One of the most important aspects of MOTHER is its music, which for its time was unlike any other video game soundtrack that preceded it. Featuring over thirty songs and a wide variety of musical genres, it was one of the most praised aspects of the game upon its original release in Japan, with Weekly Famitsu calling it “a must hear.” What made the music in MOTHER so special compared to other Famicom titles? The secrets lie behind the minds of none other than chiptune wizard Hirokazu Tanaka and seasoned musician Keiichi Suzuki of Moonriders fame, who together made the unforgettable tunes of MOTHER possible.

When MOTHER was first greenlit, Hirokazu Tanaka was ordered by his superiors at Nintendo to compose for the game—basically having his hands tied behind his back! Originally, Itoi and Tanaka did not see eye-to-eye, with Itoi himself reflecting,

“The sound was primarily done by Tanaka at Nintendo, but at the beginning, I don’t think he understood me at all. I didn’t want the music to be your standard video game BGM, you see. His technique was incredible, however, and in the course of composing demo after demo he came to understand me, and we built a relationship of trust between us”.

To help guide the direction of the music, Keiichi Suzuki was hired to assist on the soundtrack, composing much of the iconic melodies heard in the game, such as “Pollyanna” and “Bein’ Friends”. The main approach in creating the music for the duo was,

“…to establish the rules that governed the audio for this world. There were considerations in terms of how time and space were related, how characters were associated with one another, and how the concepts of good and evil were represented”. 

While Keiichi Suzuki composed melodies, Tanaka programmed every byte of sound in the game’s data, both music and sound effects. This was unusual, as most companies had separate teams handling each end, but Tanaka was confident in the task; he had designed the Famicom sound chip, after all. The biggest struggle for him was the limitations of the hardware itself, specifically memory capacity in relation to audio channels:

“Sometimes an audio channel would fall out every time a certain effect sounded, for instance in shooting games. As a result I often left a short pause before the note to emphasize this effect”.

Because of these limitations, Tanaka wasn’t able to produce some of the sounds he would’ve liked to in MOTHER, but perhaps there was another creative outlet he would be able to fulfill the possibilities of the soundtrack to its fullest in…

On August 21st 1989, a little under a month after the release of the game, Sony Records published the official MOTHER soundtrack. This wasn’t a standard release of the in-game music, but rather a fully orchestrated selection of the game’s most iconic tracks. At the time, this was unprecedented, with Tanaka, Suzuki, and Itoi flying over to England to produce the album at Crescent Studios while the game was still being programmed. The two composers worked with talented artists like Takeshi Saitoh, David Bedford, Louis Phillipe and Michael Nyman to bring the 8-bit music to life like never before. Several songs, like “Eight Melodies” (which was sung by two tenors from the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir) feature lyrics which were written in English by Linda Hennrick under Itoi’s supervision. Hennrick was initially confused on why the lyrics were going to be written in English as opposed to Japanese during early meetings with Itoi, although this was cleared when it was revealed that the album was intended for an international release. Sadly, this never came to be at the time, whether due to licensing or the game itself never receiving a release on the NES. 

The star attraction of the album are the vocals provided by Catherine Warwick, singing for songs like “Pollyanna” and “Wisdom of the World”. Warwick was an up-and-rising performer, only fourteen at the time she sang for the MOTHER album! It was her first major gig, and following it she released a single by the name of “Marine Boy”. While her career afterwards becomes unknown territory, Warwick’s legacy lives on through her serene voice heard in the MOTHER album. She was even lucky enough to get a photo with Suzuki himself after production wrapped!

In 2015, coincidentally around the time MOTHER was released in the West as EarthBound Beginnings, the album finally received a limited North American printing from Ship To Shore Phonograph Co. after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The process of being approved for the license required a hefty amount of communication between the label and Sony, mostly amounting to paperwork. Many of the artists, such as Linda Hennrick, were surprised that there still was interest in a release after decades passed by, unaware of the fandom following the games. Overall, the album was a considerable success of its own merit, paving the way for not only accompanying albums for the subsequent two MOTHER games, but other franchises such as The Legend of Zelda as well. Eight Melodies became a recognizable song outside of the game, being included in elementary school piano sheets because of its simplicity. The success of the soundtrack guaranteed both Tanaka and Suzuki’s involvement in the sequel, which began development immediately after the release of MOTHER. They had quite the intimidating task topping the success of the first game’s soundtrack; however, the world wasn’t prepared for how wildly unconventional MOTHER 2‘s music would be, still remaining as memorable as the original game!