I didn't have the intention of doing a fallout-specific post here, but after sharing a story about the first song I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of nostalgia and listened to a couple more songs.
Maybe - The Ink Spots
This song randomly pops into my head occasionally, and the other day I was singing it to my partner as she was changing the baby's nappy.
I usually sing it at random times here and there, and do it to kind of annoy her when I'm in one of those giddy moods. This time however Kaleb was laughing his head off at it, and I got the all-clear to carry on singing.
Maybe, and the other Ink Spots song, 'I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire' are such great songs, and came on my radar due to the Fallout series.
Fallout is a series of games set in a post-apocalypse, and there's something amazing about the use of these songs with their haunting tone coupled with images of the apocalypse that works so well, in a way that the creators used to great effect in order to sell the idea and tone of the games.
This song was used in the intro of Fallout 1, and the intro still does an amazing job of giving you an idea of what to expect from the series.
Here's the trailer if you'd like to check it out.
The Wanderer - Dion
Here's another song utilised by the Fallout series during the release of Fallout 4 back in 2015, and I think this song works well with that game and the launch material for it.
In the Fallout games, you're essentially a wanderer who arrives at multiple towns and settlements and takes on quests to help out the community with which you come in contact. So, the lyrics of this song are pretty fitting for the style of game it is, while also sticking to the 50's style era of music.
The hype for Fallout 4 was very real, I think it had been about 5 years since there was an entry into the franchise, and everyone was going nuts at the time. It was one of the last games I pre-paid for before Xtravision shut down, and I remember getting off the bus from college and nearly running into the shop to pick up my copy, and on the walk up home I was just reading the back of the box.
It's a shame now with digital downloads that the whole experience of buying a game is kind of gone. Half the fun was reading the booklet from cover to cover, or the back of the box on the way home to go and play it, but sadly that's a bygone thing now in this wild wild world of ours.
Ain't That A Kick In The Head - Dean Martin
Each installment in the series seems to change the tone up a lot by the choice of music on the playlist of the game. In Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4 there are radio stations in the game along with presenters to present each of the songs and even remark on what's going on in the game.
While Fallout 3 sticks to the 50s and pre-50s tunes, Fallout: New Vegas changes the aesthetic entirely by choosing songs that fit a more Vegas/ Western Theme, so throughout this one, there are a lot of rat-pack songs, and things like that to real sell the Mojave Wasteland vibe that the game captures amazingly.
Fallout: New Vegas is by far my favourite game in the entire series, and I find that not only the setting is amazing, but also the missions and main questline.
Here's the intro to this one if you'd like to check it out. The intro itself has a great way of telling you the history of the franchise, and also showcasing snippets of the main location and multiple major factions in-game, all without giving away too much and intriguing the player enough to jump in.