The US government just awarded Super Mario Bros. a significant honor
The Super Mario Bros. theme is the first video game song inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry (thanks, The Guardian). The Library of Congress, an official extension of the United States government’s legislative branch, announced the classic NES game theme and 24 other songs, albums, and musical tidbits as part of “the defining sounds of the nation’s history and culture,” alongside Mariah Carey’s single “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (1994) and Madonna’s 1984 album Like A Virgin.
The Library called the Super Mario Bros. “Ground Theme,” which plays while Mario is aboveground in the original NES game, “the most recognizable video game theme in history.” The news comes a week after Nintendo and Illumination released the Super Mario Bros. Movie in theaters, which quickly shattered box office records and had the best opening five days of any animated movie, knocking Frozen 2 off its throne.
Not that the iconic theme had much to do with that success. While Koji Kondo composed the original Mario Bros. theme, much of his music and tracks from the Mario game series didn’t make their way to the film.
Other notables in this round of inductions include Queen Latifah, who became the first female rapper to have a recording admitted to the Library of Congress with her 1989 album All Hail the Queen and a set of commentaries and analysis from NBC reporter Dorothy Thompson on the state of Europe in 1939 leading up to World War II.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF