Identify these 5 tunes from "Frantic Freddie"!

Cafe Society
1

Back in 1983, Commercial Data Systems, a software company from my hometown, released a game for the Commodore 64 called Frantic Freddie. It had a really great musical soundtrack. I was just a little kid when I played the game, so I didn’t realize then that a lot of the tunes were actually well-known pop and ragtime numbers.

I’m trying to identify the 11 songs used in the game. I’ve got about half of them; can anyone identify the remaining ones? Here’s a list of the songs, with links to low-quality Ogg Vorbis clips you can listen to in your browser or media player. (In case your computer can’t already play Ogg files, Wikipedia has instructions on setting up your computer to play Ogg files.)
[ol]
[li]unknown[/li][li]unknown[/li][li]“Kodachrome” by Simon & Garfunkel[/li][li]“A Fifth of Beethoven” by Walter Murphy[/li][li]unknown[/li][li]unknown[/li][li]“The Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin[/li][li]unknown[/li][li]“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen[/li][li]brief musical interlude; probably original[/li][li]“Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra[/li][/ol]
In case anyone has the capability of playing C64 SID files, you can also get the original game soundtrack.

(Note to copyright-paranoid moderators: I have written permission from Commercial Data Systems to distribute this, and can provide the evidence upon request.)

2

I thought 1 might be Day Tripper by The Beatles, but after a few more listens (and a listen to the real Day Tripper), I’m not so sure. It is does sound familiar though. The others sound like ragtime tunes, but as you got 7, you probably already worked that out.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful. I can nitpick though, Kodachrome was a Paul Simon song, from “There goes Rhymin’ Simon”, rather than a Simon and Garfunkel one.

3

I’ve done a bit more delving, and got some assistance, and I think I’ve worked out what some of the others are. I think 2 is The Easy Winners, 5 is Pineapple Rag, and 6 is Elite Syncopations, all by Scott Joplin.
.

4

Thanks for the help! I checked your suggestions against the tunes provided at Warren Trachtman’s Ragtime MIDI Website and they seem to match perfectly!

Here’s an updated version of the list, then:
[ol]
[li]unknown[/li][li]“The Easy Winners” by Scott Joplin[/li][li]“Kodachrome” by Paul Simon[/li][li]“A Fifth of Beethoven” by Walter Murphy[/li][li]“Pineapple Rag” by Scott Joplin[/li][li]“Elite Syncopations” by Scott Joplin[/li][li]“The Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin[/li][li]unknown[/li][li]“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen[/li][li]brief musical interlude; probably original[/li][li]“Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra[/li][/ol]Songs 1 and 8 (and possibly 10) are the only ones still missing. Song 1 sounds like a rock tune, and Song 10 is definitely ragtime. Anyone else have any ideas?

5

Hey there, here’s the complete list of songs from Frantic Freddie in the order of level they’re played on. The last two songs are the title screen and interlude respectively. I hope you didn’t go crazy with unanswered questions after 7 years lol :

1-Boogie Fever-The Sylvers
2-The Easy Winners-Scott Joplin
3-Kodachrome-Paul Simon
4-A fith of Beethoven-Walter Murphy
5-Pine Apple Rag-Scott Joplin
6-Elite Syncopations-Scott Joplin
7-Maple Leaf Rag-Scott Joplin
8-The Sycamore-Scott Joplin
9-Crazy Little Thing Called Love-Queen
10-Don’t Bring Me Down-Electric Light Orchestra

6

Thank you so much for providing the missing tunes!

7

Not a problem, I wondered about them for years myself until I stumbled upon the list in the comments of a youtube video by complete accident about two years ago. It was a C64 Longplay of Frantic Freddie, but the comment has since gotten buried.

Also, the little musical tune when you finish a level is indeed an original composition for the game, which is not really a surprise considering it’s only like 2-3 seconds. So, again I’m glad I could help lift a mystery from your childhood :).

See ya next question :wink: