ She ’s only ever played in coffee bean house before , ” Swiftjokedduring her intro .
But before Kudrow ’s theatrical role Phoebe Buffay played " Smelly Cat " for Central Perk ’s patrons , its eponymic dearie was n’t acat — it was adog . More specifically , a dog owned by Betsy Borns , head writer of the season 2 sequence where the song is first mentioned . “ My dog was so smelly his name was Gouda , because he sense like bad tall mallow , ” BornstoldRefinery29 . “ But it was determined thatcatwas funnier . ”
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Max Born did n’t elaborate on how that decision was reached , and she also earmark that she might not be remembering the whole tale , since it happened in 1995 . According to fellowFriendswriter Adam Chase , the form of address was his melodic theme . “ The first time it appear , it was just in talks , ” he said during aninterviewon theFriends With Friendspodcast . “ And we just needed a comic birdsong title and I pitched that title . ”
Once it was decided that Phoebe would in reality do the song later on in the sequence , they did need lyrics . Chase recall this cognitive operation also being a collaborative travail in the writer ’ room that took place sometime after midnight : Friendsco - creator David Crane float “ Smelly qat , smelly cat , what are they feed you ? ” and author Jeff Astrof added “ Smelly cat , smelly cat , it ’s not your fault . ” The balance unfolded from there .
When it come up to setting thelyricsto music , Lisa Kudrow take the reins — with somehelpfrom The Pretenders ’ Chrissie Hynde . In the episode , “ The One With the Baby on the busbar , ” Hynde plays professional musician Stephanie Schiffer who replaces Phoebe as Central Perk ’s resident entertainer . The snippet we end up hearing in variousFriendsepisodes are taken from the chorus and a twosome poesy , as seen here :
But Kudrow and The Pretenders actually recorded a longer version of the song for the 1999 digest albumFriends Again , though the creative person list is “ Phoebe Buffay and The Hairballs . ” you may get word it below — shake out with your own smelly cat ( or dog ) is encourage .
[ h / tRefinery29 ]
