Rayman
An outstanding sountrack by Stephane Bellanger, completely underrated even in today's gaming world, even by film score standards. It's good enough that I regularly listen to it on its own. For the longest time,
Rayman fans were encountering compatibility issues when trying to run the game on newer machines and operating systems. Invariably, one of the first things to falter by running it in a non-Win95/98/DOS environment was the in-game music, losing what was widely considered one the best and most beloved aspects of the game. Someone eventually figured out that mixed-mode CDROMs required special treatment in order for audio to function properly, and now, by mounting the .cue file with DOSBox's imgmount, the game can be played without issue in its original form. If you've never played this game (the original, mind you), stop what you're doing and go get it right now and watch it top your list of best ever 2D scrollers.
Toonstruck
If ever there were a video game worthy of an Oscar... and a Grammy, it would be
Toonstruck. Featuring the live talents of Christopher Lloyd, interacting by greenscreen with a cast of toons voiced by the likes of Tim Curry, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille and Dom DeLuise (plus a cameo by Ben Stein), it was the most expensive venture in video gaming ever taken to date. And in being a production of Hollywood proportions, it's no surprise that the archives from which
Toonstruck draws its music are the same ones used in the industry for decades prior, found in everything from ad jingles to TV intros. Jack Beaver's "Workaday World", Alan Perry's "Gay Time", John Longmire's "Turkey Trot", are only the most recognizable of at least 50 other tracks which make up Toonstruck's musical backdrop, practically all of which can be streamed for free on the Associated Production Music (APM) website.
The Ren & Stimpy Show of mid-90s Nickelodeon cartoon fame takes its soundtrack from the same musical heritage. A two-part fan compilation can be found scattered about the web entitled "Ren & Stimpy Production Music" Volumes 1 and 2 with a collection of many of the same tracks featured in
Toonstruck.
What's really on display in both
Toonstruck and
Ren & Stimpy is the little-known genre of Light Music. Originally a British phenomenon characterized by "less serious," small orchestral arrangements of a shorter duration than traditional classical music, the genre would go on to become the unsung soundtrack of mid-20th century America, spanning television, radio, film and commercial music. Light Music's legacy continues in the form of small appreciation circles like the Robert Farnon Society (
http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/), the Scarborough Spa Orchestra (which alone safeguards the tradition of live Light Music from utter extinction), and from the ocassional homage, nod or tip of the hat in today's entertainment and advertising worlds. The amazing thing about Light Music is that once you've heard some of the more renowned pieces, you'll realize you've been hearing them your entire life.