Feature: The Real Songs That Inspired Iconic Nintendo Music

Could add the Ending of Super Mario Bros 1, 2(Lost levels) and 3, when rescue to Princess Peach.

https://youtu.be/1W-cW20snPg

The original song is Oh! Christmas tree/ Oh! Tannenbaum

https://youtu.be/PamrmrVB5Mo

In honour of a resent GameCube remake ...

It's REALLY subtle and almost unnoticeable, but can you guess what song was "inspired" but this 1950 song from an Indian musical?

https://youtu.be/g6EuzGhIyRQ

Fun article, thanks.

Actually Super Mario World might have been inspired by the Song
Green Green.

Japanese Version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGuOadND9aY

Original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfxgbsXeTdE

And Sister Marian from the Square inspired the Super Mario bros. theme.

Don't forget the Wii Shop theme is taken from Billy Joel's "Pressure" at about 3:45 into the song.

Pressure: https://youtu.be/6Z5WdSL0BK0
Wii Shop: https://youtu.be/_xc7tNbjnHM

@Rinc You might want to check out pages 2 and 3 😉

As a composing musician for many years, I long ago gave up the idea of originality. I am sure I have copied stuff, and maybe if I am lucky someone will copy from me.

Great article! Thanks for putting the songs side by side: very enlightening!

Using Holst's Planets is almost a cheat code.

You can't listen to it and not hear the influence it had on John Williams, especially his Star Wars compositions.

What's neat about T-Square inspiring the original Super Mario Bros. overworld theme is that eventually, Nintendo enlisted one of their drummers as part of the Mario Kart Band

very original and interesting subject nintendolife:)

well done!!!

Cool article! I'd also like to add Ice Man's stage from Mega Man 1 is definitely Faithfully by Journey. Neon Tiger's stage from Mega Man X3 has the main riff from My Michelle by Guns 'N Roses.

"Only Me" from Animal Crossing might be a play on "Just You" from Twin Peaks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvdRpjutE8

I always find that the music from Super Mario Bros 3's "picture line-up" minigame reminds me of the bassline from I Wish by Stevie Wonder!

Interesting. I thought the main Zelda theme was inspired by Bolero (being the original song they wanted to use). It has a similar drum march/beat.

I hadn't noticed the similarity in that Deep Purple song before.

The main Zelda theme sounds like part of the vocal melody in
France Gall's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cv9NIzGmSI

The other way around, and this Offspring track seems to have been inspired by Donkey Kong Country:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESotrzAtglA

The Starlight Zone music from Sonic The Hedgehog sounds like Love Won't Wait by Bobby Caldwell.

Nintendo should create their Beatmania IIDX style rhythm game on Nintendo Switch with its controller.

I could hear the Starman, smb underground, and he's a pirate themes. Not the rest. EB is well-documented. Dunno why Sonic is on here?

The Bolero of Fire from Ocarina of Time was inspired by Ravel’s Boléro, and even uses the same snare drum rhythm as an homage. This was also the temp track for the title screen of NES Zelda I before Kondo wrote a new piece to avoid copyright infringement (the piece was not in the public domain).

Punch Out title theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEF3OR-WGVk

The various boxers also have excerpts of national anthems or folk music (Sakura, La Marseillaise, Ride of the Valkyries, etc).

As someone who is a big fan of learning about samples & interpolation in music, this is an amazing and intriguing feature Nintendolife!

Well done Kate!

So…At Doom’s Gate and Master Of Puppets??

Might be a stretch, but Malibuzios by Suzanne Ciani reminds me of Zora's Domain in Ocarina of Time.

@Dev9417 Here’s another Donkey Kong example I can think of: In Tropical Freeze, the Punch Bowl boss fight music sounds a lot like Twilight Zone by Golden Earring. Have a listen:

https://youtu.be/dkxrXWokYqQ

https://youtu.be/OF3yBbLrkEY

The music of the World 5 boss battle in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze reminds me a lot of the 80s classic song Twilight Zone by Golden Earring.

I wonder if this was this the "pink slip" article?

I've noticed a similarity between Pokemon G/S/C/HG/SS's "Union Cave" and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Mystic Circles of the Young Girls in part 2):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdmcXhXUJjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i2XOmQd-4o

Also around 0.30 of the above Union Cave video reminds me a lot of the "bridge" between the Berceuse and the Finale in Stravinsky's Firebird.

(at 2.51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST1aisZxN28

This is super cool to me, as I played Pokemon long before I got into classical music. I have always loved the Union Cave BGM, but then I began to notice the similarities between the two above (which I love Stravinsky, too, no wonder!).

Another one, S.S. Anne theme in Pokemon reminds me of Pachelbel's Canon. I feel like that's more obvious.

@kategray This article is a great introduction to this sort of thing, kudos on the good writing.
If you’re interested on covering it, T- Square has actually made more than a few songs that have directly inspired famous game soundtracks.

Their Song “Travelers” inspired Guile’s theme from SFII

https://open.spotify.com/track/11MHES8pyNcArUdiApM0vL?si=pE_3xL3wRqCEPLC418uHcg

https://open.spotify.com/track/29drzlJamuYPBRh1LPpXM4?si=P84u02ZVRQqPvFUe3Y3JCw

“RODAN” heavily inspired the Super Mario Kart battle theme along with Junko Yagami’s “No!”

https://open.spotify.com/track/1681fY2bXatOHJEANJVocR?si=NGyGXmxDSBmKEAiR2p_30w

https://open.spotify.com/track/70DcWhe9A5m66CJiWh99b2?si=bOYqP2S7RMi8GhPHp4TCPw

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ICHN0aWS-I0&pp=ygUdc3VwZXIgbWFyaW8ga2FydCBiYXR0bGUgbXVzaWM%3D

“All About You” gave creation to the Duck Tales moon theme

https://open.spotify.com/track/3hRu3zCApazg2Rw2hMQJ1k?si=sODA6EkKTFKCl4ld5NvUTQ

https://open.spotify.com/track/4p4jdAwdDCDchri5s7bxYz?si=1K_43-bIQsG-eS-lL35nCQ

Of course there’s Sister Marian like you already covered, but there’s more out there that I have yet to find.

Don’t forget the Super Mario Bros. 2 theme borrowing from “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles, or at least very inspired by! Go to ~1:55 in the song:
https://youtu.be/sDcDCZGcZj8?si=EtmgCxxUtZy7MnWm

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

Animal Crossing New Horizons 1am music is pretty much D Angelo - How Does It Feel?

And I remember the 5pm music sounds like just like a certain soul song but I can't for the life of me remember the name 😞

This was a cool article, would love to see more stuff like this.

This is kind of the exact opposite--a melody from SpongeBob that ever since I heard it as a kid, I always thought it had to have been inspired by the World 3 map theme from Super Mario Bros. 3. I looked it up to see if this song could have came out before, because SpongeBob uses a lot of royalty-free music from like as far back the 1950's, but this appears to have been composed specifically for the show in 2006:

https://youtu.be/Q6JVcd0TDMo?si=vf5ueK_00egz7Zdy

(Funnily enough, the trumpets sound straight out of New Horizons... did Nintendo copy their copiers??)

In case anybody needs a reminder, here's the All-Stars version of the SMB3 track:

https://youtu.be/AXh67kMttP4?si=M7eI7JR5HAK9AcUW

Another one that may or may not be a coincidence is part of the melody that plays in the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2008), which sounds almost identical to a part of the music in the Zelda: BotW January, 2017 trailer.

Skip to about the 12-second mark and listen to the chorus that kicks in:

https://youtu.be/TQ5cYR1nl1Y?si=LsTKPZWILtqGBt86

Now compare it to the Zelda trailer music at the 51-second mark:

https://youtu.be/V8RkqQ8fQs4?si=1GFSHi6ONiXRV-cf

I reached out to Avatar composer Jeremy Zuckerman on Twitter for his thoughts, and he actually responded. When I asked whether he thought Nintendo copied him, his reply which I'm quoting as closely as I can remember was, "I think some of this stuff just exists in the ether. 😉" I guess what he was trying to say was that artistic inspiration can strike almost like divine intervention, and that if it's written in the cosmos, 2 very different people may feel compelled to write a similar melody. At least, that's how I interpreted his rather vague comment. I thought it was pretty fascinating. The harmonic chorus of female vocals is almost identical, and this has been something that was bugging me ever since that January, 2017 trailer.

Lastly (and I don't know why these all involve Nickelodeon), but Banjo-Kazooie wasn't the only game that took inspiration from "Teddy Bear's Picnic." The song can also be heard in NickToons: Attack of the Toybots. This orchestral arrangement is actually fantastic:

https://youtu.be/5h1l4KtWSvM?si=Tk_vasMIngdVn9Zm

The SMW Overworld theme is almost exactly like the interlude in the middle of Scritti Politti's Perfect Way. Much closer than this Green Green. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cLxIB_lrwk0
Listen at 2.24

Though the singer's name is Green...

When creating new things, everyone seems to pull inspiration from somewhere. This is no different. Knowing the source of the inspiration though, can lead to some pretty interesting facts. It kind of helps you get into the mind of the people that made some of your favorite games.

Friendship is such a GOATED album...
I was kind of surprised to see that my favorite Bass player (Abraham Laboriel) inspired my favorite game series music!