We don't see many of them these days but once upon a time video games were prime inspiration for novelty songs. Titles like Pac-Man and Space Invaders both inspired popular singles, and in 1992 the situation was no different as tracks based on both Super Mario Land and Tetris entered the UK charts.
The man behind the first outing, Simon Harris, has been speaking to Eurogamer about how his track "Supermarioland" came to be, and it serves as a fascinating insight into how the video game industry approached promotional opportunities decades ago.
Harris - who was part of Ambassadors of Funk with British rapper Einstein (AKA: Colin Case or "MC Mario") - admits that he wasn't much of a gamer prior to working on the song:
I had no experience of games before working on the 'Supermarioland' project. I'd been a fan of Taito's Space Invaders, but this simply started from a friend of mine having a Game Boy, around 1991. I'd never seen one before, and I played around with Super Mario Land. I eventually bought one for myself, with just two games, Super Mario Land and Tetris.
Not long after, I was looking around for different ideas for new music, and I liked the music on Super Mario Land (composed by Hirokazu Tanaka, whose credits also include the original Metroid and several songs for the Pokémon franchise), and I'd noticed that it was pretty close to the tempo of house music, around 122 beats per minute, with a 4/4 beat. So, it wasn't that difficult to sample and transpose it onto the kind of track that I was used to producing.
Amazingly, Harris created the track without first getting permission from Nintendo, but the Japanese giant quickly warmed to the idea, instead of hitting the artist with a cease and desist:
I created 'Supermarioland' before even thinking about getting in touch with Nintendo. But when we did, it was really well received, and they loved both the idea and the track.
Not only did they like it, they wanted an entire album of Mario songs. The process was surprisingly straightforward, at least in the UK and Japan:
Nintendo UK were fantastic, and they helped in all kinds of ways with the marketing, supplying us with pictures and giving us access to the guy in the Mario suit. He did all sorts of TV shows with us. Nintendo USA, though, had no clue what we wanted to do, and were very unresponsive. We could never seem to get through to the right person, so in the end 'Supermarioland' didn't get released in the USA. It was just getting too difficult.
However, we got a great response from a label in Japan, called Alfa Records. They were very enthusiastic. The guy there was called Hiro Masakazu, and he had a friend who worked at Game Freak, who in turn knew the Nintendo people in Kyoto. So, we went to Japan to discuss making an album - which I ended up making, of course - and actually went to Nintendo's Kyoto HQ to ask permission.
During this visit, Harris got to meet the big man himself:
We were shown into their boardroom, and in walked Miyamoto himself. We had a long chat about the project, surrounded by a lot of other Nintendo staff and developers. Miyamoto loved 'Supermarioland', the song, and the idea for a full album - and he gave us permission to release one, with Nintendo supplying us with bona-fide Mario artwork, too.
Supermarioland managed to make its way into the UK top ten singles chart - back when that actually meant something - and the album, entitled "Super Mario Compact Disco", arrived in 1993 with songs from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Kart, as well as other games in the series, but sadly failed to chart and is now worth a small fortune on CD.
In 1994, Harris and Einstein tried to repeat their success with another famous video game property:
We tried to emulate the same kind of idea as 'Supermarioland' with Street Fighter 2. Capcom were very nice, and gave us permission, and helped us, but the song didn't take off like Mario had. But then, nothing can beat Mario. He really is the greatest video game character of all time.
Did you buy this single back in the day, or is this your first exposure to this piece of musical history? Let us know by laying down some "phat beats" in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments (28)
Street Fighter has got nothing on Mario.
MC Mario - You Can Touch It (The Bricks)
I had no idea that this exists. The video made my day. The dance moves, the clothes, the Mario suit; It was all pretty amazing and so early 90s. Catchy tune too.
What did I just watch?!
I remember both the Mario and Street Fighter tracks. I didn't think the SF2 one worked well at all, the timing feels off.
I remember buying (or getting it bought for me is more accurate) that on cassette from Woolworths. Good times.
Miyamoto-san looks so young in that photo!
Somehow, I'm not surprised that Nintendo US didn't get it...thankfully the UK & Japan did!
While the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were taking rock music in a new direction in America, early Nineties chart music in Britain felt like largely a wasteland of awful house tunes. Novelty tracks based on Game Boy chiptunes were actually raising the bar...
That Mario costume gives me nightmares
@Lone_Beagle NOA eventually did eventually "get it" by the time the N64 came around.
The CD's weren't shaped like cds tho...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEDX-2M7Qk
Never heard of this before, so I was intrigued to get those albums, but after listening to a few songs on Youtube I realized it's not worth it.
They basically just added drums the in-game songs, hoe unoriginal...
@Krull Hey you guys had some great stuff in the nineties from the electronic scene like Autechre, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Faithless.... You know what, there's way too many too list
the street fighter song was better imo
I just heard 'Supermarioland' recently, when the track was featured on an episode of Retronauts and I started googling to find out what it was. I was wondering why I hadn't heard this song when I was younger, and now I know why!
@PowerStar Yeah, that's true! Out of those, only the Prodigy and Faithless ever had any real impact on the charts, though. We did have good music, but you'd have struggled to hear it on commercial radio.
There was an awesome hardcore tune with a Tetris sample from gameboy. They were the days!
I have to admit, I owned both the Mario and Street Fighter CDs back in the day.
I have that single on cd! 😉
That Super Mario Land one though.
I actually have a rip of this album on a hard drive somewhere in my house (and the friend I borrowed it from probably still has the original CD). Thanks for bringing back memories which I don't know to classify as "awesome" or "terrible".
@ThanosReXXX @WiltonRoots @gortsi -
Hope you all had a great Christmas, pardon my ignorance if you don’t celebrate Christmas or celebrate something else (I think I saw at least two of you under the “Merry Christmas” article, so I’m at least 2/3 safe). Let me be the first to wish you all a safe and happy New Year. I look forward to chatting with you all through 2018.
@bimmy-lee Merry Christmas dude, and a happy new year to yourself and your family! May the fight against trolls continue all through 2018, I envy you being in Florida at this time of the year!
@bimmy-lee Thanks very much, and right back at you...
@gortsi - Thanks my friend. I’m actually in Indiana. My landscape is flat, frozen, and covered in about five inches of snow. You’re thinking of gatorboi. People get us confused all the time here. We share a lot of common opinions. Wait... no we don’t, none actually.
@bimmy-lee hahahaha oh I'm so sorry, for some reason I thought you lived in Florida,my bad. Pretty frosty in the UK as well, although no snow where we live.
@bimmy-lee @gortsi @ThanosRexxx Indeed, hope you guys had a good one, I dropped my Wii U and library off with my nephews as I don't use it any more, I've been re-experiencing with them the mania that is shaving microseconds off time trials and online wars that Mario Kart 8 is all about, got them enjoying Mario 3D world and one went and bought himself a copy of Breath of the Wild to play on it...
I've eaten too much and drank too much and it's back to work tomorrow.
@WiltonRoots - You’re a great uncle. As much as I love my nieces, I couldn’t do that. I’m the kind of weirdo who keeps every console, game, and accessory and still play them all. Just wish I didn’t toss all those amazing manuals and cardboard game boxes back in the day. I bought Scribblenauts Unlimited for two of my nieces, and a Kirby plush for my daughter. Good luck assimilating back into real life.
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