Grand Theft Auto III Soundtrack

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The soundtrack of the game Grand Theft Auto III is popular not only with fans of the game, but also with lovers of mid- to late-1990s music.

Overview

In the game, music is played on various "radio stations" which the player can listen to after he or she has acquired a car. Most radio stations play a mixture of music, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. The stations each reflect one style of music intended to evoke a certain atmosphere.

Although many of the songs that appear in the game were written specially for the soundtrack (or in some cases for the soundtracks of previous games in the series), a large amount of tracks were contributions by 'real' artists. Craig Conner and Stuart Ross created the original tracks, often with vocals and performances by other musicians. It is worth noting that virtually none of the contributing 'real' artists were particularly well-known at the time, and appearing on such a popular video game was no doubt greatly advantageous to their careers.

Where music has been created by Conner and Ross, a fake band is credited to the song, and often the name of the band or the music itself is a parody of a well-known artist's style. For example, the 'Scatwerk' song on Head Radio is an obvious parody of the German band Kraftwerk.

Other than the radio stations, the only other occurrence of music in the entire game is within the game's intro and credit sequences, which play to very jazzy/bluesy piano tracks. As mentioned, the only time you can hear the radio is when the protagonist hijacks a car (or in the Audio section of the pause menu). The station that will be playing when you get in is fairly random (and can be changed) but there are certain factors that will make the 'choice' lean certain ways, such as the area the car is in, the type of car, and if it is a gang's signature car. All of the gangs in the game have favoured radio stations.

Music

Head Radio

Head Radio plays Pop Rock

• Dil-Don't - Stripe Summer

Vocals by Heidi Hazelton

• Whatever - Good Thing

Vocals by Craig Conner. Written and produced by Allan Walker and Craig Conner.

• Craig Gray - Fade Away

Vocals by Stuart Ross. Written and produced by Stuart Ross.

• Conor And Jay - Change

Written and produced by Craig Conner and Julie Wemyss. Vocals by Julie Wemyss.

• Frankie Fame - See Through You

Vocals by Raff Corrilla, Craig Conner and Nancy Jenkinson.

• Scatwerk - Electronic Go Go

Written and produced by Stuart Ross.

• Dezma - Life Is But A Mere Supply

Vocals by Kate Mckinnon.

All songs written and produced by Craig Conner unless otherwise noted

Double Cleff FM

Double Cleff FM plays Classical Opera music

• Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso from Le Nozze di Figaro

Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Performed by Sesto Bruscantini and Teresa Berganza with the Orchestra e Corodi Roma della RAI conducted by Zubin Mehta.

• Chi mi frena in tal momento from Lucia di Lammermoor

Written by Gaetano Donizetti. Performed by Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti and Piero Cappuccilli with the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI conducted by Franchesco Molinari Pradelli.

• Libiamo ne'lieti calici from La Traviata

Written by Giuseppe Verdi. Performed by Renato Scotto, Jose Carreras and Sesto Bruscantini, conducted by Nino Verchi.

• Finch'han del vino from Don Giovanni

Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Performed by Sesto Bruscantini, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Alfredo Kraus with the Orchestra e Corodi Roma della RAI conducted by Carlo Maria Guilini.

• O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi

Written by Giacomo Pucci. Performed by Tito Gobbi, Cecilia Fusco and Renzo Casellato with the RAI Orchestra and Chorus, Milan conducted by Massimo Pradella.

• La Donna è mobile from Rigoletto

Written by Giuseppe Verdi. Performed by Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto with the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Comunale of Florence conducted by Carlo Maria Guilini.

K-Jah

K-Jah Plays dub music

• Dance of the Vampires

• Your Teeth in My Neck

• The Corpse Rises

• The Mummy's Shroud

• Plague of Zombies

Rise FM

Rise FM plays trance music

• Slyder - Neo (The One)

• Slyder - Score (Original Mix)

• Chris Walsh & Dave Beran - Shake (Revolt Clogrock Remix)

• Shiver - Deep Time

• R.R.D.S. - Innerbattle

Lips 106

Lips 106 plays Pop music

• Fatamarse - Bump To The Music

Vocals by Nancy Jenkinson

• Marydancin - Wash Him Off

Vocals by Anna Stewart

• April's in Paris - Feels Like I Just Can't Take No More

Vocals by Paul Mackie and Craig Conner. Guitars written by and performed by Allan Walker

• Lucy - Forever

Vocals by Anne Somerville. Written and produced by Stuart Ross.

• Boyz 2 Girls - Pray It Goes Ok?

Vocals by Raff Corrilla and Craig Conner

• Da Shootaz - Grand Theft Auto

Vocals by Robert De Negro

• Funky BJs - Rubber Tip

Written and performed by Stuart Ross

All songs written and produced by Craig Conner unless otherwise noted

Game Radio FM

Game Radio FM plays Hip-Hop/Rap

• Reef ¹ - Scary Movies (Instrumental)

• Royce Da 5'9" - We're Live (Danger)

• Nature - Nature Freestyle

• JoJo Pelligrino - JoJo Pelligrino Freestyle

• Pretty Ugly and Royce Da 5'9" - Spit Game

• Royce Da 5'9" - I'm The King

Produced by The Alchemist

• Black Rob - By A Stranger

Produced by Ayatollah

• Agallah ¹ and Sean Price - Rising To The Top

• Rush ¹ - Instrumental Bed 1

• Rush ¹ - Instrumental Bed 2

All tracks produced by Rush, unless otherwise noted

¹Performer is the producer

MSX FM

MSX FM plays very fast drum and bass music.

• Calyx - Quagmire

Written, produced and engineered by Larry Cons.

• Rascal and Klone - Get Wild

Written, produced and engineered by Greg Lomas and Steve Ward.

• Ryme Tyme - Judgement Day

Written, produced and engineered by Sean Martins.

• Omni Trio - First Contact

Written, produced and engineered by Robert Haigh.

• Aquasky - Spectre

Written and produced by Brent Newitt, Kieron Bailey and Dave Wallace. Engineered by Dave Wallace.

• Rascal and Klone - Winner Takes All

Written, produced and engineered by Greg Lomas and Steve Ward.

• Cause 4 concern - Spasm

Written, produced and engineered by GJ. Skinner, Ed Holmes and S. Foster.

• D Kay - Monolith

Written, produced and engineered by David Kulenkampff.

Flashback 95.6

Flashback 95.6 plays classic pop

• Paul Engemann - Push It To The Limit

• Deborah Harry - Rush Rush

• Amy Holland - She's On Fire

• Elizabeth Daily - Shake It Up

• Elizabeth Daily - I'm Hot Tonight

Chatterbox FM

Chatterbox FM is a talk radio station and as such dosen't play and music.

Commercials

The myriad commercials that appear throughout the game deserve a special mention. They are all written by Dan Houser and Lazlow (the latter of whom also produced them). They are fairly convincing as real adverts as they adhere to many typical marketing clichés and tricks. Several adverts mention telephone numbers and official websites. Rockstar actually created these websites, and though many links just eventually lead back to the Rockstar site, some are really quite detailed. The Petsovernight.com website displays pictures of animals and promises "If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house", tying in with the humour in the commercials.

Some examples of commercials within the game are: the Maibatsu Monstrosity adverts ("Mine is bigger!"), Fernando's New Beginnings ("A revolutionary new way to save your marriage."), the given phone number of which is 555-9292, and the new video game Pogo the Monkey ("He's got springs for legs!").