Mario music bounces up the charts

TOKYO--A new electronic song inspired by Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. has been climbing Japan's music chart, and it's finally ranked in the country's weekly top-five list. The song, titled "B-Dash," appeared in Japan's music chart 12 weeks ago and this week finally made its way to fourth place.

"B-Dash" uses sampled music from the original Super Mario Bros. game released by Nintendo in 1985 and fuses it with techno beats and humorous lyrics, such as "The princess might be a fake," "You might be using Mario too much," and "Luigi might get sulky." The song was created by a techno band consisting of three members called the Tongari Kids.

"B-Dash" first appeared in 36th place in Japan's music chart for the week of March 28. Despite the fact that songs usually slip in the charts after their initial appearance, "B-Dash" became a national hit after it aired on FM radio, and its popularity was further strengthened after it appeared on TV. The song has continued to stay in the top-10 rankings for the past month; last week, it ranked in sixth place. "B-Dash" has sold a total of 196,000 CD singles in Japan to date. A sample of the music is available online (requires Real Player).