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74-year-old musician wrote a song 50 years ago—now it makes him $1 million a year: It's ‘easily the most played song on MTV'

Mark Mothersbaugh wrote “Uncontrollable Urge” for Devo’s 1978 debut album. 
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Mark Mothersbaugh wrote “Uncontrollable Urge” for Devo’s 1978 debut album. 

Despite a prolific career composing soundtracks for hit movies and TV shows, one of Mark Mothersbaugh's most lucrative pieces of music is a song he wrote nearly 50 years ago.

The composer, who has worked on films like "Thor: Ragnarok" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and shows including "Rugrats" and "What We Do in the Shadows," is also a founding member of the band Devo.

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The group's debut album was released in 1978, with the Mothersbaugh-penned "Uncontrollable Urge" serving as its first track. Though the song didn't chart particularly well when it was released, it received an unexpected second life decades later when it was made the theme song for MTV's hit show "Ridiculousness."

The comedy show has become one of MTV's most aired programs and turned "Uncontrollable Urge" into Mothersbaugh's main moneymaker over its more than 1,500 frequently rerun episodes.

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"I've written so many other songs for films and television shows," the 74-year-old Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone in a recent profile on TV theme song writers"I would've been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income."

While "Rolling Stone" reports that "Uncontrollable Urge's" lifetime Spotify streaming royalties total only around $150,000, Mothersbaugh's wife and manager Anita Greenspan told the magazine that he takes home roughly $1 million per year in royalties.

The success of "Ridiculousness" is particularly satisfying to Mothersbaugh and Greenspan because of the relationship Devo had with the network. Greenspan said that "Uncontrollable Urge's" frequent appearances on MTV are "ironic and kind of funny."

"In the beginning of MTV you saw a lot of Devo because they were early to make videos, but MTV started questioning the videos Devo were making. [The videos] were subversive, they didn't like them and wouldn't play them anymore," she said. "Now 'Uncontrollable Urge' is easily the most-played song on MTV, so [Devo] wins.'"  

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