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'Morning Edition' Sci-Fi Theme Is Out Of This World

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And last month on this program, we issued a challenge to our listeners. Record your own version of the MORNING EDITION theme song. Make it whatever genre you want, and you delivered.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Over the past few weeks, we've shared a few of the submissions we've received. Today, we want to highlight one take on the theme that really sounds - well, listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SABRINA PENA YOUNG SONG, "MARTIAN MORNING EDITION")

MONTAGNE: Oh, that spacey rendition of the theme is called "Martian Morning Edition." And Mary Louise, if - sounds like it would want you to go boldly where no radio reporter has ever gone before - not an accident.

SABRINA PENA YOUNG: I decided right off the bat it'd be very sci-fi and sound very synthesized and electronic.

MONTAGNE: That's composer Sabrina Pena Young of Buffalo, N.Y. We reached her by Skype. She says she was inspired by classic movies like "Blade Runner" and TV shows like "Doctor Who."

PENA YOUNG: I picture the NPR staff floating in really old astronaut uniforms with, like, Daleks coming to get them.

KELLY: (Laughter) Renee, how did she know? Of course, we always wear old astronaut uniforms.

MONTAGNE: Absolutely.

KELLY: Well, at the very end of this composition, Young uses a sample of one of the official MORNING EDITION themes in a unique way.

PENA YOUNG: You hear the original soundtrack but backwards, almost like some sort of bizarre echo from a different universe or something that's just trying to get through.

(SOUNDBITE OF SABRINA PENA YOUNG SONG, "MARTIAN MORNING EDITION")

KELLY: Bizarre is right. I think this will all make sense after another cup of coffee. Our thanks to composer Sabrina Pena Young, one of many musicians who has sent us a new take on the MORNING EDITION theme. And please keep them coming. You can post them online on SoundCloud. Use the hashtag #MorningEditionTheme.

MONTAGNE: Then go to morningeditiontheme.npr.org to send them to us. And we'll keep playing the ones we love. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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