BioShock Licensed Soundtrack

BioShock's licensed soundtrack helped contribute to the immersive atmosphere of the game with real world licensed music reminiscent of Rapture's time period. Most of the selections came from the mid-Twentieth Century and cast a feeling of the past in the ruins of the fallen utopia. Several other songs have been licensed without appearing in-game, though some are still present in the game's files, and two more were added for the release of the game on PlayStation 3 systems. Also, three modern tracks were recorded by Moby and Oscar the Punk for The BioShock EP album included in BioShock's Limited Collector's Edition released in August 21, 2007.
== Background ==
Several of the songs were chosen from Emily Ridgway's personal record collection, which included the artists Django Reinhart, Bing Crosby, and Noël Coward.
In an interview, Ridgway explains "The songs themselves, there's a really interesting juxtaposition of...a happy quirky musical...razzle dazzle number and then...they'd be singing about...how the world is ending...It was supposed to mirror the optimism and the decay at the same time...those two things sort of coexisting with each other."http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/iar1ci/backtrack-composing-bioshock Composing BioShock Part 1
The licensed songs designed to be source music as if heard by the characters emanating from radios, phonographs, and jukeboxes rather than as incidental music heard from the game's score.
Other songs were chosen by creative director Ken Levine who researched music with the help of his dad and through iTunes. He emphasized that the music came from the pre-rock 'n roll era including the work of artists such as Johnnie Ray, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, and Billie Holiday. Levine was also inspired to include Django Reinhardt's recordings, in particular "La Mer", after hearing his music in the 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown and in the 2002 video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven.http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?20304-EGM-Interview-with-Ken-Levine-Spoilers Electronic Gaming Monthly November 2007 issue (recorded verbatim on the 2K Forums)
In an interview, Levine commented that "The question usually is: are you supporting the scene or are you playing against the scene. And sometimes playing against the scene can be a good thing."
The music behind Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea - An interview with Ken Levine at GameSpot @ 4:15 For the songs that fit perfectly, he mentions Django Reinhardt's and Stéphane Grappelli's "La Mer". He then cites the unusually cheery nature of Patti Page's "Doggie in the Window" playing against "dark and violent sequence" as well as Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" playing against the crazed actions of Sander Cohen's Fort Frolic.
However, he expressed there were sometimes difficulties obtaining the licensing for some of the songs, given the age of the recordings and their legal rights status. In several instances, songs were chosen to be performed by different artists or later re-recordings were obtained.
Some of the songs Levine was not able to license included Édith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" (later reprised in the BioShock Infinite soundtrack for Burial at Sea), Louis Prima's and Keeley Smith's "That Old Black Magic"Brush Up for BioShock originally at Gametap.com; archived at archive.org, as well as Charles Trenet's original French version of "La Mer".Ken Levine Talks BioShock at IGN.com
One of the first rooms to have completed ambient audio was Painless Dental in the Medical Pavilion. Ridgway chose Bing Crosby's "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" with the lyrics "What price happiness? Who can truthfully say? But for every share with tears we pay?" to play over an Art Deco aesthetic littered with dead families.http://web.archive.org/web/20090117183326/http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=177 Music4Games Interview with Audio Director Emily Ridgway (archived)
== Appearing in-game ==
The following are the songs and music played while exploring distinct locations in BioShock.
Song title 	Artist 	Year 	Location(s) in game	Video
"La Mer" 	Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli 	1949 	
*Inside the Lighthouse Bathysphere	thumb
"If I Didn't Care" 	The Ink Spots 	1939 	
*Sung by Rose at the Bathysphere Station in Welcome to Rapture
*Played at the Kashmir Restaurant in Welcome to Rapture
*Played at the Lower Wharf of Neptune's Bounty after getting the Research Camera	thumb
"The Party's Over Now" 	Noël Coward 	1959The game uses the short version from the 1959 album Noel Coward in New York. Coward did however, record a full-length version in the 30s. 	
*Played outside the Footlight Theater and Kashmir Restaurant
*East apartment on the second floor of Mercury Suites in Olympus Heights	thumb
"The Best Things in Life are Free" 	The Ink Spots 	1947 	
*At Dandy Dental in the Medical Pavilion	thumb
"Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" 	Bing Crosby 	1931 	
*At Painless Dental (supply closet) in the Medical Pavilion	thumb
"It Had to be You" 	Django Reinhardt 	1938 	
*Outside Surgical Savings (after killing Steinman) in the Medical Pavilion	
"God Bless the Child" 	Billie Holiday 	1941 	
*In the Medical Pavilion (after meeting Tenenbaum)
*In Tenenbaum's Sanctuary in Olympus Heights	
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" 	Bing Crosby 	1933 	
*In Neptune's Bounty's Upper Wharf
*In Fontaine's Home for the Poor in Apollo Square	
"Bei Mir Bist du Schön" 	The Andrews Sisters 	1937 	
*At The Fighting McDonagh's Tavern in Neptune's Bounty
*At Eve's Garden in Fort Frolic
*Kyburz' Office in Hephaestus	
"Jitterbug Waltz" 	Django Reinhardt 	1942 	
*Catwalk above the Tea Garden in Arcadia.	
"Night and Day" 	Billie Holiday 	1939 	
*In the Waterfall Grotto (after Ryan kills the trees) in Arcadia	
"Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)" 	Django Reinhardt 	1946 	
*At the Farmer's Market Entrance
*Plays briefly on jukeboxes	
"Twentieth Century Blues" 	Noël Coward 	1959 	
*In Worley Winery 	
"Beyond the Sea" 	Bobby Darin 	1959 	
*Played on a jukebox at the Cocktail Lounge in Fort Frolic	
"Waltz of the Flowers" 	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 	1892 	
*In Fort Frolic's Atrium (during Cohen's Splicer battle)	
"(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window?"	Patti Page 	1966The game does not use the original 1952 hit recording which featured Patti Page singing with overdubbed vocals of herself. It is a re-recorded version made by Page in 1966 that instead has her solo voice accompanied by an orchestra.	
*At Sinclair Spirits in Fort Frolic
*At the Little Wonders Educational Facility in Point Prometheus
*Plays briefly on jukeboxes	
"It's Bad for Me" 	Rosemary Clooney 	1955 	
*Played on a record player by the Gatherer's Garden in Hephaestus Core	
"Please Be Kind" 	Django Reinhardt 	1938 	
*In Upper Heat Loss Monitoring in Hephaestus	
"Papa Loves Mambo" 	Perry Como 	1954 	
*At the Central Square Bistro in Olympus Heights
*Plays briefly on jukeboxes	
"You're the Top" 	Cole Porter with Vince Giordano & his Nighthawks	2004The song uses Cole Porter's original 1934 vocals, but overdubbs the piano with additional strings and drums from the CD It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection 	
*Road to Mercury Suites in Olympus Heights	
"Danny Boy" 	Mario Lanza 	1952 	
*At Fontaine's Apartment in Mercury Suites	
== Additional Licensed Songs ==
Only short snippets of the following songs are heard during gameplay.
Song title 	Artist 	Year 	Location(s) in game
"And All the While I'm Loving You"	Essential Jazz Masters 	production music	
*Background tune in "New Year's Eve Alone" audio diary
"The Ballroom Waltz"
The filename is mistakenly labeled as "music_licence_academyaward"	Cliff Eidelman 	1997 	
*When Sander Cohen descends the staircase after completing the Quadtych
"Jesus Loves Me" 	Anna B. Warner (lyrics)William Batchelder Bradbury (music)	1862 	
*Sung by the Waders Splicer
unknown whistling tune 	 	 	
*Whistled by the Breadwinner Splicer	 	 	
The following songs are found in their entirety in the game's files in streams_music_common_audio with the other period tracks, but are not known to play in-game.
Song title 	Artist 	Year 	Notes
"Wild Ride" 	The Faux Frenchmen	2007The track has been re-titled and released by the band as "Eleventh Floor Stomp". It is available on their 2008 album Oblivion.	
*Featured on the BioShock EP and remixed as "Wild Little Sisters"
"Just Walking in the Rain"	Johnnie Ray 	1956 	
*Specifically mentioned by Ken Levine, creative director of BioShock, in a post-release interviewhttp://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?20304-EGM-Interview-with-Ken-Levine-Spoilers Electronic Gaming Monthly November 2007 issue (recorded verbatim on the 2K Forums)
"World Weary" 	Noël Coward 	1928 	
*Taken from a live recording in the 1955 album Noël Coward at Las Vegas
*Coward also recorded an earlier version in 1933
These song names are found in the game files, but are not playable. All are located in the audio files for the Medical Pavilion (streams_1_music_audio) along with the organ music (music_1_radiofuneral) for Twilight Fields Funeral Homes. In addition, some of the songs can be found in duplicated files associated with Neptune's Bounty (streams_2_music_audio) and Arcadia (streams_3_music_audio).
No artist name can be found in the metadata. Several versions of the songs may exist, but the most popular have been chosen to be representative.
Filename 	Approximate Length	Possible Artist 	Year
music_1_radiorosalie ("Rosalie") 	1:55 	Artie Shaw 	1939
music_1_radio_porgy ("I Loves You, Porgy")	3:04 	Billie Holiday 	1948
music_1_radiojiveatfive ("Jive at Five") 	1:52 	Count Basie Orchestra	1937
music_1_radiohappyfeet ("Happy Feet") 	1:59 	Cab Calloway 	1930
music_1_radiolildarlin ("Lil' Darlin'") 	2:32 	Count Basie Orchestra	1958
music_1_radiotooyoung ("Too Young") 	2:03 	Nat King Cole 	1951
Several more songs appear to have been licensed for the game but do not appear in the final version or in any of the game files."BioShock Music list" post by Major Nelson on his blog.
Song title 	Artist 	Year	Notes
"Avalon" 	Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli	1935	-
"Let's Fly Away" 	Lee Wiley 	1940	-
"Just One of Those Things" 	Lee Morgan 	1957	-
"This is a Changing World" 	Noël Coward 	1946	-
"You're Getting to be a Habit with Me"	Bing Crosby/Harry Edison 	? 	
* Crosby and Edison have recorded their own takes on this standard. It is not known if there exists a recording where they've performed together
"Academy Award" 	Stanley Black 	1966	
* Referenced in the game files by "music_licence_academyaward", but actually plays Cliff Eidelman's "Ballroom Waltz".
* The song's record label and music publisher, De Wolfe Music, is still listed in the BioShock Credits
==PlayStation 3 Exclusives==
Song title 	Artist 	Year	Location(s) in game
"You're Getting to be a Habit With Me"	Buddy Rich (drums) and Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet)	1955	Loading screen
"Dream" 	Pied Pipers 	1946	End credits; BioShock 2 "Sea of Dreams" teaser
"Getting Closer" 	Bill Brown 	2008	BioShock PS3 Trailer
== The BioShock EP ==
The bioshock EP front.jpg|Front cover.
The bioshock EP back.jpg|Back cover.
Bioshock EP CD.png|CD.
This album was recorded by Moby and Oscar the Punk for the Limited Collector's Edition of BioShock. The first two songs are remixes of original ones present in-game, while the third combines 
"Wild Ride", composed by Paul Patterson and Brian Lovely of the Faux Frenchmen, and various sounds and PSAs from the game.
# Beyond the Sea - 03:15
#God Bless the Child - 03:58
#Wild Little Sisters - 03:56
==References==
fr:Bande originale de BioShock
Category:Game Extras
Category:BioShock