Nokia Ringtone Original Song

[Milan Skidmore]

The Nokia tune is a phrase from a composition for solo guitar, Gran Vals, composed in 1902 by the Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Trrega.[1] It has been associated with Finnish corporation Nokia since the 1990s, becoming the first identifiable musical ringtone on a mobile phone; Nokia selected an excerpt to be used as its default ringtone.[2]

The Nokia tune first appeared on the Nokia 2010 released in 1994, under the name ringtone Type 5, showing that it was just one of the normal ringtones. The tune's original name varied in the ringtone list, listed as Type 13 on some phones, or Type 8 on others. In December 1997 with the introduction of the Nokia 6110, ringtones were each given a specific name, and the tune received the name "Grande valse". Some later Nokia phones (e.g. some 3310s) still used Type 7 as the name of the Nokia tune.[6] In 1998, "Grande valse" was renamed to "Nokia tune" and effectively became Nokia's flagship ringtone.

The Nokia tune has been updated several times, either to take advantage of advancing technology or to reflect musical trends at the time. The first polyphonic MIDI version of the Nokia tune, created by composer Ian Livingstone[7] (often mistaken as being Thomas Dolby's work),[8] was introduced in 2001 with the release of two South Korea-exclusive devices, the Nokia 8877 and the Nokia 8887. The Nokia 3510, released in 2002, was the first globally released phone to include this version, using Beatnik's miniBAE technology. The Nokia 9500 Communicator in 2004 introduced a realtone recorded piano version. A guitar-based version was introduced with the Nokia N78 in 2008, reflecting the popularity of nu-folk at the time.[3]

The Nokia N9 in late 2011 introduced a new version, which was created by in-house composer Henry Daw. This version uses a marimba for its melody, and was intended to be genre-neutral.[9] The same year, a contest titled Nokia Tune Remake was held on the crowdsourcing website Audiodraft.[10] The winning entry was a dubstep version, which was shipped on many Nokia phones from 2012 to 2013 alongside the regular Nokia tune. Another updated version of the Nokia tune was introduced in 2013, built on the same principles as the 2011 version. In 2018, a new version was introduced on HMD Global's Nokia 1 and 7 Plus, and remains in use. This was also created by Henry Daw; it was intended to be an evolution of the 2013 version while retaining similar instrumentation.[11]

Other versions have been produced for specific models. These include a slow piano version for the Nokia 8800 by Ryuichi Sakamoto,[12] and a slow guitar version for the Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition by Brian Eno.[13]

In December 1999, Jimmy Cauty, formerly of The KLF, and Guy Pratt released the mobile telephone-themed novelty-pop record "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" under the name Solid Gold Chartbusters which heavily samples the theme.[14] It was released as competition for the UK Christmas number one single but only got to number 62.[15] The release of this song prevented the Super Furry Animals from releasing their song "Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)" from the album Guerrilla as a single, on the grounds that it was also based on a mobile phone theme.[16][17]

The Indonesian rock band The Changcuters included the segment of the Nokia tune on their song "Parampampam". The song was included on their 2011 album Tugas Akhir and was also featured on the Nokia X2-01 for the Indonesian market.[22]

The song was released in 2003. On November 8th, 2015, Eida Al Menhali's official YouTube[1] channel uploaded the song. The video has received more than 2.7 million views in eight years (shown below, left). The song was popularized in Arabic countries, where it is often used as a Nokia ringtone phone. On January 5th, 2019, YouTube[2] user Chris Day uploaded a clip of the Nokia ringtone version of the song. The video has received more than 25 million views in four years (shown below, right).

In the following years, the clip became popularized in creating remixes and edits. For example, on January 23rd, 2020, YouTube[3] user Legoshi 年 uploaded a video of a 3D spinning duck with the ringtone. The video received more than 186,000 views in three years (shown below, left). On August 13th, 2022, YouTube[4] user Forlorn uploaded a similar edit by using spinning monkeys. The video received more than 313,000 views in eight months (shown below, right).

On August 9th, 2019, YouTube[5] user Simon Aarons uploaded the remastered version of the ringtone and received more than 5.4 million views in four years (shown below, left). On October 19th, 2021, YouTube[6] user BEAST ANTHEM 85 uploaded an edit of the evolution of Nokia ringtones. The video received more than 6.2 million views in two years (shown below, right).

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You might check these pages out here: _the_Casbah and _anyone_else_hear_the_cell_phone_rin You might be listening to the original album release even if it is a remaster re-release of the Combat Rock album, where the original Rock the Casbah track comes from.

I believe the original track even shows up on one double CD compilation release as well without the sound either mixed down and very faint or edited out completely in the original song. The sound is from an old pac-man watch I believe. Most music listeners probable have heard the edited version with out the sound in the original song.

There is another famous band that had this happen, but it was a ringing telephone while recording was going on, and the phone was in the recording booth, and ringing telephone is captured on a classic rock song on the completed original release. Care to guess which band it is and the famous song that it was?

i'm amazed... in all these years listening to this song i have never noticed that sound till I listen it on spotify with headphones. It's remarkable. It must be as you say, maybe in later version the sound was allways edited down.

It sounds to me like the old pagers people used to carry around with them back in the early 80s. It could also be an alarm from the pac-man game watch going off, but I truly believe it is an old school pager. Check out this link to see the historical time line of pagers if your interested: -thursday-history-pagers

The iconic 'Nokia tune' is synonymous with the growth of Nokia in the early days. It's arguably the most popular ringtone in existence as it was shipped with millions of Nokia phones that are out in the world today. Even the newer Nokia phones have this ringtone.

The Nokia tune, as you can hear in the original composition, only plays twice. It was used as the background music in a commercial for the Nokia 1011. But it became so popular, that Nokia decided to add it as one of the ringtones on its phone.

The tune was then shipped with the phones and was named "Type 7" under ringtones. It first appeared on the Nokia 2110. It became so popular that it was the go-to ringtone for most people using a Nokia phone. It was only then when it was renamed from "Type 7" to "Nokia tune". It's now Nokia's flagship ringtone, and rightfully so.

Nokia 8800, for instance, was shipped with a slowed-down Piano version, whereas the Nokia 8800 Sirocco shipped with a slow guitar version composed by Brian Eno. And then there are dubstep versions of the ringtone too, which we aren't really a fan of.

Alexander Graham Bell's first useful ringer was ironically a bell that was struck by a solenoid controlled hammer. Fast forward to the iPhone's original "marimba" ringtone, an audio file of a wooden key struck by a mallet. Essentially, the same factors are at play with both ringtones. Both were developed within the limitations of the technology of the time they were presented. Human factors, and the ability of the brain to translate the ringtone as an alert, also played a huge part in the choice.

It was early 2005 and Steve Jobs already had a bad taste in his mouth from the experience he had with Motorola and the partnership that created the Rokr E790 'candy bar' cell phone. This was the first cell phone that included iTunes and the ability to play Apple's copy protected, AAC format audio files. It was a huge human interface disaster that helped fuel Steve to create the iPhone. It also cemented the idea that Apple had to retain 100% control over the hardware and software of any future Apple product.

In 2005, the most popular ringtone in the world was an obscure 1902 guitar riff, the classic Nokia ring tone. Millions of cell phones, up to 1.8 billion times per day, echoed the monophonic and polyphonic version as the default ring tone. Although adequate as a call alert, it was far from ideal, and Steve had a particular dislike for the ringtone. When Apple began the development of what became the iPhone, it was clear that they would use high fidelity audio files and not simple low quality beeps and MIDI ring tones for a lot of reasons. There were cell phones that could play audio files as ringtones, but the process was cumbersome and fraught with challenges. In 2005, the ringtone business was a billion dollar industry with the cell companies as the primary gatekeepers. In the early years, ringtones could cost up to $5 per tone. But the ringtone business was never a focus of Apple when creating the iPhone. They had far more lucrative revenue models in the works.

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