February 12th, 2009 | Audio Stuff, EarthBound, Uncommon Knowledge

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A lot of music in EarthBound is similar to or based on real-life tunes. Someday I hope to make a big giant article or list or something showing all of this, but for now, here are a few of my favorites 😀

Moonside

First is Moonside’s music. I always loved those weird sounds in the background, it really added to the feel of the place.

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Little did I know that that sound was actually a sample taken from Ric Ocasek’s song, Keep on Laughin’:

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Incidentally, you can download the full song here.

Jackie’s Cafe

I always felt that the music in Jackie’s Cafe was really strange. But it sounded familiar, too. I could never put my finger on it, but then after a MOTHER 1+2 interview with the game’s musicians, I was like, aha!

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There are at least two things of note in here. First, the Little Rascals song is mixed in. Here’s the Little Rascals song in case you’re not familiar with it:

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The Star Spangled Banner is in the Jackie Cafe music too! I never realized it for years. It’s one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t unnotice it, kind of like how the bushes and clouds in Super Mario Bros. 1 are the same 😛 Here’s the Jackie Cafe music with all the other channels turned off:

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Naming Screen

The beginning part where you name your characters includes a short sample from the Monty Python theme song played over and over at different speeds:

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If you can’t hear it, the sample used starts at about 3 seconds into the Monty Python clip.

Sky Runner

And the Sky Runner song bears a resemblance to the intro to Won’t Get Fooled Again, by The Who.

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There are a lot more things like this, and I’ll try to make a full list of them sometime. If you can think of any others, let me know 😀