Paige was called back in to sing an extended version of the “Pokémon Theme,” as well as a new song called “Viridian City” penned by Loeffler and songwriter Neil Jason. The finished album, 2 B A Master, was completed in less than a month, Loeffler has said in interviews, and featured 13 original songs sung by various session vocalists and artists. Quickly, the decision was made to put out an album of original music, and 4Kids once again turned to Loeffler and Siegler to make it happen. “The first couple years of Pokémon, it was just insane.” “They were selling everything - Pokémon lunch boxes, Pokémon underwear, whatever - because it was really huge,” Siegler says. Companies like Hasbro, Topps and Tiger Electronics were jumping on board in droves, making action figures, toys, trading cards and more. By April 1999, seven months after its debut, the New York Times reported the franchise secured “ at least 40” licensing deals for dozens of products - several of which used “Pokémon Theme” in part or in full - and had pulled in north of $200 million in revenue in the U.S. What happened next was nothing short of a phenomenon, and the corporate entities involved were quick to cash in. Over the course of a few sessions, Paige laid down the vocal on the 60-second demo, including its powerfully catchy hook. The man who got the job was Jason Paige, a writer, actor and singer in his late 20s who had been doing 100-150 sessions a year (by his own estimation) singing jingles, theme songs and background vocals to pay his bills. “We didn’t want it to sound like a nursery rhyme,” Siegler recalls, “But we wanted it to be so that the kids, who we were selling the show to, would feel like they weren’t listening to their parents’ Eric Clapton.” The teams from Rave and 4Kids then auditioned a handful of session singers to handle the lead vocal, looking for someone who sounded young but not childish. Siegler and Loeffler wrote the lyrics and music together, then Siegler arranged and recorded the track himself, playing keyboards and bass and programming drums himself, bringing in guitarist David Rolfe as the only additional musician. “And John and I, with the information that we had, decided on a basic idea of how the song would go and I went ahead and produced it.” “One of the reasons told me he hired us was because he was interested in those big, advertising-type melodic hooks that people were going to sing and whistle,” Siegler says. When 4Kids was tasked with coming up with a 60-second jingle for a new Japanese show called Pokémon, Grossfeld turned to Rave. By 1998, the company had worked with licensing firm 4Kids Entertainment and its head of production Norman Grossfeld several times. John Siegler worked as the head writer and producer of production company Rave Music, led by CEO John Loeffler, which produced jingles and theme songs for commercials and television shows. Watch the Original ‘Pokemon’ Theme Singer Give It a Go in 2016 Stories from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, respectively, reported that Nintendo had spent $20 million on publicity (four times its usual outlay) and promised $5 million in television advertising to stations carrying the show ahead of its debut.īefore it could infiltrate America though, Pokémon needed a theme song. The franchise, already wildly successful in Japan, was being prepared for an American introduction, starting with the translation and editing of the Pokémon show and its characters into English. In 1997, no one in the West knew what a “Pikachu” was. Despite its notoriety and global success, some of the theme’s key players - including singer Jason Paige, who ended up in litigation over what he considered unfair compensation - have been left behind along the way. The song’s back story, as colorful as it is, is more about icy corporate efficiency than the glowing, motivational tale its lyrics suggest. And the current Pokémon Go craze, despite not including the theme in its marketing or gameplay, boosted the song’s Spotify streams by 362 percent around the world the week after the game’s release (July 6). But, by virtue of it being the original - not to mention that memorable motto in the song’s hook - it’s far and away the most famous. In the vast web of Pokémon - which includes thousands of products licensed to 400 companies in well over 100 countries worldwide, adding up to a global value of some $45 billion, according to data from The Pokémon Company in Japan - the original “Pokémon Theme” is one of dozens of songs related to the franchise. Original 'Pokemon Theme' Singer Releases Unofficial 'Detective Pikachu' Theme Song
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