Recently, Mindless found the original soundtrack for Lemmings on a demo disk. This was not the "original soundtrack" as in the soundtrack that the game shipped with, but rather the *original* original soundtrack - the one from before Tim Wright was brought in to replace the copyright-infringing tunes with new compositions. The initial soundtrack, if you will.
I haven't had the time to make MP3s of the .mods in the usual fashion (i.e., two loops and then a fade after the next playthrough has begun) just yet, but I did want to start a thread about this soundtrack, because I think it's quite the find - well done, Mindless!
I'm sure all of us have wondered at some point or other what the initial soundtrack sounded like, and of course now we know that, apart from a couple of themes that survived the transformation of the music into what we all know today, it would have been enough to get the game lawsuited off of the face of the planet several times over. Let's take a look at the tunes and their source material...
Filename: addamsfamily.mod
Song: The Addams Family theme tuneInfo: They're green-haired and they're cutesy, suicidal and quite kooky, when they splat they're gloopy, the Lemmings Family!
Filename: ateam.mod
Song: The A-Team theme tuneInfo: We Lemmings players love it when a plan comes together, right? I wonder if that catchphrase is why this is in here? It would certainly fit.
Filename: batman.mod
Song: 1960s Batman theme tuneInfo: This is probably in here due to the campiness of it, I would imagine. I remember that this was still airing in the UK in the late 1980s, which may also have been an influence on its presence here. (Note that this is quite distinct from
Betmeh, who has a similar theme tune that is absolutely not the same.)
Filename: birdie.mod
Song: The Birdie Song, by The TweetsInfo: This was a 1981 novelty record that sold a hell of a lot of copies in the UK (apparently more than 1.6 million), and which was always a goofy classic at school discos. This one is known by almost every Brit of a certain age, including a great many who weren't even born when it was released - that's how long-lived it was!
Filename: cancan.mod
Song: Infernal Galop, from Orpheus in the UnderworldInfo: In spite of its origins, this is, without a doubt, best known as The Can-can! One of the few tunes from the initial soundtrack to make it into the retail version's soundtrack.
Filename: daysnight.mod
Song: A Hard Day's Night, by The BeatlesInfo: If even just one copyright-infringing tune could've gotten Lemmings pulled from shelves due to its presence, I'd venture a guess that it would have been this one. Those lemmings sure do work hard, though!
Filename: doggie.mod
Song: How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?, by Patti PageInfo: Another tune that made it into the retail game, this one based on a novelty record that was itself loosely based on the folk tune,
Carnival of Venice. This one is an unusual survivor, in that I'm pretty sure that the version in Lemmings is not licensed in any way, and the song is still in copyright now, just as it was when the game was released. It also uses (and retains, in the final game) a sample of famed voice actor Don Messick in possibly his most famous role as Scooby-Doo, from a tune that didn't make it from the initial soundtrack to the retail one.
Filename: entertainer.mod
Song: The EntertainerInfo: I'm actually not sure why this one didn't make it in, whilst the above tune did! Any ideas, anyone?
Filename: hogan.mod
Song: Hogan's Heroes theme tuneInfo: I'm honestly not familiar with this tune or the show that it's from, short of seeing claims that the popular 1990s cartoon series, Recess, was inspired by it, so I really don't have anything useful to say here.
Filename: matchespana.mod
Song: Match of the Day theme tuneInfo: The theme tune from the long-running football (soccer for North American readers
) TV programme, Match of the Day. The theme tune is very well-known in the UK, which is likely why it's here.
Filename: missionimpos.mod
Song: Mission Impossible theme tuneInfo: I'm almost certain that I know *exactly* why this one's in here, and it made me laugh the second I saw the filename when I was going through these tunes originally. At the time that Lemmings was being made,
home video clips of squirrels performing daredevil feats, set to the Mission Impossible theme tune were becoming very popular on UK television clip shows (so much so, in fact,
that an advertisement was made, capitalising on the phenomenon). It works so well in the context of Lemmings, that it's almost a shame that they were unable to use this tune in the retail game!
Filename: mountain.mod
Song: She'll Be Coming Round The MountainInfo: Another familiar tune that made it into the final game. This is a traditional old song that fits due to its cheery-sounding nature, so there was no reason for it not to.
Filename: oblasuper.mod
Song: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and
Life Goes On, by The BeatlesInfo: Um-diddle-iddle-iddle-um-diddle-aye! This one was probably chosen due to its delightfully ridiculous nature. It was also doubtless ejected due to the fact that the song belongs to The Walt Disney Company, who wouldn't have taken kindly to its inclusion. I'm not too sure why the filename is "oblasuper", though - I wonder what's with the "obla" bit?
EDIT: I've been informed that this tune is actually made up of two songs (the other has now been added above), and the other one, which makes up the first part of the tune, is Life Goes On, by The Beatles, which features the lyric "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da" in its chorus. That explains the "obla" part completely!
Filename: panther.mod
Song: A Shot in the DarkInfo: I'm actually a bit confused by this one. I'd expected this to be the well-known theme from The Pink Panther, but whilst it sounds like it's in that style, I can't actually identify the tune. Does anyone know it, please? Our very own möbius, who is a fan of the Pink Panther series, has identified this tune as the theme from the second film, A Shot in the Dark. Ironically, given the original .mod file's name, it's actually the only one that doesn't have anything about panthers of any sort in the title!
Filename: petergunn.mod
Song: Peter Gunn theme tuneInfo: This music was also famously used in the arcade game,
Spy Hunter.
Filename: raindrops.mod
Song: Raindrops Keep Falling On My HeadInfo: This song's really well-known, which I guess is why it's in here. It kind of makes me wish that Lemmings had some rainy-looking levels, for some reason.
Filename: richman.mod
Song: If I Were A Rich ManInfo: This is from the musical, Fiddler on the Roof. It was also used in an early release of the classic ZX Spectrum game,
Jet Set Willy, and supposedly caused that game to be briefly pulled from shelves in order for the music to be replaced with In The Hall Of The Mountain King instead (as was used in the game that Jet Set Willy was the sequel to, Manic Miner). Given this anecdote, it surprises me that this one was ever considered for Lemmings at all. Come to think of it, Jet Set Willy's popularity and status as an all-time classic in the UK is probably why it was picked...
Filename: scoobydoo.mod
Song: Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo theme tuneInfo: This is an arrangement of the Scooby-Doo theme tune, complete with a heavily-used sample of Scooby himself (which actually remains in the final game, in the tune How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?), mainly derived from the theme tune from Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo, which was still airing on UK television at the time that Lemmings was being made, and which was massively popular. (Fact-fans will note that this dates to quite some years before the time of the utterly bizarre rewriting of history that has taken place surrounding the character Scrappy-Doo, who was actually massively popular for decades; During the time that Lemmings was being worked on, this continuing popularity even spawned
two different
computer games in which he was the hero.)
Filename: tenlemmings.mod
Song: Ten Green BottlesInfo: Another survivor that made it into the retail Lemmings soundtrack, which isn't surprising because it's a traditional tune. An interesting fact is that in the UK, we typically say that the bottles are "sitting on a wall", rather than "hanging on a wall". The video linked here represents another variant, where the bottles are "standing on a wall", because for some reason the version where they're sitting seems to have fallen out of use over the last couple of decades.
Filename: twist.mod
Song: Let's Twist Again, by Chubby CheckerInfo: I'm unsure as to why this tune would have been picked for Lemmings' initial soundtrack, aside from just plain catchiness and the fact that it was still a pretty well-known song by the time that Lemmings was being made, but here it is.
And that's all of them. All in all, it's a pretty eclectic and largely nostalgic collection of tunes - or, at least, it definitely is for Brits of a certain age. I hope this was as much fun for you guys to go through as it was for me to go through while putting this post together.