"Great artists steal" (The C64 SID Challenge) 1/2

[bytesabre]

The "KickStart" music is such because on British TV there was a programme in the 80s about motorcross of the same name that used the Mr Walkie Talkie track as the theme tune. Most people know the music in the UK as "The kickstart theme tune"...

[videofan006]

I would also say that they did not steal anything. They worked quite legally and with approval and pride of all of us on translating well known melodies into this new media - cyber music. Yes these were slightly different times. People did not sue each other for whatever they could, but rather were happy if someone liked their tunes so much to implement it into movies or games... different times... and perhaps more normal, cheers.

[videofan006]

I would like to say "yes" but I cannot. I respectfully disagree with the thesis. It happens that I remember these times and how it came that this music was translated for SID, yes not composed, but translated. Nobody then who knew anything about music would mistake these perfectly well known tunes. And this is exactly WHY they were translated into games. It is also true that working on them gave these artists an opportunity to master their field of interest and later go for more... much more.

[tausendstein]

@kaiBiggins:

Did You ever hear the word "licensing" :) ? You can always play music from other composers, but You have to pay something for it. AND: Most of the songs in famous C64 games were originals by the computer composers ! Nevertheless a nice compilation, but perhaps You can remove the word "steal" from the title.Thx.

[spikeman14]

The one for California games is The troggs - Wild thing! Not whatever you put in this video

[thejokemon]

Most of them where obvious covers. Not one of the best and most famous tunes where here so this film was kinda meaningless.

[inphanta]

Wow, some crusty old relics were dug up for this. Thing is, the most fondly remembered C64 tunes were not "borrowed" from other artists (the likes of Sanxion, Cybernoid and Parallax for example). Most of the tunes you feature here are very crude, early compositions that are not at all representative of what the SID chip went on to become. Informative compilation though.

[kaiBiggins]

So true... there are some serious tunes made on the C64 -- true masterpieces.

[markchox]

#1 charriots of fire

[jci10]

This is stupid. You can't steal famous, well-known songs like these. Conversely, most original SID player songs are unknown and its very easy to steal these...

[eglezfan]

Spy Hunter used the peter gunn theme, and it was licensed

[Norbee12]

what's the first song full name?

Artist: Martin Galway

Title:???

[jtbo]

Pure gold :-)

It does not make music bad if it is borrowed, it is still impressive work to get such tunes out from C64...

[KaslarProductions]

my fav SID artist is !cube, or DRAX

[MooglyGuy]

For what it's worth, some of these songs were in the public domain anyway (case in point: The Entertainer)

[kaiBiggins]

That might certainly be true ^^

[DMStern]

IIRC Epyx licensed "Louie, Louie" for California Games, and the composer or rights holder is listed in the manual of the game. The track might even be mentioned on the box, but it's been too long since I've actually looked at it to remember for sure.

[danytoon]

What a fantastic retrospective! THANKS!

[rancie11]

This took a lot of work and love for the c64. My hat is off to you--very nicely done.

[cosine303]

kikstart.. was based "loosely" ;-) on the tv show like the game.. the music in that tv show.. the music in the game.. same goes for hyper sports .. not 100% if that featured in the arcade machine version.

[pixelinho]

peter gunn theme was part of the blues brothers movie soundtrack. i think they were authorised to use this music in the game.

[LostShayd]

If you're gonna drop names of great SID makers, you can't leave out Brian Szepatowski...I would have never become as involves with electronic music if it wasn't for his fabulous SIDs....His rendition of Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan was brilliant...then there was his original piece, The Horror: Triad

[spikeman14]

The California Games theme is a copy of "Wild Thing" not the song you posted!

[pixelinho]

look for "louie louie" by "paul revere & the raiders" and you will find a 1:1 version of california games title song.

the song of the California Games surf event is Wipe Out by the way ( by surfaris or by ventures? dunno )

and it was pretty obvious to translate some great classic, rock & pop songs to the c64. the companies paid for licenses.

i wonder why "ghostbusters" is not in this row. oh because they used it in the licensed game?

the man who put it on to the c64 didn't compose it either

[Sinfour]

at 3:43 HAHAHA Carl. I. Hagen. my ass :P hes a poltician in Norway :p

[jci10]

Dude, everyone knew these songs were "borrowed" from the original authors like you mentioned. Nothing new here... with the exception of Zoids and another Hubbard song which escapes me now...

[kaiBiggins]

Well, as i mentioned at the end there are so many more tunes to cover, Tim Follin is surely one of them.

[cosine303]

u forgot tim follin? jeez (check out led storm music ;-) remind u of anything?) and of course jereon tel.. as much as they were inspired / "borrowed" from others music.. plenty did enough of their own work to prove they were talented in composition. besides, galways cover of vangelis is great. check out here for "timbaland finnish" and tell me if thats right? or just big time plagurism.