Editing Late Night with Conan O'Brien (section)

====Theme song and other music====

The show's opening theme was co-written by composer [[Howard Shore]] and [[John Lurie]] (of the band [[The Lounge Lizards]]). Lurie would later say that he was contracted by Shore to write the theme, and after he turned in the piece, Shore made minimal changes and claimed an unwarranted co-writing credit.<ref name="indie">IndieWire article: "[https://www.indiewire.com/2016/04/listen-john-lurie-talks-fishing-with-john-working-with-jim-jarmusch-conan-obrien-more-in-hour-plus-podcast-talk-292378/ Listen: John Lurie Talks ‘Fishing With John,’ Working With Jim Jarmusch, Conan O’Brien & More In Hour-Plus Podcast Talk]."</ref><ref name="maron">[[YouTube]] video: "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3wEMU80ZaI John Lurie - WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #696]".</ref> Lurie also claimed to have been a finalist for ''Late Night'''s band leader position, but said producers told him, "Conan thinks you’re funnier than him and that scares him."<ref name="indie" /><ref name="maron" />

As is common in the talk show format, the Max Weinberg 7 performed the show's opening and closing themes, played [[Bumper (broadcasting)|bumpers]] into and out of commercial breaks (they actually played through the entire break for the studio audience), and a short piece during O'Brien's crossover to his desk after his monologue. The show's closing theme was called "Cornell Knowledge", and was lifted from Jerry and Jimmy Vivino's first album together. However, on ''Late Night'', it was played at a much quicker tempo than the album version. The band also played a wide variety of songs as bumpers coming to and from commercial breaks and introducing guests—usually [[popular music]] from a variety of eras.