The official theme song of Hot Doug's. Accept no substitute, beeatches.

Chicago pop band bee is releasing a new version of “The Theme From Hot Doug’s,” and all proceeds will to go Intonation Music Workshop (IMW), a Chicago nonprofit that provides free music education to kids in low-income and dangerous neighborhoods. Doug Sohn, who is on the IMW Honorary Board and has been a generous benefactor, is donating a week’s worth of proceeds from his “Celebrity Sausage” to IMW, but he’s teamed up with bee to create an opportunity for people to get a little bit of Hot Doug’s and help IMW “without having to wait in line for 90 minutes,” as Sohn says.

bee faceman Nicholas Markos elaborates, “If you can’t make it to Hot Doug’s during the IMW Celebrity Sausage week, you can still make a difference by buying the song. All profit margin will go straight to IMW, and you’ll get a catchy pop song for your iThing.” Adds Sohn, “Don’t be a cheap weasel--it’s only 99 cents! And it’s for the kids! Not your kids, but . . . . All kidding aside, I’ve seen what the IMW program does, and it’s tremendous.”

Written by Markos specifically for Hot Doug’s back when it opened (and there were no lines!), “The Theme From Hot Doug’s” has been re-recorded, and the new version features Chicago native and superstar drummer Todd Sucherman (Styx, Brian Wilson) and was mastered by Grammy-nominated mastering engineer (and Tie Records founder) Marcos Sueiro. Somewhere near the nexus of The Ramones, The Strokes, and the early Who, it’s 2 minutes of pure pop hooks and energy.

About bee: bee is a pop band founded by Nicholas Markos. In the past couple of years, in addition to releasing several singles under his remixing identity The Hitmaker, Nicholas has written music for two new documentary films (Ebert favorite Vincent: A Life in Color, and nerd favorite Get Lamp: The Text Adventure Documentary), played keyboards and percussion in David Singer’s band (The Sweet Science), and played guitar on two albums by LA singer/songwriter Holly Long. Previously, he has put out several solo albums, performed live with numerous bands (including solo opening slots for Bob Dylan, Violent Femmes, Todd Rundgren and others), performed live with Hot Doug at the Rosemont Theatre on the Guy Fieri Roadshow), scored the documentary film Trashed, written music for commercials (for the Chicago White Sox and Wrigley’s Gum, among others), collaborated on remixes with members of Journey and REO Speedwagon, been embroiled in a real-life rock-and-roll soap opera with Factory Records artist Cath Carroll and Santiago Durango of Big Black, gotten himself kicked out of several bands (including some of those mentioned above), and engaged in various fisticuffs and shouting matches with childhood friends in a range of bands.