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Smooth McGroove – A Very Special Kind of Gaming Music

Florian Buechting Just Blogging on music No Comments

I got introduced to Smooth McGroove by a friend some half a year ago. At that time, the YouTube music artist was some kind of hiatus – but on 5th April 2021, he came back with a new video. Here is my introduction to one of the most amazing YouTube channels I know. You will definitely love it – especially if you enjoy video gaming as much as I do. Or if you like a capella recordings.

 

Who Is Smooth McGroove – and what is he doing?

The civil name of Smooth McGroove. He was born on 5th December 1984 and is living with his spouse and his cat in Yukon, Oklahoma. His musical career started as a drummer, he later also worked as a music teacher to support himself. His first publications were MIDI songs, which did not get too much attention. Then he started to publish videos about video game music – the first ones were rap songs until he gradually improved to the quality of his songs. He is driving his YouTube channel professionally since roughly 2014. Thereby, he is supported by over 500 patreons. As said above, he took a hiatus for some two years. On 5th April 2021, his comeback video was the a capella version of the Overworld Theme from the game New Super Mario Bros. 

 

My Favorite Smooth McGroove Videos

At the time of writing, Smooth McGroove had roughly 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube. 80 (!) of his tracks had two million or more views. Even if you look on Spotify, at least six of his songs has one million streams. Even if you don’t listen to his tunes on mainstream radio, this guy is really a big one in the music business.

Undertale – Megalovania – The Most Successful One

Before listening to songs, which also deal with my video gaming history, here is Smooth McGroove’s most successful one. At the time of writing, this video has been streamed 38 million times. Undertale is one of the best rated role-playing games of all times, released by the the independent developer Toby Fox in 2015. In the Top 10 of the artist’s videos, there are six songs taken from this game.

 

F-Zero – Mute City

F-Zero is definitely one of the video games I spent most time with during my Super Nintendo years. The futuristic racer was a lot of fun and Mute City was one of the classic race tracks. I love this a capella interpretation.

 

Mario Kart 64 – Frappe Snowland

Smooth McGroove does a lot of Mario stuff – and not just the jump’n’runs, but also Mario Kart and other games. Here is one of his Mario Kart interpretations (taken from the Nintendo 64 version).

 

Super Mario World – Overworld Theme

There is not just his latest video, but also the very classic Overworld from the Super Nintendo Jump’n’Run classic  Enjoy the difference.

 

Tetris – Theme ‘A’

Tetris on the Game Boy was something like the first “video game for the masses” and included in the classic Game Boy package. Great interpretation of the theme song.

 

Final Fantasy X – To Zanarkand

I am not too much into role playing on the PC or video game systems, just became of a lack of time. Nonetheless, here are two role playing song. Final Fantasy X was likely one of the most atmospheric games I ever played. Here is how Smooth McGroove interprets one of the scenes.

 

The Legend Of Zelda – A Link To The Past (Intro)

The Zelda series is one of the most successful money-makers of Nintendo. No doubt I had to include a Zelda song in here. Great interpretation, of course.

 

Street Fighter 2 – Ken’s Theme

I did play Street Fighter II, but I have to admit that I was terribly bad in it. Nonetheless, listening to these tunes gives back some memories – even if many of them ended up with a knock-out on my side.

 

Duck Tales – The Moon Theme

Duck Tales is a classic cartoon series, which made it into several video games as well. Not too surprisingly, this one was also a song for Smooth McGroove.

 

Punch Out!!! – Fight Theme

Punch Out!! was a boxing classic at the Nintendo Entertainment System. Like at Street Fighter, my talents in this genre are limited. Smooth McGroove is definitely a better singer than my punching skills.

 

Wii Shop Channel

I just included this one because I felt it is such a crazy selection. Smooth McGroove even does the background music of the Wii Shop Channel. This made me smile.

 

 

Title picture: Screenshot of Super Mario Kart (Battle Theme) video on YouTube

 

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