Over the last 20 years, countless albums themed around the Pokémon games and TV show have produced some actually-quite-good songs.

You may have seen a (very good) mash-up of the Pokémon theme tune with Lady Gaga‘s Applause floating around social media lately – with both experiencing a spike in popularity, the video is doing the rounds despite being a few years old. But Pokémon itself is no stranger to popular music. let’s have a look at some of the series’ other greatest hits:

Viridian City

Ah, Viridian City. The first destination for all new Pokémon trainers in the Kanto region. Actually, the city isn’t nearly as exciting as this track would suggest (and you can get there in less than the running time of the song) but it perfectly embodies the excitement and anticipation of starting out on an adventure. And that key-change? Killer.

All We Wanna Do

As anyone who has sat through the tear-jerking Bye-Bye, Butterfree episode from the original Pokémon TV series will attest, the series wasn’t all laughter and hi-jinks. But Pokémon Johto pitched itself a little differently, reinforcing themes of teamwork and loyalty between the human characters and their Pokémon. The music was also a little more upbeat – just try and sit through this uplifting track without cracking a smile. At its heart the series is ultimately a celebration of friendship and nowhere is that more evident than here.

M2M – Don’t Say You Love Me

Turn the clock back to the late ’90s – a much simpler time. Pokémon was arguably at the peak of its popularity and the inevitable next step following the success of Pokemon Red / Blue and the accompanying TV series was a movie. Sure enough, in 1999 Pokémon: The First Movie arrived, duly topping the box office and breaking records. Looking past the fact that this theme song has absolutely nothing to do with anything that happens in the film, it’s an aptly catchy tune that complements the early days of the Pokémon phenomenon perfectly.

Together Forever

Every generation of the Pokémon TV show will have its own fans. For me, the original line-up of Ash, Misty and Brock holds a special place in my heart. Neither Misty or Brock is appearing in the cartoon anymore; I freely admit it is fairly heartbreaking to know these BFF’s have gone their separate ways but this very ’90s song – check out that synth melody – featuring spoken dialogue from the original cast (“You’d better figure out a way to repay me for my broken bike Ash Ketchum” – who still remembers that plot point?) will let you believe that somewhere, our heroes are still happily Poké hunting together *sob*

The Pikachu Song

As the mascot for Pokémon, it’s unsurprising that Pikachu should be the focus of a number of songs. However none are quite so mesmerising as this one. Not from the Pokémon TV show but an unofficial mash-up comprised of Smile.dk‘s 1998 single Butterfly, the original PokéRap and looped Pikachu vocal samples. Is it plain terrible or is it an avant-garde work of genius? I don’t think we will ever know the answer.

Pokémon Johto

There are countless Pokémon theme tunes, some more notable than others (the Black & White one is particularly subversive). But for me there are only two that really matter – Pokémon Johto is fairly unique in that it is unashamedly fun. From the “do-do-do do do-do” hook to the boppy beat, the song ushered in the second generation of Pokémon reassuring us that it could be just as much fun the second time around.

Pokémon Theme Song

The original Pokémon TV show theme tune is just utterly epic on every level. A total earworm and a song that makes you sit up and take notice with its squealing electric guitar, crashing drums and killer chorus. This could so easily have turned into a silly pastiche, but by playing it straight down the line, vocalist Jason Paige creates a really authentic sounding sing-along rock song that is heaps better than it has any right to be. Often imitated, never bettered.