We’ve been playing a fair amount of New Super Mario Bros. Wii here at 315, and it’s had a certain side effect on me: Extreme nostalgia for classic mario compositions.

Youtube is, of course, the salve for this ailment.

Here’s a brentalfloss (the guy behind the dr. mario with lyrics video going around recently) with one of my absolute favorite oldschool rags, the Super Mario Bros. 2 Character Selection Theme:

He also does a pretty good Ben Folds style breakdown of the Dr. Mario fever theme:

Really tickling my fancy right now is this gypsy-jazz style rendition of the Super Mario Bros. 2 theme by Adrian Holovaty:

You probably want the mp3 download link for that one. It’s right here.

Here’s another, the Yoshi’s Island Athletic Theme (original for comparison):

There are a million renditions of Mario compositions. There’s no way I could suggest these are the best – I simply haven’t dug deep enough to make that kind of statement. If you have any favorites, feel free to send them my way.