Ron Wasserman

Ronald Aaron Wasserman (born September 2, 1961), also known as Aaron Waters and The Mighty Raw, is an American musician who composed the original theme songs for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and X-Men: The Animated Series. He was also a member of the band Fisher.

History

Early career Wasserman has been fascinated with music since he was three years old, when he started playing the piano. Wasserman said, "my musical taste my entire life was so diverse, so I'd be listening to 'Rhapsody in Blue' by George Gershwin one day and learning to play it on the piano, and then I'd switch over to 'War Pigs' from Black Sabbath." Wasserman said, "you could hear probably throughout the whole office building when I drove in, blasting Black Sabbath, or Nirvana or some death metal out of my car. I had that energy and that angst back then. I got it out in my music." Wasserman also wrote some of the show's background music, with other composers from Saban also working on the background music. For the early episodes, the show's closing credits featured an instrumental heavy rock song from Wasserman, but for later episodes it was replaced by a shortened version of his opening theme.

The following year, he composed some of his most recognizable work, which was for the Fox Kids show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. One day, he was presented with the first footage of the show, was told to use the word "Go", and to have it finished by the next day. The people from Saban Entertainment wanted him to use the word "Go" since Haim Saban had success using that lyric in the Inspector Gadget theme song, which was the first hit theme he and writing partner Shuki Levy were credited with. In 1991, he had previously composed an instrumental metal theme song for a similar Saban project called Metalman. The project never got off the ground, and Wasserman decided to give Mighty Morphin Power Rangers a rock/metal sound since it reminded him of Metalman. In 2023, Wasserman also said he considered the song's sound to be speed metal rather than heavy metal or pop metal, and compared it to Metallica's Hardwired... to Self-Destruct. The song has sometimes been incorrectly attributed to the metal band Megadeth, due to similarities in the vocals and guitar sounds. In addition to composing the theme song for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Wasserman handled the background music, and in 1994 several of his most popular songs and scores from the series were released on a successful concept album entitled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Album: A Rock Adventure.

His compositions for X-Men: The Animated Series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and various other Saban productions were credited to Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi (an alias Haim Saban started using during the 1990s), with Wasserman only ever being listed in TV credits as a music producer or music engineer. This was allegedly so the pair could collect music royalties for Wasserman's work. According to Wasserman, he very rarely composed alongside Shuki Levy or Haim Saban on any Saban Entertainment shows.

Another reason Saban did not credit musicians was so that they would be hidden enough as to not get offers to work for higher paying companies. Regarding "Cross My Line", Wasserman said in 2013, "Haim and I always got along and I have nothing against him in the world. but that song was basically a 'fuck you, I'm out of here soon, and somewhere down the line you’re going to read all of the projects I’m involved in'". Saban instead credited it to a fictitious artist named Aaron Waters. Wasserman came up with the name "Aaron Waters" because his middle name was Aaron and his surname Wasserman means "water carrier" in German. Saban later attached the additional alias "The Mighty RAW". While the reason behind it is unknown, it is assumed "RAW" is for his initials and "The Mighty" comes from the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." "Cross My Line" also briefly appears within the film itself. In the film's credits, the performer of "Cross My Line" is listed as being The Mighty RAW, while Wasserman is separately listed under his real name as the writer of the song, alongside Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi. The original Power Rangers theme was also reworked by an orchestra for the film, and in the film's credits the writers of the theme are listed as Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi, with no mention of Wasserman just like in the TV show's credits. The series was a continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, which originally ended in 1997. On the closing credits of X-Men '97, Shuki Levy and Haim Saban are still listed as the writers of the theme, with Saban being credited under his real name rather than the Kussa Mahchi alias.

Later Saban projects His success with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers soundtrack led to work on numerous other Saban productions in the mid-1990s. Projects from the studio he worked on following the release of Power Rangers include BattleTech: The Animated Series, Blindfold: Acts of Obsession, Creepy Crawlers, Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol, Space Strikers, Sweet Valley High, Teknoman and VR Troopers. He composed the theme songs for Sweet Valley High, Teknoman and VR Troopers, since he was exhausted and was refused a pay rise. Saban's role in the dub was to distribute it to syndicated television (primarily Fox, WB and UPN affiliates) and to produce the soundtrack, with the company also demanding numerous censorship edits in order to get it on to American TV. It was Saban who hired Wasserman for Dragon Ball Z, and, according to Wasserman, they let him compose the music from his home as they didn't care about the show. Wasserman was allowed to give it a darker and heavier sound than previous shows he had worked on, since he would never receive creative notes when he sent the music to Saban. Wasserman scored while the VHS played on his living room's 27-inch tube television. Wasserman noted that while the timecode track was dedicated to data, he could still faintly hear the show's dialogue bleeding through that channel as he worked. He would deliver his final mixes for episodes to Saban on Digital Audio Tape (DAT). At that time, Sweet was also doing music for Power Rangers Zeo (1996), which was the first Power Rangers season to have been made after Wasserman left Saban in late 1995.

Between 1996 and 1998, Wasserman composed for the first two seasons of Dragon Ball Z, as well as the dub of the third movie The Tree of Might. The original 1997 English dub of this movie edited it into a three part episode of the television series, with the episodes appearing as part of the second season. The music was recycled from the dub of the first two seasons, instead of being created specifically for it. On December 9, 1997, "Rock the Dragon" and music from the dub's background score were released on an album titled Dragon Ball Z: Original USA Television Soundtrack. The album's music was attributed to Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi, with these two also being listed as the composers on the dub's closing credits. Wasserman was only listed as a music producer on the dub's closing credits, alongside Jeremy Sweet, and wasn't mentioned at all on the soundtrack album release. In 1999, Wasserman was replaced for the third season and beyond by Dallas-based composer Bruce Faulconer. Like Levy and Haim Saban, Faulconer also allegedly did not write many of the compositions he was credited for, instead getting a small group of musicians to do it for him. Faulconer was based in the same city as Funimation, which meant that they would have more creative control over the soundtrack by using him instead, with the company also deciding to use local actors for the third season rather than the Vancouver-based Ocean Productions. Funimation's president Gen Fukunaga said in a 1999 interview that "we had to change the 'composer'. We were not very pleased with the music for the first two seasons. We're much happier with this new composer, we just feel that the newer music is much better." He added, "we wanted to have more control over the music. Previously, we had almost no control. Saban wouldn't deliver the music on time, and we couldn't have it adjusted the way we wanted. Now, with it being done locally, we've been given a lot more control."

Post-Saban music career After leaving Saban, Wasserman started a band with then-girlfriend Kathy Fisher. Wasserman also began working on various video game titles with Pink Floyd producer, Bob Ezrin and contributed to DIC Entertainment. The first show he composed for which had no connection to Saban was DIC Entertainment's Mummies Alive!, which aired for 42 episodes during 1997. It was produced by Eric and Julia Lewald, who had previously worked on X-Men: The Animated Series. In 1998, Fisher contributed the song "Breakable" for the 20th Century Fox movie Great Expectations. The popularity of this song and others on file sharing site MP3.com helped them briefly get signed to Interscope Records at the turn of the millennium. The unorthodox way they got signed to a major record label attracted attention from various media outlets, including Time magazine in 2000.

Return to Power Rangers Wasserman returned to solo work in 2005, and even returned to the Power Rangers franchise that same year, composing the theme song for the thirteenth Power Rangers season, Power Rangers S.P.D.. News of his involvement reached the fanbase and demo versions of the theme were leaked, upsetting Disney executives. According to content creator Linkara in his web series "History of Power Rangers", Wasserman also submitted demos for the fourteenth season, Power Rangers Mystic Force. He had first submitted the rock theme and though the producers at Disney approved, he would later be told they were seeking something more rap-oriented; thus, leading him to create and submit a rap theme which they also rejected. Since Disney were not going to be using the themes for the series he posted the demos online for the fans.

Post Power Rangers Wasserman remains active with other television and commercial projects, including work for America's Next Top Model.

In 2010, Wasserman released two original songs with Ozone Entertainment as downloadable content on the Rock Band Network.

Power Rangers: Redux

On August 28, 2012, Wasserman announced on both RangerBoard and RangerCrew that he would be re-cutting the original Power Rangers songs, to refresh their sound and use new technology to record them. During the process of recording the tracks, Wasserman posted a few unedited/unmixed sample clips.

Despite being limited to songs that were commercially released on CD or cassette during the 90s, a large repertoire of his Power Rangers music still remained to create the new album. The tracks were released via Bandcamp on October 22, 2012, with CD Baby (covering Amazon, iTunes, etc.) coming thereafter. This new album includes an instrumental version of each song, making it the largest instrumental release of Power Rangers music thus far. A listing of the tracks is as follows:

Personal life At an early age, Wasserman was adopted by parents of Russian-Jewish descent. His sister was also adopted. As a child, he was often mistaken as being from a different family, since he had blonde hair, while his parents and sister had red hair.

He was formerly married to Kathleen Fisher (the namesake and Wasserman's bandmate in Fisher). They had one son together, born in 2004.

In September 2018, Wasserman was involved in a mountain bike accident, requiring surgery afterwards.

Discography

Studio albums Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Album: A Rock Adventure (1994) (as Aaron Waters) Power Rangers Redux (2012)

Singles "Go Go Power Rangers" (1994) "American Hero" (2010) "Fight Back" (2010)

TV/film composing credits X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1995) – Co-composer of the theme song and background music Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993–1996) – Singer, composer and songwriter of the theme song and background music VR Troopers (1994–1996) – Co-singer and composer/songwriter of the background music Sweet Valley High (1994–1998) – Composer and songwriter of the theme song and background songs Space Strikers (1995) – Co-composer of the background music Teknoman (1995) – Composer of theme song and co-composer of the background music Power Rangers Zeo (1996) – Co-singer, co-composer and co-songwriter Dragon Ball Z (1996–1998) – Composer of the background music for the original English dub version of the first 53 episodes Ace Ventura: The CD-Rom Game (1996) [Video Game] Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) [Video Game] Power Rangers Turbo (1997) – Co-singer, co-composer and co-songwriter of the background music Taylor's Return (1997) Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (1997) – Composer of the background music for the original English dub version of the film Mummies Alive! (1997–1998) – Singer-songwriter of the title song and co-writer of the background music Power Rangers in Space (1998) – Singer, co-composer and co-songwriter of the theme song and background music Great Expectations (1998) – Music written and performed by America's Next Top Model (2003–2013) – Co-composer of the background music Trollz (2005–2006) – Composer and songwriter Power Rangers SPD (2005) – Singer, composer and songwriter of the song title Dance Revolution (2006–2007) – Co-composer of the background music Horseland (2006–2008) Sushi Pack (2007) DinoSquad (2007-2008) SpongeBob SquarePants (2008) – Composer of the background music Basketball Wives (2010–2013) – Co-composer of the background music Hot in Cleveland (2010–2015) – Composer of theme and background music The Real Housewives of New York City (2011–present) All-American Muslim (2011) America's Supernanny (2011) Retired at 35 (2011) – Co-composer of the background music 7 Days of Sex (2012) – Co-composer of the background music The Soul Man (2012–2016) – Composer of the background music and theme Who Do You Think You Are? (2013–present) – Co-composer of the background music Kirstie (2013–2014) – Composer of the background music and theme The Thundermans (2013–2018) – Composer of the background music Bella and the Bulldogs (2015–2016) – Composer of the background music Criminal Confessions (2017–present) – Theme composer and co-composer of score The Nothing (2018–present) – Composer [Video Game] Murder for Hire (2019–present) – Theme composer and co-composer of score Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always (2023) – Theme composer and composer of score The Thundermans: Undercover (2025–present) – Composer of the background music

Miscellaneous Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – An orchestrated rendition of Wasserman's X-Men: The Animated Series theme briefly appeared. Ms. Marvel (2022) – A brief rendition of Wasserman's X-Men: The Animated Series theme briefly appeared in the episode "No Normal". The Thundermans Return (2024) – Wasserman's The Thundermans theme is used, composed by Caleb Chan and Brian Chan. X-Men '97 (2024–present) – Wasserman's X-Men: The Animated Series theme is used, composed by The Newton Brothers. What If...? (2024) – A brief rendition of Wasserman's X-Men: The Animated Series theme briefly appeared in the episode "What If... What If?".