ReMix:Super Mario Bros. "The Italian Plumber" 2:39

By M.S. Mehawich

Arranging the music of 3 songs...

"Game Over", "Invincible BGM", "Overworld BGM"

Primary Game: Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo , 1985, NES), music by Koji Kondo

Posted 2002-01-07, evaluated by djpretzel


An instant classic - submitted by a friend of first-time contributor M.S. Mehawich on his behalf, this piano / cello / violin arrangement of several SMB1 themes is - like the Mario Bros. themselves - super. Vibrato, crescendo, pizzicato, marcato, and all those neat music terms (that you should know if you don't) are implemented masterfully - each part is obviously being played by a talented musician, and all three parts trade-off and interact and feed off one another precisely as they should in such an arrangement. There're some ambient sounds as this was apparently recorded live, which makes it all the more impressive in my mind. Amadeus meets Kondo, and with more flair and feeling than many of the professionally released orchestral takes on these themes. Absolute must-download in my book - hope you feel the same. More please?

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Black_Doom
on 2016-09-16 12:13:14

Dang, this is certainly another good example of a great arrangement that sounds awesome nowdays even despite being super old! Fantastic take on a bunch of classic sources :)

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Hydrargyria
on 2012-05-29 22:04:57

I heard this in Let There Be Brawl and rushed over here to download it. Outstanding.

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Crulex
on 2010-02-10 17:58:19
I can almost imagine Mario being part of the Italian mafia after listening to this.

Yeah....

Mario in a gray pinstripe suit and fedora, holding a tommy gun and a "violin" case by his feet. :

Hell yeah. Mario's got an offer ya can't refuse. Don't talk back or brudda Luigi's gonna have someone whacked. :-P

Kinda nice to hear a slower tempo with a song that is usually so hyper. Nice.

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PrototypeRaptor
on 2009-04-03 14:45:09

wow how did I miss this? HOW DOES THIS ONLY HAVE 2 PAGES OF COMMENTS?

arg.

I'm in love; the awesome chordal rearrangement had me from the minor 3rd...

and the violin playing is quite good. this could have been veryyyy painful, but it's not.

Everyone, please, check this out. It's quite awesome...this "friend" needs to submit more stuff!

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42
on 2009-03-22 16:38:09

I can almost imagine Mario being part of the Italian mafia after listening to this.

Yeah....

Mario in a gray pinstripe suit and fedora, holding a tommy gun and a "violin" case by his feet. :

This just seems like a perfect companion piece to Koopa Vs. Kefka.

Both are intense, emotional, conflict-full, deeply complicated, and insightful to their respective characters.

I would have loved to hear this live.

This is an absolute must download now.

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Lovely Peach
on 2009-01-12 14:08:24

I can't believe that this excellent remix has been so overlooked. This is one of my favorite mixes on the whole site - I've loved this one for years.

The minor key and different orchestrations of the familiar overworld theme really changes the atmosphere. It's a slightly sinister, very Italian sounding piece of music at the beginning, and it changes up somewhat with the inclusion of the invincibility theme in the middle before getting back to the standard overworld theme again.

The playing is excellent, especially for being done live - and I think some of the background noise helps it feel even more like live music from a high-end Italian restaurant and adds to the overall picture. It's very Godfather-esque and it's easy to picture Mario in that role with this kind of background music.

Do yourself a favor and download this underappreciated and very excellent mix. You won't look at Mario the same way after this.

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OA
on 2007-07-06 12:35:28

Wow, missed this one twice over now, and it seems so has everyone else. The production isn't perfect, but the fact that it is a live performance makes up for it. Stuff like this shows that even the best samples can only go so far, as there is a completely different feel and set of expectations when there is something performed live; Not only live, but triple-live, where the performers have to listen to each other and adapt to each phrase. Even tiny flaws add to something like this.

If only it wasn't so short. The underwater theme would have sounded great in this style.

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isthan
on 2006-06-21 19:26:50

This mix deserves more comments!

Very sophisticated and a bit sad too. Professional work. A whole new side of Mario. It's revolutional! Revolutional!

What you're still reading, go download!

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Alianger
on 2005-08-11 19:17:57

i like to call this "requiem for a mario".

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Epsilon Hyperion
on 2004-10-27 22:08:50

This song is unbelievably awesome. It shows great understanding of theory, it balanced almost perfectly, done in a style lacking on OCR... DOWNLOAD this 2 minute 40 second masterpiece now.

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Navi
on 2004-08-29 01:33:12

This song requires more attention. Excellent arrangement of various Mario songs, in a classical Italian style that, all stereotypes withheld, had me envisioning Mario in Don Corleone's chair the entire time. A must have. Creative and original.

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Czar Diego
on 2004-05-20 21:09:26

No, it's an italian restaurant, duh. And the owner's fake italian accent and moustache are oddly familiar...

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PotatoeCS
on 2003-08-09 16:43:18

in my vision i kinda see it's like at a PUB or catina or something but's that's not it .. it's something.. but awesome music!

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Jean Of mArc
on 2003-08-08 00:09:04

This is a totally different approach to the classic tunes of Super Mario Bros than I'm used to, and I like it!

It's sort of a sad, bittersweet randition, with some totally awesome dissonance (yes, I did say "totally awesome") and nice medleys.

I found that sometimes it felt like they were about to go into something else, only to retract from it, which is kind of a disappointment.

The main reason this bothers me is because these are musicians who really know what they are doing, and I really wanted to hear them take on the ideas that sounded like they were about to start up...

...But alas... Did not...

Download now!

YES YOU!

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PassivePretentiousness
on 2003-02-24 16:40:35

I originally thought that this would be gimmicky, but after time I have come to enjoy this remix. It has neither the annoying techno beats or the candy canivalish flavor that most have. Kudos to you, M.S. Mehawich, for doing something different and enjoyable with the Mario Theme. 6/8

Sources Arranged (3 Songs)


Primary Game:
Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo , 1985, NES)
Music by Koji Kondo
Songs:
"Game Over"
"Invincible BGM"
"Overworld BGM"

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File Information


Name:
Super_Mario_Bros_The_Italian_Plumber_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
3,269,892 bytes
MD5:
80132b8f406115668465efa87c3864d7
Bitrate:
160Kbps
Duration:
2:39

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