The music of the Kingdom Hearts video game series was composed by Yoko Shimomura with orchestral music arranged by Kaoru Wada.[1][2] The original soundtracks of the games have been released on three albums and a fourth compilation album. The soundtracks to the Kingdom Hearts games feature several musical pieces from both Square Enix and Disney works , including such pieces as "Mickey Mouse Club March" by Jimmie Dodd, "This Is Halloween" by Danny Elfman, and "One-Winged Angel" by Nobuo Uematsu. They also feature several vocal songs, the most notable being the four main theme songs: "Hikari", "Passion", "Chikai", and "Face My Fears." The two themes were written and performed by Japanese American pop star Hikaru Utada; in addition to Japanese, English versions of the first three songs were produced, titled "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", and "Don't Think Twice", respectively.
Although the majority of the music has been released only in Japan, the first soundtrack was released worldwide and tracks from the Kingdom Hearts series have been featured in Video Games Live at multiple venues.[3] The music has overall been well received and several tracks have received particular praise. The two main themes were well received by both video game and music critics, and did well on Japan's Oricon Weekly Singles chart.[4][5][6]
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack CD insert. Toshiba-Emi Limited. 2002.
- ^ Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack CD insert. Toshiba-EMI Limited. 2006.
- ^ Van Zelfden, Alex (2007-06-29). "Video Games Live In Dallas". IGN. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ^ Turner, Benjamin (2002-09-03). "Kingdom Hearts Review (PS2)". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
- ^ "CDTV PowerWeb! 光: 宇多田ヒカル". Tokyo Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on July 4, 2006. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
- ^ "CDTV PowerWeb! Passion: 宇多田ヒカル". Tokyo Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on December 30, 2006. Retrieved 2007-09-18.