American Dad! is currently on the way on yet another new season of episodes with TBS, and is celebrating by releasing a soundtrack featuring some of its best songs for the first real time. This new soundtrack goes all the way back to the beginning with many of its selections, so it’s the perfect time to look back and figure out which of these songs are truly the best of the best. Just like the other franchises to come from Seth MacFarlane’s greater universe, American Dad! is no stranger to huge musical numbers. But where it’s been able to differentiate itself from its counterparts are the various kinds of styles its musical numbers can be performed in.
Rather than focus on big Broadway showcases for its leads, or maybe skewing towards one particular genre, American Dad! plays with a ton of different styles to make for a very different sounding soundtrack when all compiled together. For simplicity’s sake, this list will be ranking all of the songs in the soundtrack as they are the one’s compiled by the American Dad! team as the cream of the crop. Not every single song is here, but they have the best of the best for sure. Read on for the best songs on American Dad‘s Greatest Hits soundtrack ranked.
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19. Good Morning U.S.A. (Main Theme)
By default, American Dad‘s opening theme song ranks on the bottom of the list. It’s not that it’s a bad theme song by any means (and grew even more notable when its visuals changed to include a scene with Roger every week), but it’s the default for the series overall. It’s only scratching the surface of what the soundtrack offers, and it’s likely that it won’t have a lot of replay factor for fans checking out the album.
18. Stelio Kontos Theme
Making its debut in one of the best episodes in the entire series, “Bully for Steve,” the Stelio Kontos Theme is also backing one of the best scenes in the entire series. But that’s only when watching the scene itself. It’s an iconic moment with tons of karmic blowback for Stan as he’s beat up by his old school bully, Stelio Kontos, but it’s not exactly one that works well with just audio. The theme leaves big gaps for dialogue spoken in the scene, so it’s not the song you’re likely going to gravitate to for multiple listens either.
17. Top of the Steve Theme
Making its debut in the very meta episode, “Top of the Steve,” where Steve and Roger move out and end up in a schlocky sitcom spinoff, the “Top of the Steve” theme song suffers the same way these lower ranked songs do. While it’s great to see this ditty included in the soundtrack, it’s not a song that you’re going to want to replay often. It’s a fun joke within the episode itself, but outside it just doesn’t have the staying power as the stronger songs on the album.
16. Zooka Sharks Rap
The only Jeff offering on this list is the “Zooka Sharks Rap” from the Season 18 episode, “The Professor and the Coach.” It pays off one of the long running gags from the later seasons that the entire town of Langley Falls loves their local semi-professional football team, the Bazooka Sharks. In an attempt to keep them from moving out of the city (and bring Francine out of a catatonic state), Jeff writes the rap that hilariously says very little but also sends well wishes to Lisa Jenkis. It’s not one that will get a lot of replay compared to the others, but it’s a fun one.
15. El Perro (Cilantro’s Song)
This is definitely one of the more ridiculous offerings on the soundtrack. Debuting in the Season 4 episode “Roy Rogers McFreely,” the episode itself ranks high on many fans’ lists of having the best offerings of the early seasons. This song then takes it to the next level as it backs a high speed chase with the most ridiculous Spanish lyrics that ultimately translate into a string of nonsense words as its singer, Cilantro, just starts wildly praising himself. This’ll be a fun track to stick in a huge shuffled playlist to pick up your mood every now and again.
14. Mail Song
As the shortest song on the soundtrack, “Mail Song” is still ranked this high because it comes in very hot and randomly. Debuting in the Season 17 episode “Dressed Down,” this has nothing to do with the rest of the episode and comes shortly after Stan gets ready for the mail. It’s a gag that capitalizes on the fact that Steve Smith’s voice actor Scott Grimes is such an accomplished singer, and is well known to have brought his talents to the spotlight with Steve by this point. It’s just a highly produced, very funny gag.
13. We’re Red and We’re Gay
“We’re Red and We’re Gay” is one of those American Dad songs that ultimately didn’t age as well as its counterparts. Debuting in the Season 2 episode, “Lincoln Lover,” this song kicks in as Greg introduces Stan Smith to all of the queer individuals within the Republican party at the time. It’s very much of its time, but it does get this high on the list because of its Broadway like production and musicality. It’s the first “full” song on this list, and far from the last.
12. I Want a Wife
Debuting in the Season 1 finale two-parter, “Stan of Arabia,” “I Want a Wife” potentially suffers from even more of the aging than “We’re Red and We’re Gay” does. It’s not the best song in the two-parter, but it’s the one that’s aged the most gracefully given the context of the episode around it. Stan’s highly conservative lyrics reflect a version of the character that was phased out in the later seasons, so comedically doesn’t hit as hard as the other songs. But it’s performed very well as you’d expect.
11. Ollie North
“Ollie North,” debuting in the Season 3 episode, “Stanny Slickers 2: The Legend of Ollie’s Gold” walks a very fine line that is pretty much up for debate in terms of whether or not it has aged well. Because like “I Want a Wife” it’s very much tuned into Stan’s conservative identity that was a huge part of the character in the earlier seasons, but unlike that song it’s so exaggerated in that view that it helps to show some of the goofier aspects of his extreme views. But since it’s performed and portrayed like a song from the Schoolhouse Rock! classics, it’s still high on this list.
10. When I Dress My Body
Debuting in the Season 12 episode, “Fight and Flight,” “When I Dress My Body” is the first of the Klaus offerings you’ll see on this list. It’s a great reflection of what American Dad does well as Klaus is not only singing a highly emotional song, but it’s about wearing the worst kind of clothes. It’s not a song that’s got a lot of replay value compared to some of the others on the list, but it’s definitely one of the better ones put together overall as we’re about to start cracking on the real cream of the crop.
9. Good, No Great Job
“Good, No Great, No Good Job” debuts in the Season 11 episode, “The Devil Wears a Lapel Pin.” Unfortunately while Haley has had some big musical moments of her own in the series, this is the only one that’s made it to the American Dad! Greatest Hits soundtrack. Like many of the lower ranked hits, this one won’t have as much replay value but it’s marked this high because of just how well performed it is. It also has the second half with Klaus that hits with comedy, and makes for a well rounded American Dad! experience.
8. Guppy Love
There are only a few songs that have been good enough to make their way into the official American Dad! canon, and “Guppy Love” from the Season 13 episode, “The Never-Ending Stories.” This was just a random rap that Klaus had written to get back at Steve (and further makes him look ridiculous by dressing him up as famous rappers), but that “Nutra-Grain and Mountain Dew” hook from the song ended up being referenced in future episodes because it’s such a good hook. A perfect encapsulation of the best aspects of American Dad’s songs, fun, catchy and wacky.
7. Hungunder
“Hungunder” isn’t the best song Francine Smith has ever gotten in the series (as her truly best song has aged terribly), but the Season 18 episode, “Stan Fixes a Shingle” offers a great moment for her in the later seasons. It also brings back Haley’s penchant for rapping (as it mixes in Haley and Roger’s story with Gallagher’s hammer), and when it’s revealed to just be the way that Francine was trying to convince Steve to keep making his hangover-free beer, it’s just a perfect Francine moment.
6. When I Was His Alien
“When I Was His Alien” from the Season 2 episode, “A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial,” was one of those early American Dad breakout hits that really helped to cement the unique perspective that this animated series could offer in comparison to Family Guy. While it’s one of the more Broadway solos, it was also the first real time that fans got to see another side of Roger. This was before he became much more exaggerated later, and thus is more emotionally resonant while still being funny without compromising either.
5. Bad, Bad Boy
American Dad! always goes out for its Christmas episodes, and that was especially the case with Season 9’s “Minstrel Krampus.” It might not be the best song of the episode itself (the Krampus and Steve duet takes the cake for sure), but “Bad, Bad Boy” has managed to break out of the American Dad! bubble to catch on with the general audience. A trend you’ll see in the real best of the best is that they’re usually Steve songs, and this one is only here because it has to compete with some of the better Steve singing moments. Songs that had managed to break out even more.
4. Hot Enough
“Hot Enough” is just like “Bad, Bad Boy” in that it’s not the best song from its musical episode, Season 9’s “Rubberneckers,” but it’s managed to find a whole life of its own outside of American Dad! Because of the wild concept of Steve singing about how attractive his own mother is, it’s parody of D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel) music video, and actor Scott Grimes’ singing chops, this song has really helped to catapult American Dad’s presence overall in the animation space. People were falling in love with Steve songs around this time, and American Dad delivered a banger.
3. The Weeknd’s Dark Secret
Season 15’s “A Starboy is Born” is a wild collaboration between the American Dad! team and musician The Weeknd, who actually both co-wrote and guest stars in the episode. This leads to a full musical number from the performer himself, and it’s one of the best songs in American Dad’s history. While the actual underlying beat isn’t too impressive, it’s still composed like a full The Weeknd song. It makes it even funnier when accounting for the context of the song itself as he reveals that “dark secret” alluded to in the song’s title. Without this these top spots would all be dominated by Steve, no question.
2. Daddy’s Gone
Once again, Steve’s musical number in a special musical episode is one of the best songs in the entire American Dad! catalog. Debuting in the Season 8 episode, “Hot Water,” “Daddy’s Gone” competed with one of the strongest single lineups in the show overall. Each song in the episode was a banger, but “Daddy’s Gone” absolutely overshadows everything else being offered. While not the first time we’ve ever gotten to hear Grimes’ chops, “Daddy’s Gone” was the first real time that the series got attention for its musical numbers. It’s after this that the creative team really started to lean on Steve as a conduit for numbers like this, and eventually led to the best song in American Dad! overall.
1. Girl You Need a Shot (of B12 [Boyz 12])
Wild to think that in the same season, Steve had another breakout hit. In the Season 8 episode “Can I Be Frank (With You),” Steve and his friends have a side plot where they are trying to start a boy band and eventually get wrapped up in a 12 strong band named Boyz 12. This is another one of those musical numbers that was such a big deal for American Dad! in terms of fan response that it was referenced years later as the members of Boyz 12 were eventually killed off in a string of murders.
But this song itself is just one of those perfect songs that only American Dad! can do. It’s hilarious with how many roll calls are in the song itself, it’s catchy with its boy band hook, and is likely the major song that fans will reference as one of the best. When looking at all of the offerings overall, it really is the best one. It’s just that good.