"Korobeiniki" (Коробе́йники) is a nineteenth-century Russian folk song that tells the story of a meeting between a korobeinik (peddler) and a girl, describing their haggling over goods in a metaphor for seduction. Outside Russia, "Korobeiniki" is widely known as the Tetris theme tune, from its appearance in Nintendo's Game Boy version of the game (titled "A-Type") as arranged by the Japanese composer Hirokazu Tanaka in 1989. The song "Korobeiniki" is based on the poem of the same name by Nikolay Nekrasov, which was first printed in the Sovremennik magazine in 1861. Its increasing tempo and the dance style led to it quickly becoming a popular Russian folk song. Early musical compositions of the song were published by Yakov Prigozhy and Alexander N. Chernyavsky (Чернявский, Александр Николаевич) in 1898. Varvara Panina made gramophone records of the song with several recording companies in 1905 and later.

Melody

Lyrics sample

There are several variants the lyrics, all being minor variations of the beginning of the poem.

Arrangements of the song

Numerous Russian singers performed this song.

Tetris

After arrangements of "Korobeiniki" first appeared in Spectrum Holobyte's Apple IIGS and Mac versions of Tetris, the song was re-arranged in 1989 by Hirokazu Tanaka as the "Type A" accompaniment in Nintendo's Game Boy version 1.1. It has since become closely associated with the game in Western popular culture and the Tetris Company has required its inclusion in every version of the game since 2002. In 2008, UGO listed the song as the 3rd best video game music of all time. The Tetris Company holds a sound trademark on this variation of the song for use in video games. The official Tetris website wrote that Korobeiniki was "memorable enough on its own as both a poem and folk tune", independent of its adaption into the Tetris theme. Doctor Spin's 1992 novelty Eurodance cover version under the name "Tetris" reached No. 6 on the UK singles chart.

Other adaptations and versions