When Dawson’s Creek began streaming on Netflix last year, fans were upset that the show’s iconic theme song was missing. Thanks to rights issues, home-video and streaming versions of Dawson’s Creek didn’t include Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want to Wait. Jann Arden’s Run Like Mad was used instead, but after all these years, fans finally have the original theme back.
However, this is not the original recording of I Don’t Want to Wait (although the difference is expected to be negligible) but rather a re-recorded version that will allow Netflix to get around not having the rights to the original master recording. “It’s true,” Paula Cole wrote on Twitter. “I re-recorded ‘I Don’t Want To Wait’, and they are using the master. All artists should be compensated for their intellectual work. Thank you [Sony TV and Netflix] and most of all the fans who made this happen. That’s the power of patience & persistence. Grateful.”
Even as someone who has never watched a single episode of Dawson’s Creek, I’m certainly familiar with I Don’t Want to Wait, and I’m sure fans are excited to hear it back where it belongs. The drama series followed the lives of a close-knit group of friends throughout high school and into college and starred James Van Der Beek as Dawson, Katie Holmes as his friend and love interest Joey, Joshua Jackson as fellow friend Pacey, and Michelle Williams as Jen.