Banjo-Kazooie composer on the tunes that stick most in players’ heads

There are a handful of game industry composers that gamers know by name, and Grant Kirkhope is without a doubt one of them. Mr. Kirkhope is literally the composer behind countless childhoods, crafting tunes for games like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, GoldenEye and so many other classics. While those games might be decades old now, their music lives on today through numerous platforms.

It’s not crazy to say that Kirkhope hasn’t written a single bad tune in his game industry career, but what ones are the most popular? Kirkhope addressed the subject in an interview with Nintendo Life, and he appears quite surprised at the songs fans flock to most.

A lot of the time [the ones] you write quicker are the things that stick in people’s heads more. It’s funny, the things you toss off and don’t think about are the ones that everyone loves. Like on Spotify I can see what people are playing on my Spotify. And all the things that I think are my spectacular pieces are right at the bottom of the list because no one gives a s#!t. [laughs] But the ones that I wouldn’t expect are the ones that always come top. It just shows you the composers don’t really know what their best work is, because you think of the most technical thing you’ve written, the most intricate, or the most inventive thing… And most people just go, ‘I think that’s s#!t. What I like is this thing over here, which just goes do-di-do-do-doo’. [Spotify has] been a real insight to show what people like that I write.

[Grant Kirkhope]