You want classic, catchy tunes? I'll give you classic, catchy tunes....

Shinobi - stage 3 OST (arcade)
Wonderboy in Monster Land - Dragon Castle OST (arcade)
Ghouls'n Ghosts - stage 2 OST (arcade) (I can even sound this on a flute!)
Eye of the Beholder - intro OSD (PC)

Bump

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlRufeRbLwM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPPTlI9Q1og
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMboCp5dYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32S2oJuANxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1_74vwUP5M

Yes, thank you, I've now got that stuck in my head (this is a good thing ;) )

I loved a lot of the Amiga music, not just the games but a lot of the demo disks that were around too.

"Red-Sector presents, a TCC Design, 'MegaDemo!'"
and another one that I'm fairly sure had '17-bit QB' as the makers (later Team-17) that had an Axel-F tune and a few others and then there was an animation demo on the same disk with balls falling out of a tap, bouncing on a see-saw, and eventually going back round into the tap in a continuous loop .... it's been driving me nuts trying to find that disk years later.

Amiga Forever! (I mean in the 'I love it' sense rather than the site of the same name, but that's handy too for the emulator)

The Donkey Kong Country games had great music.

My favourite, from DK2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbKTi_Rph9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avPSzGVCPH0

Killer instinct.. always. =)

Frog's Theme - Chrono Trigger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMzkUriqXvs

Oh Frog, your so badass :)

https://soundcloud.com/squaretunemagician

Not original songs, but awesome remix :-)

No mention of Secret of Mana (SNES)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaAnKvzI2W4

or Final Fantasy (any number, but I suppose VI is considered the peak of the 16-bit era)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbXVNKtmWnc

And you'd be OH SO VERY WRONG on that one.

48K had a single-channel bleeper/speaker unit, and even so, had quite complex melodies and tunes from out of it.
128K had a 3-channel AY3-8192 music chip, and did very, very good music.

You just gotta look for them online :D

Hell, coverdiscs, towards the end of the Speccy's life, regularly featured jukebox programs featuring 3-10 music singles from the days charts. Non-corporate, but fan-made!

EDIT : Sorry, slightly wonky memory after 25 years, it's an AY-3-8910 sound chip in the 128K speccies.

Doom 1 - The Imp's Song SNES version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPwC1sRNtpk

Goodness this song is very athospherical

[url=][/url]
did someone already post these?

Donkey Kong Country (aquatic ambience)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDvKwSVuUGA

Turrican II (main theme)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy153Uc9Qq8

Secret of Evermore (credits)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnV7w_tpmpI

R-Type III (stage1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoGRjih0xcA

Jurrassic Park (mountain)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1EGNaPTACc

Donkey Kong Country 2 has underrated music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-3pL9A7Nk4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwyipDW-t4Q

Already known music translate well in 16-bit

Star Wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMOpXrm8ebI

Michael Jackson


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZLW7wAhytY

This thread needs more mention of Tim Follin's work. What that man could do with an NES was mind blowing. Let me demonstrate:

Solstice (title screen)

Pictionary (the music is so much better than the game. lol.)

Silver Surfer (level 1)



He was also pretty handy with a C64.

This is the scariest music I ever heard from 16 bit game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JLpzBgBAyM