The first time I cried listening to music was the Smashing… Live! album that came with Nintendo Power. Specifically this track:

A three years later when youtube was newly taking off in the public consciousness. I was searching for accordion covers, sitar covers, and any covers of my favorite video game music I could find. I remember still, the coolest thing I ever found was a classic one man band street performance, complete with big ol drum, a couple woodwinds, and tambourines on his feet, playing the title screen to Paper Mario 1. It gave me goosebumps of course. I haven’t found it in 20 years.

To this day nothing hits me emotionally like an epic acoustic video game cover that is thoughtfully arranged. I’m not talking about the obscene amount of metal and rock covers. No offense to anyone who enjoys it but I am very tired of that stuff. I had the minibosses and whatnot on my ipod back in the day, sure. I’m an old man who likes acoustic jazz and first wave doo-wap ska.. There’s just so many video game songs that are weird genres like doo wop and reggae that I wanna hear the way they were intended. Even if a song is super overplayed already, hearing a better arrangement of it can feel fresh. We know what songs are overplayed though, and I’m mainly talking about the deep cuts, the songs that are HARD to play so only the most talented folks play them.

I’m overjoyed by how much good stuff is out there now compared to before. I like weird genres. I’m gonna share a lot of my favorites, all of which have made me cry before.
Warning: you might cry too I’m only posting the good shit.