Topic: Original Music
I know I said that, since album #4 was all about The Sims, album #5 might be all about SimCity, but I've decided to table that idea for the moment. Here's a new idea for album numéro cinq...
Piano renditions of...
-the Super Mario Bros aboveground theme
-the Super Mario 64 main theme
-Linus & Lucy (a new-age arrangement)
-Oh, Good Grief! (another new-age arrangement)
-the Winnie-the-Pooh theme
-The Sims main theme
-Go, Speed Racer, Go!
-the Inspector Gadget theme
-the end-credits theme to Wallace & Gromit
-some kind of song from the Walt Disney Company
-and a few original JSP improvs
...in an album specifically geared toward children. I think it could work, this idea.
To be totally honest, I've already begun planning this album under the tentative title of "Child's Play" (uber-tentative, let's say, as there's also a slasher film from the '80s by that title). At first glance, a typical artistic reaction would be, "man, that's some expensive licensing!" And, you'd be right about that. However, there do exist certain precedents for declaring them all under Fair Use. For example, there's an album released by a non-Disney company called Heigh-Ho Mozart and another called Bibbidi-Bobbidi Bach, both of which contain numerous arrangements of Disney songs in the style of as many classical and Baroque composers. I'm doing essentially the same thing -- making piano arrangements of all those songs.
Anyway, in the time it's taken me to type this, I've decided on "I Won't Say (I'm In Love)" by Alan Menken from Disney's Hercules (sometimes known as "Meg's Song" for the character who sings it) as the obligatory children's CD Disney song. After all, action themes like the title songs to Inspector Gadget and Speed Racer and the Nintendo themes rather skew the target demographic to boys between the ages of 5-13. So, in order to maintain gender equality, the album will split more or less in this fashion...
Boys:
Aboveground from Super Mario Bros.
Go, Speed Racer, Go!
Theme to Inspector Gadget
At least one JSP improv
Girls:
The Neighbourhood from The Sims
Birabuto & Muda Kingdom from Super Mario Land
Meg's Song from Hercules
At least one JSP improv
Neutral:
Linus & Lucy
Oh, Good Grief! from A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Theme to Winnie-the-Pooh
Kakariko Village from Ocarina of Time
Clock Town from Majora's Mask
End Credits from Wallace & Gromit
Super Mario Bros. Aboveground Theme Waltz Arrangement
Super Mario 64 Main Theme Ragtime Arrangement
So, all of that amounts to approximately 45-65 minutes of music, depending on how much I rush or drag. You'll also notice that the Super Mario 64 Main Theme Ragtime Arrangement from the YouTube video of the same title is going into the album. However, I'm not totally satisfied with the way I performed the YouTube version -- I've learnt to do it better since the last recording -- so, I'll record a new, more-suitable-for-a-curriculum-vitae version, which I may use to replace the current audio track on the video.
You'll also notice that there isn't a single instance of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Frere Jacques, or any other tiresome cliche of a nursery rhyme in the track list. Who, adult or child, wants to waste their time listening to another pianist playing one of those? What pianist worth their salt would want to add another rendition of such onto the pile, anyway?
Well, that turned out strangely, didn't it?
Anyway, that's the plan for album #5. I'll probably do SimCity for album #6.
