Bitmob Community Jukebox #7: Comeuppance Edition

In  this episodes of the Jukebox, a certain community member gets his comeuppance. I'm not going to say who, but, you'll see.

Also we've had some violations of the submissions guidelines I've outlined in previous entries of the Jukebox. One entry per person folks. I've offered a one time reprieve for violators, but in the future I will not listen to any submissions that include more than one song. Hit the jump to find out more about the rules, and more importantly about who got his or her due! (Also, read on for more new information about how the fifteen songs will be chosen.

For all you newcomers, here's how it is. Even though I've done a Meet the Mob, there is something important you should know about me.For some reason, over the years, my mind has acted as a sort of a Roledex for great videogame ditties.  (For all you youngsters out there, a Rolodex is an archaic device that people used to keep important contact information on. I guess it's sort of like an abacus at this point.)

Because of this, every Monday I will be posting fifteen well-known and not-so-well-known videogame songs.

There's a catch however; I will not be providing all of the songs; I'll provide only the remainder of the total fifteen. This is a revision of the original rules; I'm going to keep it fluid so that I can get as many community songs on each list as possible. To clarify, the rest will be suggested - hopefully songs I've never heard - and out of all of the suggestions, I will choose from the submissions to round out the fifteen.

Ultimately, I would like enough suggestions to have is so that five or even one song is donated by myself, thus truly making it the Community Jukebox.

It's important to note that all submissions will be credited to the community members who provided them.

The only guidelines are that any song chosen must be from a non-music game, or from a music game with original content. Licensed songs are also OK, but they must be from something other than a music game.

This means that Fallout and Grand Theft Auto songs are fair game, whereas Guitar Hero and Rock Band songs aren't. If licensed songs become too prolific, however, I may stop taking them as submissions.

Also, to note, I will try my hardest  to find the original names of every song, yours or mine, but if I can't, I will give it a name, and mark it with an asterisk. In addition, all songs are set to open in a new tab, so feel free to click away and have them play in the background as you surf Bitmob or get some work done.

Songs appear in no particular order whatsoever, save that community submissions will be segmented from my choices and shown last.

Each week, I will also be choosing my favorite submission, The Double-Plus Good Pick of the Week. The winner will receive exactly nothing, except being last song with this beside their entry: ++good.

As a small guideline, if you'd like to win the The Double-Plus Good Pick of the Week, try to pick something obscure or, at the very least, recent. We all know titles like Mega Man and Final Fantasy had great music  in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, and I will be featuring songs like these every week (that's my bread and butter).

But, in the interest of keeping the Jukebox new and surprising,  if you can come up with a great song that I've forgotten, or, better yet, never heard, you'll have a leg up on the competition. Just keep in mind what I said at the top, and if you've read my Meet the Mob, the size of my game case.

Either way, feel free to submit whatever you like. Please. I can't reinforce enough that all submissions are welcome.

As an added bonus, I will also try to add an immediate comment about the awesomeness of the winner commenter's song and why everyone else should pay special attention to it. This will be an in-joke for those who keep up.

Most importantly, since I hope to keep doing this for awhile, only one submission response per person per post. That way I'll have less to parse, and you folks will be able to submit for an extended period of time. If you sumbit multiple requests, I will not listen to any of them.

Again, only one submission response per person per post.

Anyway, onto the show.

There are two ways to listen:

Method 1: Pick and Choose

1. Plants Vs Zombies - We Don't Want Zombies on the Lawn*

2. Panzer Dragoon Saga - Village of the Seekers*

3. Animal Crossing - K.K. Ballad

4. Ecco the Dolphin - Opening Theme*

5. Super Mario RPG - Legend of the Seven Stars - Happy Parade, Delightful Parade

6. Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire - Xizor's Palace Theme*

7.  Street Fighter II - Ryu Stage


Community Jukebox

8. Mega Man 2 - Metal Man suggested by Alex R. Cronk-Young

9. Super Metroid - Ridley's Hideout suggested by Alex Long

10. Final Fantasy IV - Within the Giant suggested by Brain Shirk

11. Top Gear 2 - Auckland suggested by Kyle Dormer

12. Guilty Gear X - Momentary Life suggested by Alexander Avila

13. Shenmue - Main Theme suggested by Aaron Thomas

14. Fallout 3 - Way Back Home by Bob Crosby suggested by Aaron Rivers

15. Bioshock - Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin suggested by Lance Darnell++good (and an A+ for effort!)


Method 2: Let It Ride (click here to listen in a separate window)

~James D., read at The Sophist, heard at, Sophist Radio

P.S. I'm calling out Alexander Avila, Kyle Dormer, and, yes, site editor Aaron Thomas! One submission only guys. If people just start listing all of their favorite songs, and I took them as submissions, and everyone did this, I might eventually be trying to listen to 50 or 100 songs per post. If they were two minutes in length, that'd be 100 or 200 minutes. I love the Jukebox, but I ain't got that amount of time to spend just parsing community submissions.

Plants Vs Zombies – We Don't Want Zombies on the Lawn*

Comments (16)

First, let me say something about Bobby Darin.

If you don't know about his life or his career, you should educate yourself. He was pioneer of musical arrangement and also a late blooming counter-culture icon.

He was also a musician that had a lot more to offer than the awesome renditions of old standards that he is most famous for.

Beyond the Sea is an amazing song, and that has nothing to do with video games. As a starting point I suggest anyone interested should watch Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea. It's not a great movie by any measure (it ventures a bit to far into cloying reverence for my taste) but it is a great way to learn about an amazing artist who changed his life and behavior at a time when he was himself becoming more and more irrelevant.

Bobby Darin was taken early through not fault of his own. He had a damaged heart valve due to a previous medical affliction.

Awesome stuff.

As for one unknown poster on the site, Lance Darnell, he definitely hit a nerve here. I don't know who this guy is, but I completely forgot that Beyond the Sea was featured in Bioshock.

On the real, thanks for your continuing support Lance, and you certainly earned this ++good.

As a last thought, this sublime music was originally written by Charles Tenet, and recorded in French. It's one of the most covered songs in history. And the French version is beautiful. It doesn't have the forward swagger of Darin's version, but instead has a more lolling beauty that evokes walking along the sea with someone you care about.

You can check out two different arrangements here sung by both male and female vocalists, the second of which, sung by French vocalist Jacqueline Francois, may be the definitive recording of the song.

Arrangement One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd_nopTFuZA

Arrangement Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KtsxswKZII

Big thanks to Charles Trenet, Bobby Darin, and most of all, one of my favorite Bitmobbers, Lance Darnell.
James DeRosa , September 21, 2009
The day after my wedding, I realized the one jazz standard that I didn't play was...Beyond the Sea. Bobby Darin's is my favorite version of the song.
Jason Wilson , September 20, 2009
++GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO FUCKING HOOO!!!!!!!!!
Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009
- I didn't even have to kill anyone to get it!

Thanks a lot James. I first heard of Bobby Darin when I was a kid and I used to sing Splish Splash all the time. Years later when I was into 50's tunes I looked him up and my jaw dropped - the guy was an amazing singer and arranger. Anyone who has heard the MacDonald's commercial "Mac Tonight" should know its based off of Mac the Knife, a great tune. In American Beauty, Annette Bening belts out "Don't Rain on my Parade" - another Darin tune, and he sings it with everything he's got! "Artificial Flowers" is another great one worth checking out.

Thanks James for doing these Bitmob Community Jukeboxes. They are the perfect thing for a Monday morning, and it must take a lot of time to do!

As for one unknown poster on the site, Lance Darnell, he definitely hit a nerve here. I don't know who this guy is,

Your a Funny Guy!!!!

By the way, the Jacqueline Francois version is beautiful.
Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009
@Lance Mac the Knife came from a 1928 German music drama. The first popular version in America was Louis Armstrong's 1956 rendition. Darin added his rendition in 1959, and it's the better-known version of the song in the States.
Jason Wilson , September 21, 2009
@Jason - I know that Jason, but the version MacDonald's used is based off of Darin's arrangement. And that is what I was saying. Darin did not write a lot of original stuff, but he was a master at transforming old standards. His version of Mack the Knife is the most well known because it is the best by far!
Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009
Hmm... comments seem to be floating around again....
Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009
Awesome songs this week. I always liked Ryu's theme...and I'm seeing Panzer Dragoon Saga again (must resist spending $180).

This week, I'm going with the prologue from Lost Odyssey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL-rDuve72I&feature;=PlayList&p;=0FF1BAEB1AD803AC&index;=0
Brian Shirk , September 21, 2009
I'm kinda stuck on this game right now; oh, well.

Silent Hill: Homecoming - One More Soul to the Call

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...re=related
Evan Killham , September 21, 2009
Thanks for doing this James!

The beginning of this reminds me of Firefly; you know, the whole western space thing?

All these songs are burned into my subconscious.

Starcraft Terran Music (1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H11vawG_eJI
Alex Long , September 21, 2009
Soul Blazer - Lonely Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_0prbBo8Jc


I loved this game as a kid.
Aaron Rivers , September 21, 2009
From GTA: San Andreas:

Been Caught Stealing by Jane's Addiction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAPF9K4NOgU
Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009
Shining Force II - Wandering Warriors (Overworld Theme)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UYYyTjvq9Y

@Lance - Theres a commercial for a Golden Sands Casino that plays that Bobby Darin song, particularly the part that says my love stands on golden sands. Thats all I can think of when I hear that song now.
Alex R. Cronk-Young , September 25, 2009
I am only vaguely knowledgeable of the rules (I have a mild case of illiteracy), so I'm going to throw this out there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99eRoDW5lAw

Rule bending or breaking, it's a good tune.
Andrew Hiscock , September 25, 2009
Let's get some disco action in here, with "Natural Playboy" from Bust A Groove:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Xqj7pEfQw
Brian Petro-Roy , September 25, 2009
First submission for me would have to be "JENOVA Celestial" from OC Remix's bLiNd. Obviously, it's from Final Fantasy VII. It is my personal definition for electronic perfection. You don't listen to it: You experience it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohesyd2Um20

Nice thing about this one is that it's totally free (legally) to download over here: http://ff7.ocremix.org/

Even Tommy Tallarico took the time to speak his two cents on how awesome their Voices of the Lifestream remix album was. Good stuff.
Steven Lippert , September 25, 2009

Write comment

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.