The two sequels get a lot of flack for their cheesiness, but c'mon, they're movies about giant turtles doing karate and eating pizza. How serious should it be?But we're here today to talk about the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of the first film. I'd forgotten just how much I loved that cassette tape until I watched the movie again recently. Did you know that soundtrack came in four different colored cassette tapes? It's true! You had your pick of red, orange, blue, and purple to represent which Turtle was your favorite.
I got the orange one. Michelangelo was my favorite when I was a kid. I think all kids like him the best, because my daughter picked Mikey as her favorite too. It wasn't until I was older, and smarter, that I decided Raphael was the best.
This was 1990, and vinyl records hadn't been done away with just quite yet, only to have a popularity resurgence twenty years later. My mom wanted to get the record for me because it was a couple dollars cheaper. Something similar also occurred the previous year when I really wanted Prince's Batman soundtrack. I was convinced that I would somehow scratch the record. I even remember telling my mom, "But I'm just a stupid kid! I'll probably scratch the record! A tape will last forever!"
So I just had to have an orange Mikey cassette. I begged and begged until my mommy caved in.
And then the fucking Sam The Record Man was all sold out of orange cassettes.
So we had to go to MusicWorld on the other side of the shopping center to get an orange Turtles cassette soundtrack. I listened to it so much that the track listing wore off, but that didn't matter - I had the bloody thing memorized. Other than MC Hammer, I don't think there's anybody performing on that soundtrack that you kids today might recognize by name. The instrumental Ninja Turtles theme is pretty good, but I remember being disappointed that it wasn't the same as cartoon theme.
For me, the two songs I kept rewinding back to were "Spin That Wheel" and "T-U-R-T-L-E Power".
And for some reason there are music clips from the movie with Splinter's monologue over top. Not really songs you can sing along with or dance to, but neat to have on the soundtrack.
Here, give the whole thing a listen:
Don't you just want to grab a pizza after all that?
I'm ashamed (no, I'm actually really proud) to admit that when the first movie ended the other night and the credits were rolling along with "T-U-R-T-L-E Power", I still knew all the words to the song and could rap along. Cause nothing is as bad-ass as rapping about the Ninja Turtles. Most rappers claim to be from the streets, but let me tell you - Turtle rappers are from the sewers! Fuck The Foot Clan comin' straight from Dimension X...
I don't know what came over me there.
It's important to note the appearance of Ya Kid K on this album, and her apparent love for all things Turtles. You probably have no idea who she is at first, but she's the vocalist on such early 90s hits as "Pump Up The Jam" and "Move This" for Technotronic. C'mon, you know "Move This"... "shake that body....shake that body... baby lemme show you how to do this... you gotta move this... you're doing fi-yi-yiiiiine..."
She actually sings in all three of the Ninja Turtles movies. Go figure. I don't tell many people this, but I had Ya Kid K's cassette tape, "One World Nation", from the early 90s. I think I might be the only person who ever bought it. And it wasn't until the other day when I looked Ya Kid K up on Wikipedia that I found out she's a girl. Kinda thought she was a boy back in the day. A cute boy, but a boy nonetheless. Hmm, that's a story for another day.
All in all, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie had a pretty cool soundtrack.
The less said about Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze the better.
Thanks for reading!
- ryan
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