If you’re one of the older members of our generation, you probably know what vinyl is. For the younger kids, vinyl is the older brother of the CD (compact disk) – that physical medium that predates your fancy MP3 players and iPhones. (Man, I’m old.) They’re also commonly referred to as “records”.
So now that you have had the history lesson, you might not be aware that vinyl has not exactly gone the way of the dinosaur. What used to be a neat hobby for collectors of older-style medium has seemed to have a resurgence within the past few years, and one of the things that seems to be included within this return to a simpler time of music-listening is video game music.
As many of you may know, the music for the Earthworm Jim video game was composed by Tommy Tallarico, as was it’s sequel Earthworm Jim 2. The music for the cartoon series however contained completely new and original music by composer William Anderson. The theme song, according to Mr. Anderson’s website is his personal favorite and part of the reason is that he wrote and PERFORMED the piece himself. The song itself is brilliant, fun, and reveals the very simple origin story of the character. Watching it again and seeing Psy-crow use a conductor’s baton just made me want to sing along. The opening was uploaded to YouTube by user Sjahut.
William Anderson has also composed the music for some classic animated series including the second seasons of the 1990’s Marvel Fantastic Four/Iron Man cartoons series, Biker Mice From Mars, X-Men Evolution, and My Little Pony which has become hugely successful. The score of the Earthworm Jim cartoon was light symphonic melodies, and regularly featured instrumental versions of the theme song when Jim took action against the episode’s protagonist of the week including his green evil twin, Evil The Cat, Professor with a Monkey for a Head, and the Evil Queen (with her extended title changing almost every episode).
So have yourself a little Earthworm Jim sing a long, and you can also do Karaoke with a lyric free version of the theme by listening to the End Credits thanks to YouTube user James Smith.
The series is available for purchase on Amazon, and if you’ve never seen it you can sample the wonderful hilarity of it in this compilation EAT DIRT! catchphrases assembled by YouTube user brokensoul 8930. I think the show captured the essence of the character, thanks to Dan Castellaneta’s voice talent (Homer Simpson). This brief article ends my examination of the music in cartoons based on video games for the time being. Now EAT DIRT! You gigantic fans of video game music!
There have been a few Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons over the years, and according to many Sonic fans the best series was the Sonic SatAM series. SatAM is a reference to Saturday Morning on ABC where the show ran for two seasons totalling 26 episodes.
The music for the series was written by Michael Tavera, and features original score and an incredibly catchy theme song. Michael Tavera also composed the music for the second and third seasons of Captain N: The Game Master, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. I am not going to discuss the series music in detail but I wanted to make sure you knew about the excellent promotional soundtrack available for the series. A fan of the series wrote Michael Tavera asking if any music of the series was available and he provided the fan with a promotional CD containing some cues from the series, and some unreleased tracks one which was featured in Captain N: The Gamemaster. It’s old news, but you can read about and grab a copy of this promotional album over at Saturday Morning Sonic’s website.
The entire series including the theme song was uploaded to YouTube by user TheRealSonicFan, and it can also be purchased on DVD from Amazon.
Captain N: The Game Master was another animated series that featured arrangements of classic video game music. The music for the series was composed by Shuki levy, and Michael Tavera who music I’ve covered in articles about The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers Super Show!, and The Adventures of Super Mario Brothers 3 cartoons.
The show ran for three seasons with Shuki Levy acting as composer for the first season, and Michael Tavera taking over for the remaining two seasons. In this article I discuss the musical arrangements featured in the game, and provide you with some YouTube examples that you can listen to. Read on to find out more about the video game music of this Nintendo cartoon.
The next installment in the series of Super Mario cartoons was the 13 two part episode series of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon. Michael Tavera acted as composer for the music and brought an updated symphonic synth sound. Michael Tavera also wrote the music for the Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM cartoon series with the catchy theme song (“He’s the fastest thing alive!”). Here’s your chance to read about the music of this animated series.
After writing about the music of the Legend of Zeldacartoon, composed by Shuki Levy, I had to write about the music of the parent program, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!It ran for a total of 52 episodes (65 if you add in the Zelda episodes) in Fall of 1989, and was shown in reruns for years to come.
The music of the show has also become a fan favorite amongst Super Mario fans, myself included. The title theme song, ending theme, and background music score are all memorable. Come read my thoughts on the music of this classic Nintendo Live Action and Animated Series.
In this edition of Game Soundtracks For Your Soul I look back as some character building music. I consider music character building in the sense that it’s music I had to listen to many times, over and over again because I was playing a game that had a time limit or underlying sense of urgency to the music.
The soundtracks I discuss this week is the music of the classic Rare Nintendo 64 exclusive title Blast Corps. The other game was also an exclusive to the Super Nintendo and a one of a kind classic Uniracers.
