Schitt’s Creek's Musical Moments: A Licensing Masterclass

Chapter one: the original-music weapon

The show's secret weapon was its original music: composer Maribeth Solomon's score (with the show's original songs and arrangements) gave Schitt's Creek its sound — jaunty, warm, just-left-of-corny — and the in-universe performances turned music into character. The landmark: "A Little Bit Alexis" (2019) — Alexis Rose's self-produced single, performed by Annie Murphy as a chaotic, confident, oddly endearing pop pastiche that became a genuine cultural phenomenon (streaming, covers, drag performances — the song escaped the show entirely and became a hit on its own terms). The joke was perfect because it was real: a fully produced, plausible-2010s pop single, performed in-character, that worked unironically. That's the show's whole music philosophy in three minutes.

Chapter two: the licensed moments that broke the internet

The licensed needle-drops were chosen with the same care. The series' most famous: Tina Turner's "The Best" — deployed across the series as David and Patrick's song, and detonated in the finale's wedding/flash-mob sequence into one of the most-discussed TV music moments of the decade (the scene's choreography, the crowd's joy, the song's earned recontextualization — from ironic karaoke to genuine anthem — is a case study in how licensing serves story). The show's other uses — the cabaret performances (Moira's theatrical musicality), the Christmas special's tunes, the recurring uses of specific songs as character signatures — followed the same rule: no song appears for a wink; every song means something to somebody in the frame. The budget (modest, by TV standards — keep it light: modest, by TV standards) was spent on fewer, better moments — the discipline that made each one land.

Chapter three: the lesson

Schitt's Creek's music strategy is now the industry standard for how comedy uses songs: originals as character work (the "Alexis" model), licensed tracks as emotional architecture (the "Simply the Best" model), and the score as the show's warm heartbeat underneath. The show's audience — huge, devoted, and listening — proved that audiences notice music when it's treated as story rather than wallpaper (see our sync-licensing feature). And the show's Canadian-ness extended to its music choices — the production's sensibility (see our sync features) kept the selections feeling like the world it depicted: unshowy, warm, and secretly perfect. The little sitcom from CBC built a jukebox that outlasted the show. "A little bit Alexis" indeed.

Why it matters

It matters because Schitt's Creek proved the oldest sync-licensing truth at the highest modern visibility: songs make stories land when they're chosen, not placed. The show's music moments are taught (literally — in film and TV programs) as the model. And the Tina Turner scene remains the decade's definitive argument that a well-earned needle-drop can do what pages of dialogue can't. Simply the best, indeed.