Author Topic: The most heard unknown song in the world (Chapolin Polka mystery)  (Read 5168 times)

KPM Lover

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Libraries used in the brazilian dubbing of the series:
KPM, Bruton and Parry, but it's none of those labels that made the music.

The oldest use of that specific track was in 1988, in a sketch of the comedy show Veja O Gordo, presented by Jô Soares, which was broadcast on SBT, which was the same broadcaster that broadcast Chapolin in Brazil.

This is the link to watch that skit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVCxK-qPZds

Bronic

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I doubt I can be of much help, but could you provide a list of all the libraries that were used on the series? What was the earliest year of its use? Provide as many concise bullet points about the tune and I'll keep an ear out for it.

Retromatic, please read all my posts on this thread, they give all the context. The post right before your own has a link to a list of videos of the tracks identified by the Chespirito fan community.

The track itself is not present on original series's audio neither is part of the brazilian dub. The track was used on the opening and promos of the series by the SBT network since 1988.

Nobody knows nothing about this track so there is no target.

Thanks for your help.



« Last Edit: January 08, 2023, 10:07:41 PM by Bronic »

Sirigaitao

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I doubt I can be of much help, but could you provide a list of all the libraries that were used on the series? What was the earliest year of its use? Provide as many concise bullet points about the tune and I'll keep an ear out for it.
This track was never used on the show, it was only used in commercials and intros.
SBT is a TV with several hard-to-find tracks, and the employees are not helpful. There are some collectors who pay a lot of money or who are friends with trusted employees who own these tracks...

The most used packages were Bruton, Valentino and tracks used in films that came with separate tracks.

SBT also had an artist who created tracks for the broadcaster and a third party company that made the songs that came out on LP's or were used only internally, at the time "Mario Lucio de Freitas" was one of the composers and also worked on the sound of the series, but his style doesn't even come close to SBT's soundtrack, and he says he didn't keep anything from the time he worked on TV, which can't be true....

And another person is maestro Zézinho, but the collection of the production company "JPS PRODUÇÕES" is not available to the public and probably wasn't made by him either, as they started making songs with a digital aspect in 1992.

I have a collection of practically all SBT songs, but there are still a few missing, and this one by Chapolin is one of them.

The track was created before 1988, we don't know the author, we don't know the title, we only know that it has more than 33 seconds, and that it is composed by drum machine Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR-3 probably, clarinet, bass and some device of distortion. It was composed at 107 bpm

Other station tracks that are lost to the public:

First Chapolin opening song used since 1984, may be older
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525341743630254083/1062265702741983232/Pianinho.mp3

First opening track of the temptation program, used since 1994 but may be older
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525341743630254083/1062262891132227654/Tentacao_1.mp3

Soundtrack used in the wheel of fortune draws on the Tele Sena program with Silvio Santos, is older than 1998
I got this song from a collector, but he didn't say where it came from and he didn't authorize sending the original anywhere.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525341743630254083/1062262700434018314/Rodas_da_fortuna.mp3

And here is the thread of the topic
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525341743630254083/1017531978989457518/Musica_da_Abertura_do_Chapolin_Completa.mp3

Tele Sena partial result track used since 1998
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/655545965297533043/1046667497673326622/Resultado_parcial.mp3

There are several other tracks that are unknown, but these are the ones that are most likely to be from an international album.

« Last Edit: January 10, 2023, 07:14:55 AM by Sirigaitao »

Retromatic

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Derp...somehow I didn't see a few posts.

I don't see how the instrument is a clarinet, though. To me this falls under the category of electronic music as early as 1969.
It makes sense that the track was originally part of a "mixed-bag" library with :60's and :30's, explaining the edit points to make it longer/shorter.
If it helps, I believe I saw Tanner LPs once in mixed lots with Ole Georg Media Music, Abramo Allione, Trendsetter, The Key, The Cat, SPM. But I don't know if those would fit the style. I think this could be from a French or British label.

Have you found any similar tracks? It vaguely reminds me of a Parry album called "Fun and Games".

Bronic

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Have you found any similar tracks? It vaguely reminds me of a Parry album called "Fun and Games".

There are lots of albums with quirk synth music similar to the one suggested, so in a way it is similar. But keyboard dominated albums are not the answer. The nature of library music authorship is that the composer will write for a lead instrument of his choice which is the one he dominates. So no chance of woodwind lines on a low budget synth album.

The only exception I could find are some releases by Giampiero Boneschi that featured woodwind instruments when sharing tracks with saxophonist Attilio Donadio, especially on ANSIS Vol.2. This album has the impossible combination of drum machine + clarinet that is the key to this search. The only missing album from this duo is the Ludo Rekord's Synthi Melod Nº2.

So anyone trying to help please ignore the 'synth' aspect and focus on the drum machine + clarinet arrangement.

« Last Edit: January 11, 2023, 08:26:38 AM by Bronic »

MusicMuzak

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Derp...somehow I didn't see a few posts.

I don't see how the instrument is a clarinet, though. To me this falls under the category of electronic music as early as 1969.
It makes sense that the track was originally part of a "mixed-bag" library with :60's and :30's, explaining the edit points to make it longer/shorter.
If it helps, I believe I saw Tanner LPs once in mixed lots with Ole Georg Media Music, Abramo Allione, Trendsetter, The Key, The Cat, SPM. But I don't know if those would fit the style. I think this could be from a French or British label.

Have you found any similar tracks? It vaguely reminds me of a Parry album called "Fun and Games".

Moog?

Retromatic

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Moog?

Yeah, that's what I first thought. But they insist it's not. I still don't see how it's not.

Bronic

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People on the brazilian thread really made some wild deconstruction of this track. Here is a example:

Does the following clip from the 70s sound like a moog?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v0jbZpKwE1ykbVPyQGEzxphfa7Pd4xVB/view?usp=share_link

The answer is yes. And it sounds similar to the track being searched.

Hear the previous clip on its original speed:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bvdrz7DfrcTUeZclXMvlkHYOFzmFuMxD/view?usp=share_link

Is this actually a moog? No. It's a trombone through some pedal effect. This is from some DeWolfe track.

Back to the track being searched, some people are arguing that it's a sped up clarinet through some pedal distortion.

The kickstarter for this approach was a slowed down version of the track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9jNmw2dND4

This sounds too wobbly, too unstable and even too fast for keyboardist's fingers on its normal speed. It's a truly a unique sound very uncharacteristic of any moog track ever recorded.

I think the assertion of not being a moog is right in this case.

Edit: The sample is actually from DeWolfe





 

« Last Edit: January 12, 2023, 11:41:48 PM by Bronic »

KPM Lover

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This sample actually is form a De Wolfe track.

Retromatic

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After listening to the two samples, a clarinet totally makes sense. If I were betting man I'd say it's something French or British. Have you tried Mondiophone? Just to throw some things out there...

musica.incidental

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I don't understand which are that 30 seconds known... What is the label, track?

Bronic

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I don't understand which are that 30 seconds known... What is the label, track?

Those 30 seconds were used by the SBT network since 1988:



Nobody knows absolutely nothing about this track. Origin, artist or year released. It just appeared on the SBT network and nowhere else to promote Chespirito's shows and they lost the name of the track as its complete form.

I made a study tracking the music used by SBT from 1981-1995 in promos, openings and as background music in shows. From 100 tracks analyzed about 80% were common musical releases mostly from USA and commercially released in Brazil. The exception is that SBT only sourced tracks from library music for special programming, comedy and children's shows, in this case a couple of Valentino, KPM and Bruton tracks.

I don't know what to think at this point. SBT used both known commercial music and tracks from the biggest library labels yet this tune stands out as a complete mystery. Unlike those obscure mysterious Internet songs found on random cassette tapes this tune was played on a daily basis for millions of people yet not a single bit of information was uncovered by both fans.

musica.incidental

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Oh. I believed 30 seconds was recognized. I'm from Mexico. Here the story is also similar about background music from Chespirito and telenovelas. I asked to music editors who put the music on original Chespirito about music and laugh effects and they explained to me that many music editors worked in Chespirito and they received only tracks with titles like "Laughs 1", "happy music 9" but without credits about author and sources because in that times there was not the obligation for writing any credits on the program. When time did it obligatory, they acredited only new known music but, for example, "Whistle tune" information for The chifladitos was unknown for music editors, so uncredited!!! I want too to know now the origin of that misterious brazilian track!! "El fenómeno Chespirito" is uncredible and is amazing for me all that enthusiasm on brazilian fans!!!!!

Bronic

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Oh. I believed 30 seconds was recognized. I'm from Mexico. Here the story is also similar about background music from Chespirito and telenovelas. I asked to music editors who put the music on original Chespirito about music and laugh effects and they explained to me that many music editors worked in Chespirito and they received only tracks with titles like "Laughs 1", "happy music 9" but without credits about author and sources because in that times there was not the obligation for writing any credits on the program. When time did it obligatory, they acredited only new known music but, for example, "Whistle tune" information for The chifladitos was unknown for music editors, so uncredited!!! I want too to know now the origin of that misterious brazilian track!! "El fenómeno Chespirito" is uncredible and is amazing for me all that enthusiasm on brazilian fans!!!!!

Very interesting, that was the case in Brazil too. I researched a bit of the Mexican side of Chespirito and Televisa comedy shows and they all shared that weird laugh track. I was also surprised how much of the show's original sound choices made into the Brazilian dub. Are you musicaincidental1984 on Youtube? People on the BR forum were astonished and were unaware until recently of the discovery of the source of this iconic transition effect. It's very likely in this case that even Televisa themselves didn't know the real source as you said.

musica.incidental

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Yes, i'm musicaincidental1984  ;D
I'm glad to contribute to this! You brazilians have done all the work!! It's uncredible! Here in Mexico I see very few interest about it. I don't understand this  :(