Road Rash Legacy - Spot the Jimmy Hart Versions of...

[ColecoFan1981]

Hi,

For all those of you here who know very well all of the various Road Rash games through the years (on Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64, et al.), how many "Jimmy Hart versions" of some old songs can you spot?

All the Road Rash titles for your convenience:
Road Rash (1991)
Road Rash II (1993)
Road Rash 3: Tour de Force (1995)
Road Rash CD (1995)
Road Rash 64 (1999)
Road Rash: Jailbreak (2000)

A "Jimmy Hart version" (also known as "a suspiciously similar sounding song") refers to any kind of song borrowed from another by way of changing a few notes here and there (a la Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" borrowing the bassline from Queen & David Bowie's "Under Pressure"; or, that of The Cure's "The Walk" sounding akin to New Order's "Blue Monday," both from 1983).

The term's etymology comes from that of Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart, who often tried to license popular songs throughout his career as musical director of WCW, but couldn't, which instead led him to using instrumental versions of these, and changing a few notes and lyrics here and there to make it sound alike but different enough to avoid lawsuits.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...mmyHartVersion

In the world of video games, certain JHVs of songs appear here and there, such as:
*A bit of "Video Killed the Radio Star" (1979) by the Buggles heard during the 2nd part of the Athletic theme in Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), which follows the 1st part which is a blatant lift of the stage start tune from the Dig Dug arcade game (1982).
*"Faithfully" by Journey (1983) is heard in the Elec Man stage in Mega Man (1987).
*"I'm a Man" by Spencer Davis Group (1967) is partly heard in the Flash Man stage in Mega Man II (1989).
*"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley (1987) is infamously heard in Chrono Trigger (1995) during the Robo stage.

Without further ado, here are some examples of certain songs from the RR legacy being JHVs of certain pop songs:

The "Sierra Nevada" theme from the Genesis version of Road Rash (1991) sounds like some Rolling Stones song going by the guitar sound alone.

The "Arizona" theme from Road Rash II (1993) sounds like these following tunes:
*"Cars Hiss by My Window" by The Doors (1970)
*"Tush" by ZZ Top (1975)
*"Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles (1989)

The "City" theme from Road Rash (for 3DO and PlayStation, but not Sega Saturn or Sega CD) sounds akin both to Kansas' "No One Together" (1980) and The Pretenders' "Middle of the Road" (1984)

And, the "United Kingdom" theme from Road Rash 3: Tour de Force (1995) sounds like these following songs:
*"Highway Star" by Deep Purple (1972)
*"Paranoid" by Black Sabbath (1971)
*"Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar (1979)
*The theme song from the TV show Home Improvement (1991-99)

Also from RR3, the "Main Title / Australia" theme sounds a bit like the intro to the TV show Miami Vice (1984-89) composed by Jan Hammer, Jr.

Also... is anyone able to guess which other songs all the 14 songs off of the Road Rash CD soundtrack (all of which appear even during gameplay in the Sega CD version) are "Jimmy Hart" versions of?

~Ben

[Nikademus1969]

The Arizona stage music for Road Rash II always reminded me of that "Boot Scoot Boogie" song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoPbxMek5ec

[ColecoFan1981]

I also want to revive this old thread as to add:

Part of the "United Kingdom" theme music from Road Rash 3 also sounds like Billy Joel's "Sometimes a Fantasy" (1980).

EDITED 4-27-2013, 12:57 PM

~Ben