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Happy Birthday Tetris: 7 Covers of the Game's Theme

Rocks Off has learned a lot from video games over the years. Super Mario Bros. 3 taught us that the sun is an angry, malice-filled demon who will stop at nothing until you're dead (It's a 102 degrees as we write). Bioshock taught us that taking Ayn Rand a too seriously leads to fighting genetically altered murder mutants in an underwater city.

However, it's from Tetris that we gained the ability to move an entire one bedroom apartment in the bed of a Ford Ranger in a single trip, and for that skill we'd like to wish the game a happy 27th birthday. Alexey Pajitnov first developed the game in 1984, and some form of it has been ported to just about every single gaming platform there is.

The game is of course highly addictive while also being pretty simple and easy to play. It's also home to one of the most famous video game themes, "Music A," actually an instrumental arrangement of a 19th-century Russian folksong called "Korobeiniki." Dozens, if not hundreds, of musicians have covered it since the game was first released, and in honor of the game's anniversary we'd like to present seven of the best.

Doctor Spin (Andrew Lloyd Webber)

Yes, that Andrew Lloyd Webber, who with Nigel Wright released a Eurodance Tetris cover in 1992 under the name Doctor Spin. It is the only single the duo ever produced, but did reach No. 6 on the UK charts.

Ozma

If you ever wondered what Russian folk music fused with American alternative rock sounds like, then Ozma's your band. The first half of their Douubble Donkey Disc was dedicated to Russian themes and included balalaikas and flutes in addition to their regular instrumentation. They called this genre Russian coldfusion.

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Jef Rouner (not cis, he/him) is a contributing writer who covers politics, pop culture, social justice, video games, and online behavior. He is often a professional annoyance to the ignorant and hurtful.
Contact: Jef Rouner