Jason Paige, the singer behind the original Pokemon series bop, Gotta Catch 'Em All, has returned with his own unofficial theme song for the franchise's newest film, Detective Pikachu.
The new song is titled It'll Always Be You and Me, which is presumably a reference to a line in the original theme which says the line "It's you and me," while an image of Ash hugging Pikachu appears in the video.
Due to the song's unofficial nature, Paige released the bop as a video to his YouTube channel, making it abundantly clear that this has no affiliation to the film. The video opens by showing a clearly distraught Paige speaking to a stuffed Pikachu, coming to terms with the impact the Pokemon franchise and Pikachu has had on his life.
It'll Always Be You and Me is able to capture the same electric energy that made Gotta Catch 'Em All such an appealing tune in the early 90s-It's catchy, beat-pounding, and a really delightful tune. Paige spends much of the song strumming an electric guitar while belting out about his unbreakable bond with Pikachu. According to Paige's unofficial theme song, "It'll always be me and you. Pika me and you."
Paige later released a 50k Subscriber special mash-up, combining his new Detective Pikachu song, It'll Always Be You and Me, with the original pokemon theme, Gotta Catch Em All. In the mash-up, Paige uses the original theme as a backtrack for It'll Always Be You and Me, singing the original lyrics during the pauses of his unofficial Detective Pikachu theme.
Gotta Catch 'Em All, the original Pokemon theme was written by, John Loeffler and John Siegler. Those same two writers went on to produce many Pokemon songs, both stayed with the franchise in some capacity throughout the aughts.
Despite staying, nothing could compare to the response they received for the first Pokemon theme. Shortly after Pokemon launched in the US, Gotta Catch 'Em All became a global sensation, appearing just about everywhere and even reaching the number three spot on Billboard's top 100 Dance Singles in 2000. Since then, the Pokemon theme has persisted as possibly the most memorable part of the Pokemon franchise as a whole.
Gotta Catch 'Em All has had multiple resurgences throughout the years. The song holds the honor of being what first brought Smosh's Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox to fame when they covered the song on YouTube in 2005. Their cover was briefly the most viewed video on Youtube. The song later made a more lasting resurgence in 2015 with the mainstream success of Pokemon Go. Niantic's mobile game caused the song to see a more than 1000% increase in sales.
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