Throughout its previous episodes, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has licensed such beloved songs as “American Pie,” “Help” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” to express the innermost thoughts and desires of protagonist Zoey Clarke’s friends, family members and co-workers.
As fans of the show know, Zoey’s superpower is that only she can hear the musical expressions of their internal feelings. That all changes with episode 20, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Birthday,” which airs Sunday (April 4) on NBC at 9 p.m. ET. For the first time, the show will feature an original song and everyone — not just Zoey — can hear it, much to Zoey’s chagrin.
Aiden and his garage band play “Crimson Love” — which NBC is sharing first with Billboard — for Zoey at her 30th birthday party. The song’s specificity (and intentionally humorous blend of sweet and cringeworthy) as Aiden declares his attraction to Zoey demanded an original song.
“We’ve always wanted to do original songs on the show. It’s just been a question of when and what works with our conceit,” says Austin Winsberg, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s creator and show runner. Winsberg wrote “Crimson Love” with show writer Lindsey Rosin and the show’s executive music producer Harvey Mason Jr.
“Zoey theoretically has all the songs in the world downloaded in her brain. So it’s been a bit challenging trying to figure out how to organically fit something original in there,” Winsberg continues. “When we came up with the idea of a band in the show — and more specifically, a band writing their own song for Zoey — it felt like the perfect way to do something original.”
“There’s a funny element that would only be achieved by writing it,” Mason says. “Austin came up with some very clever lyrics. No one knows the arc of the characters better than Austin.”
Musically, the catchy up-tempo alternative pop song sounds straight out of the early 2000s, a throwback to a time when it seemed as though there was an endless stream of one-hit wonder rock bands. “We were just trying to think what a garage band would sound like,” Mason says. “They had guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, so we know it couldn’t be a big huge epic sound.”
Plus, the songwriters had to keep the tune deliberately simple and not musically proficient beyond an amateur garage band’s skills. “We had a discussion about what kind of musicians are they?” Mason says. “Are they virtuosos? Zoey’s brother is playing keyboards and we know he’s not a professional musician. There are certain chords we can do and ones we can’t.”
Since the pandemic, Mason has worked out of his Los Angeles studio instead of flying back and forth to the Vancouver location where the show is taped. “It has made it less fun because I don’t get to hang out with the cast and Austin,” Mason says, but adds the lack of travel has probably improved productivity. “We’re sending MP3s back and forth five or six times a day.”
Mason hopes to write more original music for the show — “I love the challenge of trying to come up with stuff that fits the scene and energy,” he says — and he may get his wish.
Co-writing “Crimson Love” has only whetted Winsberg’s appetite to do more original songs, even possibly working up to a full original musical episode. That “would be a dream come true,” he says. However, Winsberg adds the show will never abandon finding the perfect song to license. “We have been able to get so much great music from huge artists into the show,” he says. “So I want to keep showcasing as many hits and known songs as possible from all different time periods and genres that work with our stories.”
