Under The Covers 7-14-24

 Under The Covers 7-14-24

A weekly look into the world of cover songs. 

Week 12

Pokémon - The world’s largest IP with over 400 million games sold, 50 billion cards sold, and over 1 billion downloads of the mobile game Pokemon Go. First realized in the late 80’s/early 90’s by Satoshi Tajiri when he saw that the new Gameboy console’s link cable had the ability to trade info from machine to machine. Satoshi grew up on the outskirts of Tokyo and was a huge bug collector and trader, so much so he was given the nickname of Dr. Bug by his classmates. With the love of bug collecting and a love of arcade and video games, Satoshi created the video game company Game Freak with graphic designer Ken Sugimori and game designer Junichi Masuda. Taking several years of development, Pokemon Red/Green were released in February of 1996 and as Pokemon Red/Blue in America September 1998, becoming the massive sensation it is today. 

The Original

Premiering in Japan in April 97 and in the USA in September 1998 was the popular Pokemon anime series. Debuting with the English dubbed series was the “Pokemon Theme” song sung by Jason Paige. Written by John Siegler and John Loeffler with the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” catchphrase that became synonymous with the Pokemon franchise. Originally only a 60 second spot, the team involved was brought back in to produce a full version for a 13 song soundtrack with songs from the TV series. 

The Cover

Leo Moracchioli is a Norwegian metal musician and is one of the most prolific cover artists on YouTube. With his studio, Frog Leap Studios, Leo has produced more than 400 covers over the past 10+ years including popular covers of Adele - Hello, Toto - Africa, and Gorrilaz - Feel Good Inc. In this cover Leo enlists fellow frontman Truls Howgren from the metal band Circus Maximus to bring forth this epic cover. 

https://youtu.be/PZqx-lMZHM0?si=6HGSDJEo1_eVF32k

“Sumimasen“ 😜

https://youtu.be/AjSuZgNgMZc?si=5fQJ92H1wbLDViJA

And how about another great Saturday morning cartoon theme song! 

https://youtu.be/1zivl632phI?si=ReYEgTHJ4w9cbEmR

Facts

1. Pokémon (pocket monsters) was originally going to be called Capumon (capsule monsters) but the creators couldn’t get the copyrights to use the word capsule. 

2. While Pokeballs are representations of gashapon (vended capsule toys). The colors and design come from Campbell soup cans. 

3. Since the launch of Pokemon Go back in 2016, players have caught more than 88 billion Pokemon.