This is GTV, the undisputed champ of video!
The following video is dedicated to my dad who loved boxing, watched it all his life,
and even tried his hand as an amateur lightweight in his day. He wasn’t into video games at all
but he made 2 exceptions when he went out and bought me boxing games.
Boxing by Activision for the Atari 2600 and later, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! For the NES.
I can remember putting Punch-Out!! in the old gray box and turning it on for the first time.
And my dad starting singing the title music! How did he know a Nintendo game had a song with words?
How would anyone know anything the first time you hear something?
Well on that day in 1988, he sat me down and told me a story… The story of The Punch-Out theme song
The origins of the Punch-Out!! song go back to the 1950s during a golden age of boxing
where stars like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sonny Liston would spar on a new national medium
television. The song that plays at the start of the NES version of Punch Out!! Is called
the Look Sharp March. It was the theme song to a long running sports program,
“The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports” which ran from 1948 until 1960. In the early days
of television it was the norm for show to be completely run by one sponsored brand.
The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports featured various sporting events,
but the show relied heavily on boxing, which aired on Friday nights for almost the entire run
of the series. The highlight of these Friday Nights Fights
were defenses of the heavyweight title by the world champion of the time Rocky Marciano.
Not only was Marciano the champ, but at the time, he was the only heavyweight champion in history
with a perfect record. There were a few boxers in the 19th century who had never lost
but had draws on their records. Rocky Marciano was the undisputed heavyweight champion from
1952- to 1956. Marciano’s title run coincided with a new ad slogan and mascot for Gillette.
A parrot named Sharpie debuted in October 1952 and would star in a long running series
of advertisements asking men how they’re fixed for blades, and to “Look Sharp!” The next year,
these slogans were put to music by composer Mahlon Merrick and was called the “Look Sharp March”
From then on each episode began with the now famous tune. As audiences tuned in to
see the champ defend his title, the song quickly became associated with boxing,
as well as the heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano. The song was so popular, a version
was recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra was commercially sold and received radio airplay!
In 1956, Marciano retired as champion with a 49-0 record. It was a feat that was thought impossible
to replicate. Because Marciano’s title defenses originally aired on the Gillette Cavalcade of
Sports, any time these matches were rebroadcast, the Look Sharp March would accompany them.
The song would stay closely associated to boxing after the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
left the air. The most famous of which was in the film Raging Bull, released in 1980.
The song was also featured in another boxing game! In 1981! Years before Punch Out!!(!)
The Coleco Head To Head Boxing LCD game plays the Look Sharp March!
The song was featured in the arcade versions of Punch Out!! Which came
a few years before the NES version, as well as in Nintendo’s Arm Wrestling arcade game,
which shares much of the same programming code, graphical style and a few characters from the
arcade Punch-Out!! The songs are only slightly different from the NES version, and from each
other. But the song isn’t closely tied to the arcade game. Probably due to the fact that the
arcade game didn’t get nearly as much distribution as the home game, if you did play the arcade
version, it was probably only a few times and in an arcade, you probably didn’t hear it anyway.
As time went on, though heavyweight champions would come and go. Some were more memorable than
others, yet none had bested Rocky Marciano’s feat of retiring as an undefeated champion.
30 years after the Marciano’s retirement, a new young fighter became the next big thing,
an unstoppable young prodigy of the boxing ring, Mike Tyson.
In 1985 and 1986, almost every fight by Tyson was won by KO, and in record time, with a significant
number ending in the first round. He earned his first title in 1986 and with his in-ring intensity
and undefeated record, Mike Tyson became a world wide sensation. As his career took off, he caught
the eye of Nintendo, and signed a deal with them to be included in the home version of Punch-Out!!
The game would be released in America in October 1987, with Mike Tyson’s name affixed to the title.
With Mike Tyson, boxing was a hot property once again. At the time many felt that Tyson
would finally be the one who could break Rocky Marciano’s record. So it was only fitting that
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Would carry the tune that the Rocky Marciano made famous.
It should also be pointed out that what defines “World Champion” is known in the
business as the “Lineal Champion” At the time that Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was released,
Tyson was actually NOT World Champion, and only held the WBA and WBC titles.
Tyson became the official Lineal Champion on June 27, 1988 when he defeated Michael Spinks.
Mike Tyson enjoyed 18 months as Lineal Champion, but did eventually lose to
James “Buster” Douglas at the Tokyo Dome on February 11th, 1990 in a surprise upset.
At 37-1 the streak was over and the perfect record gone.
Besting Rocky Marciano’s DID come to pass though almost 60 years after his retirement, when Floyd
“Money” Mayweather reached 49-0 in 2015. He retired after the 49th win
but returned for one more fight to stand at 50-0. Though Mayweather never competed as a Heavyweight.
Soon after Mike Tyson lost title to Douglas, Nintendo and Tyson parted ways and in August 1990,
Nintendo would re-issue Punch-Out!! And replace Mike Tyson with a fictitious character named Mr.
Dream. Many gamers have criticized the change, not so much for dropping Tyson,
but for the supposed, half hearted character switch to distance the game from Tyson. But here’s
a little secret I’ll let you in on. Mr. Dream might seem like a weak replacement for Tyson,
but he was intentionally designed to look just like the man that goes with the games’s
theme song. The Undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the world, Rocky Marciano!
Now that you know this little bit of history, let’s go back to the Look Sharp March and put
the real words to the music from Punch-Out!! So you can sing along!