My Favorite SID Tunes by Jozz

The Danish pianist Johannes Bjerregaard created a few hundred SID tunes on the Commodore 64 and is regarded as one of the most brilliant C64 composers of all time. He was active from 1986 to 1990.

Question: SID tunes? What's that?

SID tunes are chiptunes created on the Commodore 64, or an emulation of the C64 or its SID chip.

The SID chip in the Commodore 64 was quite advanced in 1982. It had three channels across eight octaves, ADSR, four different waveforms, pulsating on the square waveform, three ring modulators, and multi mode filtering. The music players written for it were usually called 50 times a second, quickly changing waveforms and frequencies to simulate vibrato, drums and arpeggio chords.

I’ve been listening through all of his tunes in the latest High Voltage SID Collection which was at #65 at the time of publishing this blog post. I noted down 78 tunes I liked and created stereo MP3 files for easy listening here. You could call it sort of “Johannes Bjerregaard’s Greatest Hits” as compiled by JCH.

Again It’s JB
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Alf TV Theme
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of the theme from the TV show “Alf” by Tom Kramer and Alf Clausen.

Balloon
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard

Billie Jean
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson.

Blue Monday ’88
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of “Blue Monday” by New Order.

Camel Riders, Inc.
1987 The Jerk
Made in Rob Hubbard’s music player.

Can’t Stop
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of “Stop Loving You” by Toto.

Chase
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of “Chase” (from the TV show “Miami Vice“) by Jan Hammer.

Crazy Comets Remix
1987 Johannes Bjerregaard
Remix of Rob Hubbard’s title tune from the C64 game Crazy Comets.

Deel 1
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Deel 2
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard
The first 24 seconds is the “James Bond” movie theme by Monty Norman.

DMC Demo IV (Tune #1)
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard

DMC Demo IV (Tune #2)
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard

Remix: Click

DMC Demo IV (Tune #3)
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard

Domino Dancing
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard
Conversion of “Domino Dancing” by Pet Shop Boys.

Dragon
1988 Danish Music Company
Features a fourth track with digital samples.

Dreaming
1988 Danish Music Company

Dreaming 2
1987 Danish Music Company

Dummynaytos
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Dummy II
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Eagles (Title)
1987 Hewson
Made in Rob Hubbard’s music player. Used in the C64 game Eagles by Danish Designs.

Fourth Dimension
1988 Danish Music Company

French Fries
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard

Fruitbank (Tune #1)
1989 Mastertronic / Digital Design
Used in the C64 game Super Nudge 2000 by Ash & Dave.

Fruitbank (Tune #7)
1989 Mastertronic / Digital Design

Hit the Baze
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard

In the Mood
1988 Triton Technology
Conversion of “In the Mood” recorded by Glenn Miller.

Jazz 1
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Jazz 2
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard

Jazz 3
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard

Jazz 4
1990 Johannes Bjerregaard

Kamikaze
1990 Codemasters / Digital Design
Used in the C64 game Kamikaze by Ash & Dave.

M.A.C.H. (Tune #1)
1987 Starvision
Used in the C64 game M.A.C.H. by Starvision.

M.A.C.H. (Tune #3)
1987 Starvision

M.A.C.H. (Tune #4)
1987 Starvision

Mixerplot
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

MSI Demo
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

Music Demo
1988 Johannes Bjerregaard

Myth Demo
1989 Johannes Bjerregaard

More on page 2.

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