Powerhouse (song)

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"Powerhouse" is a composition by Raymond Scott, most famous as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons. Written in 1936, "Powerhouse" first appeared in a cartoon in the 1943 Warner Bros. animation Porky Pig's Feat. [1]. It has been featured in over thirty-five Warner Bros. cartoons as well as shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, The Bernie Mac Show, and The Simpsons, including the film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and has served as a theme song for the Cartoon Network. A variation of this was used in the American version of Pokemon, when Team Rocket introduced themselves, and in the Japanese show Gosei Sentai Dairanger, sometimes at the beginning of a battle, or when the Rangers are about to morph.

"Powerhouse" contains two distinct musical themes, played at different tempos, which have both been used in numerous cartoons. The slower theme is the "assembly line" music, which accompanies scenes of machinery or heavy industry. The faster theme is a frantic melody often employed in chase scenes.

The rock band Rush borrowed the melody in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato" (5:49 into the track) on their Hemispheres album, as did Soul Coughing in their song "Bus To Beelzebub" from the album Ruby Vroom, not to mention They Might Be Giants, Devo, and many, many others.

In 2006, the "assembly line" theme was used in a highly choreographed commercial for the Visa credit card. The commercial, entitled "Lunch," was staged in a manner seemingly intended to be reminiscent of the song's cartoon uses.