I've heard the Chun Li theme BEFORE Street Fighter 2

General Discussion
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If you look at some of The Price is Right episodes, in the Johnny Olson announcing era and part of the Rod Roddy announcing era, if in the showcase there was a trip to China there was a very distinct music which sounds like native Chinese music.

Even in the past couple years, whenever they play the theme music to indicate trip to China is a prize, it sounds an awfully lot like Chun Li’s theme.

By the way Johnny Olson’s death predates Street Fighter 2 for those interested in timelines. (Like lawyers)

I hope it’s considered traditional Chinese music that’s long been in the public domain past. Otherwise Edd Kalehoff might want to lawyer up.

Kalehoff is a music composer who works on mainly Television. If you’ve ever watched a Goodson Todman game show his music’s pretty recognizable. He did the Match Game 7X (a version of the song is still used in Match Game 2020) The Price is Right, ( the longest running continuously produced unscripted entertainment show today, and pretty much every song remains as recorded except one version of one particular “brand new car” song AFAICT) and both Goodson’s Double Dare and Nickelodeon’s Double Dare (two different musical catalogs, two different companies, two different game concepts, sharing the same show name and music composer)

All the ones above except the Nickelodeon shows are now owned by Fremantle which runs BUZZR tv, a retro game show network both on the internet and on secondary broadcast channels on digital TV. If anyone could name a particular episode and point a link to it try to find a random episode where the showcase at the end has a trip to China (I could trial and error it but it’d be blind luck to find an episode with a trip to China) post it here and let’s compare it to the Street Fighter 2 Chun-Li theme.

I certainly hope for Capcom’s sake that it’s considered traditional public domain music.

Then again, for all we know, if it is an original Kalehoff composition, hopefully he permitted, or maybe even actually DID the chiptune version of it on Street Fighter 2. There might be some evidence to suggest the latter if one didn’t study the credits list.

The Match Game theme was in theory an infinite loop song, as only one episode ended with the theme music running out on the credits, after which was he added an infinite loop. And on Nickelodeon’s Double Dare, he composed versions of the Physical Challenge themes in 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 seconds (for the obstacle course). The fact that he could adjust his music to be both infinite loop and on-demand fixed time versions shows that he has one specific aspect of the mindset and the artistic sense to do video game music.

By the way, if you never seen a game show, you might be familiar with the Monday Night Football theme ( the pre-Hank Williams Jr. main theme) He composed that and it’s still on musical rotation on Monday Night Football.

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…What the fuck is this.

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I swear that Chun Li’s theme theme on Street Fighter 2, sounds an awful bit like The Price is Right’s “Trip to China/Hong Kong” theme.

There are five possibilities I could think of.

One the composition is public domain because it’s traditional Chinese music.

Two is that Edd Kalehoff either licensed or himself performed the Street Fighter 2 Chun-Li theme.

Three it’s in a similar style to that song but is legally different enough.

Or four, somebody call a lawyer.

I remember this theme on a Johnny Olson-announced version of The Price is Right. And I think his death predates the song use in Street Fighter 2.

I know for a fact it’s not five that Kalehoff ripped off the Street Fighter 2 composer.

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  1. Yoko Shimomura is the Composer for Street Fighter II.
    Not Edd Kalehoff

Here the thing folk music from various ethnicities tend to have a particular sound.
Polka all sound similar, Gregorian Chants all sound similar, Banjo Music, Modern Egyptian jazz, ect ect ect.

Fact or your opinion.

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I think we have a fucking winner.

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Notice is said “…if one doesn’t study the credits list.”. I was going off impressions.

And the fact that Kalehoff made a version on The Price Is Right reserved for “trip to China/Hong Kong/Orient” when Johnny Olson was still alive shows that, most likely, the Chun Li theme actually IS A SPECIFIC Chinese traditional folk song, which is public domain, which is usable by anyone with payment to no one. (Slightly reworked to allow infinite loop). which is option 1, which I implied by ranking number 1, the most likely. Noticed Kalehoff being ripped was the second least likely. The absolute least likely is Kalehoff time travelling and copying Chun Li’s theme from the Capcom composer.

I thought I was being fair. The only thing I knew for sure was I heard a very similar, if not identical, song on The Price Is Right BEFORE Street Fighter 2 came out.

Most of the rest were maybies.

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Who cares about that shit…

But did you know that Elec Man’s stage BGM from Mega Man 1 is basically “Faithfully” from Journey?

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At least you provided clips so we can actually compare teh two songs.

All we got with the OP is Chun Li and some obscure theme from a 1972 to 1985 version of a day time game show and no audio/video clips.

Now I want to hear the remix mash up between the Mega Man Elec Man state and Journey’s Faithfully.

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I tried googling it to no results. Do you have a video upload you could point to for the tune you’re speaking of?

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Any time The Price is Right have a trip to China, Hong Kong, or any other regional Asia nation, it is the background music played while any announcer describes details of the trip so you have a fair chance to accurately price it. Like flight info, days on a trip, hotel info and any destinations that are either iconic or paid for by an advertiser.

TPIR stayed on a long time because 90% or more of the retail value of prizes
are donated aka traded in return for on air mentions.

If you can search a TPIR database for a trip to China, match the video to the airdate, and watch the last 10 minutes, you’ll hear it.

Most likely the Chun Li theme is either started as an original Chinese folk song that just got re-performed by various people, or both drew from the same public domain sources.

I didn’t say there was a smoking gun of theft. Either both were performing the exact same song, and is a famous Chinese folk song, therefore all can play and none have to pay, or both were inspired by the same sources. I severely doubt a unique Kalehoff element was stolen if it weren’t already public domain.

I just wanted to hear how close it was.

They still give trips to China. If I see one of a current one, I’ll flag it and make this topic wise fwom it’s gwave.

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LOL funny stuff :joy:

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