Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain in Earthworm Jim (1994)
The second level of Earthworm Jim—the infamous “What the Heck?”—opens with a snarling 16-bit arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. It’s a perfect needle-drop for a hellish planet ruled by Evil the Cat, patrolled by corporate lawyers and fire-breathing snowmen. The cue swerves between bombast and kitschy “elevator music,” amplifying the level’s satire while keeping Shiny Entertainment’s signature whiplash humor intact.
Although Mussorgsky penned Night on Bald Mountain in 1867, the version that entered popular memory is largely thanks to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Mussorgsky’s manuscript was raw and jagged, a whirlwind of folk-inspired chaos that contemporaries found too unrefined for the concert hall. Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1886 reorchestration polished that storm into a more cohesive, dramatically paced work, lending it the orchestral brilliance that films like Fantasia and games such as Earthworm Jim could later draw upon. In effect, Mussorgsky provided the furious bones, but Rimsky-Korsakov shaped them into the enduring musical nightmare we know today.
“What the Heck?” and the Bald Mountain Riff
Mark Miller’s and Tommy Tallarico’s score stitches Mussorgsky’s 1867 tone poem into a collage that veers from grandiose to absurd. The opening bars of Night on Bald Mountain blare over Heck’s molten vistas before hard-cutting (vynil scratch and all) to a syrupy, elevator/lounge muzak, then snapping back to the Russian menace on a loop. That musical whiplash mirrors the level design: you dodge shadow fiends, whip grapple over hellfire, and endure Evil’s taunts and traps while the soundtrack toggles between apocalypse and muzak.
As is often the case with Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES hardware, the sound chip handles "Night on Bald Mountain" differently and both produce excellent results in their own way, with the SNES chip known to manage better classical "orchestral" music and the Genesis producing a more synth/grungy feel. On the Sega the sound is clearer but simpler, while on the SNES the composition sounds more detailed but more muffled too. The Sega CD “Special Edition” is the absolute winner here, as it recreates Mussorgsky’s haunting phrasing to Rimsky-Korsakov levels of perfection, leaning on the CD audio’s clarity, with a truly orchestral quality to it. There are many more versions of Earthworm Jim, including HD versions on PS3/Xbox 360, mobile versions, etc., but of these the Earthworm Jim HD version deserves special mention, as it combines the best aspects of the Special Edition CD quality and the SNES initial synths.
Why a Russian Classic Works Here
Night on Bald Mountain was born from the folklore of witches’ sabbaths, and its swirling strings and hammering brass have long scored visions of damnation. Reminding one immediately of its use in Disney's Fantasia (1940), the composition simply works in the cartoonish, over-the-top world of Earthworm Jim. The sting of Russian Romanticism turns a gag level into a miniature opera. The lawyers and snowmen are jokes, but the music gives them theatrical teeth. It’s the same juxtaposition that defined 90s Jim: grotesque cartooning framed like grand spectacle.
Conclusion: A Groovy Night on Bald Mountain
The “What the Heck?” arrangement shows how confidently 16-bit Western-developed games borrowed from Russian classical repertoires. In this case, Mussorgsky’s haunting melodies further fuel Jim’s absurd slapstick presentation, and the result lands: a level that is equal parts parody and ominous foreboding, scored by one of Russia’s most indelible musical nightmares.
Earthworm Jim
Country: 
United States
Initial release: October 1994
Platforms: Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, Sega CD, Windows, PS3, Xbox 360, Mobile, others
Genre:Run and gun/Platformer
Composer(s): Tommy Tallarico, Mark Miller
Developer/Publisher: Shiny / Virgin (EU), Playmates (NA)
About: “What the Heck?” is a fiery underworld ruled by Evil the Cat. Its audio collage—Mussorgsky’s witches’ sabbath colliding with cheesy elevator interludes—became one of the series’ most quoted musical jokes and a standout example of Russian classical music surfacing in 16-bit action games.
References
- Wikipedia: Night on Bald Mountain — mentions EWJ Level 2 usage
- Earthworm Jim Wiki: “What the Heck?” — notes the Mussorgsky cue
- GameFAQs (Sega CD SE changes) — intro closer to Bald Mountain
- Rocketworm (archival fan site): EWJ classical music overview
- TheologyGaming: EWJ soundtrack piece on “What the Heck?”