Korobeiniki (The Peddlers)

The story

"Korobeiniki" ("The Peddlers") is a nineteenth-century Russian folk song. A korobeinik was a travelling peddler, and the song tells of one such peddler meeting a girl, their bargaining over his goods standing for courtship. Its words come from a poem of the same name by Nikolay Nekrasov, first printed in the magazine Sovremennik in 1861.

The song's quickening tempo and its dance character soon made it a popular folk song. The lyrics exist in several variants, all small variations on the beginning of Nekrasov's poem. Early musical arrangements were published by Yakov Prigozhy and Alexander N. Chernyavsky in 1898, and Varvara Panina recorded it for several gramophone companies from 1905. In 1950 Kostya Poliansky and his Balalaika Orchestra released an instrumental recording, and later performers in Russian included Ivan Rebroff (1968), the Alexandrov Ensemble (1988) and Chanticleer (1997).

Outside Russia the tune is best known as the theme of Tetris. Arrangements of it first appeared in Spectrum Holobyte's Apple IIGS and Mac versions of the game; in 1989 Hirokazu Tanaka arranged it again as the "Type A" music of Nintendo's Game Boy version. That arrangement differs a little from the folk melody and became closely tied to the game in Western popular culture. Since 2002 the Tetris Company has required it in every version of the game, and it holds a sound trademark on this variation for use in video games. In 2008 UGO ranked it the third-best piece of video game music of all time.

The melody has been recorded in many other styles. A Eurodance cover named "Tetris" by Doctor Spin reached No. 6 on the UK singles chart in 1992; other versions range from ska and string-quartet recordings to "Hold on Tight" (2023), performed by aespa and featured in the film Tetris, which samples the game's theme. The Timbers Army sings the melody with altered words at Portland Timbers games, usually with a simple dance.

What it says

A light, fast song of a meeting on the road: a peddler shows his wares to a girl, and their haggling over the price becomes a playful courtship. The bargaining is the song's way of speaking about attraction.

The words