In scripted comments read on the First Anniversary Special of CBS Radio's Saturday Night Swing Club, on which the Raymond Scott Quintette performed, host Paul Douglas announced that "Powerhouse" had been premiered on that program in January or early February 1937.

The first theme, sometimes referred to as "Powerhouse A", is a frantic passage typically employed in chase and high-speed vehicle scenes to imply whirlwind velocity.

Stalling's lengthiest adaptation of the "Powerhouse A" section is interpolated during the beginning and end of the rocket travel sequence in the 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (directed by Chuck Jones).

Other Warner cartoons which contain excerpts from "Powerhouse" include Birdy and the Beast (1944), Cat-Tails for Two (1953), Early to Bet (1951), His Bitter Half (1950), House-Hunting Mice (1948), It's Hummer Time (1950), Jumpin' Jupiter (1955), Rocket Squad (1956), Sheep in the Deep (1962), Compressed Hare (1961), and dozens more.

[7] The original Raymond Scott Quintette recordings, including "Powerhouse", were licensed in the early 1990s for soundtrack usage in twelve episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show.

An entire 1993 episode of Animaniacs, "Toy Shop Terror", was set to Warner Bros. music director Richard Stone's arrangement of the composition.

[11] "Powerhouse," with added lyrics and a new arrangement, was used as a recurring song in the Looney Tunes animated series Bugs Bunny Builders entitled "Hard Hat Time" by composer Matthew Janszen.

Other contemporary artists who have recorded versions of "Powerhouse" include Thelonious Moog, The Tiptons (with Amy Denio), Quartet San Francisco,[16] and Steroid Maximus (featuring J. G. Thirlwell).

In August 2009, Sinking Ship Productions staged a musical portrait of Raymond Scott entitled Powerhouse at the New York International Fringe Festival.

[19] On August 8, 2013, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette performed an arrangement of "Powerhouse" to accompany Dance Heginbotham's choreographic work Manhattan Research at New York's Lincoln Center Out Of Doors summer concert series.

[citation needed] The "assembly line" section was used on Neil Cicierega's 2020 album Mouth Dreams in the song "Whitehouse", in which it was matched up with the vocals to The White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl".

In April 2021 the tune was used in the CBS TV show Young Sheldon, in the opening scene of the episode "Mitch's Son and the Unconditional Approval of a Government Agency" (season 4, ep.