the opening theme song for "all in the family" is played at the start of each episode. the song is composed by charles strouse and the lyrics were written by lee adams. "those were the days" is sung by archie bunker and edith. edith is playing during the piano during the song. in the introduction many clips of manhattan from the sky are used. the clips start to show the neighborhoods as it gets closer to the bunker's house. the final clip returns to the bunker's house and edith and archie finish singing. there are many shorter versions of the lyrics here is the longest one which was made for atlantic records: