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"" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: brandon-grotesque, sans-serif; vertical-align: bottom;">TV WATCHWEDNESDAY APRIL 01, 2015 07:00 AM EDT12 Songs Given Second Lives as Famous TV Show ThemesJon Hamm (as Don Draper) in Mad MenFRANK OCKENFELS 3/AMC

BY ALEX HEIGL

Mad Men is ending, and while the show's opening credits are inseparable from RJD2's haunting theme, there was a time when that beat was known only as "A Beautiful Mine," by RJD2 and rapper Aceyalone. 

Matthew Weiner originally wanted a Beck song to play as the show's opening theme, but the singer turned down every offer from the show's producers. Weiner was driving and listening to NPR one day when he heard "A Beautiful Mine" played as segue music between two stories and was immediately struck by it, though the version that ultimately was used was so different from the original that RJD2 didn't recognize it when he first heard it. He's probably okay with it now, though. 

Here are 15 more instances of songs that gained a second life once they were selected for use as a television theme. These aren't songs specifically commissioned for the show, but rather songs that already existed that have gained wider recognition thanks to their use as a theme. 

'A Little Help from My Friends,' The Wonder Years

For many people, their first introduction toJoe Cocker's rendition of this Beatles tune wasn't on the soundtrack to Woodstock, it was in the opening credits of The Wonder Years. The '60s anthem was featured alongside some flickering Super-8 footage, wonderfully setting the show's wistful tone. 

'Far from Any Road,' True Detective

Alt-country husband-and-wife band The Handsome Family had been trucking along for almost 20 years when True Detective's music supervisor T Bone Burnett selected their 2003 tune "Far from Any Road" as the opening theme to the 2014 series. Singer...