Street Fighter Music
Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension

Street Fighter turns 35 today, and one of the most notable (some would say infamous) events associated with the series has to be the 1994 live-action adaptation directed by Steven E. de Souza.

Starring the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue and Raul Julia, the movie made almost $100 million off a production budget of $35 million – so it wasn't a commercial bomb by any means, but it did get a mauling from critics and fans of the video game series alike. Today, it's viewed very much through the lens of "so bad, it's good", and, like any film of the period, was accompanied by a soundtrack album which you might have totally forgotten about.

The flavour of the album was unashamedly hip-hop, and even after all these years, the stature of the names the project was able to attract is impressive; this wasn't a case of lazily licencing the songs of famous artists – all of the compositions on the album were original works.

Here's the full track listing:

1. "Street Fighter" (performed by Ice Cube)
2. "Come Widdit" (performed by Ahmad, Ras Kass & Saafir)
3. "One On One" (performed by Nas)
4. "Pandemonium" (performed by The Pharcyde)
5. "Street Soldier" (performed by Paris)
6. "Something Kinda Funky" (performed by Rally Ral)
7. "It's a Street Fight" (performed by The B.U.M.S)
8. "Life as..." (performed by LL Cool J)
9. "Do You Have What It Takes?" (performed by Craig Mack)
10. "Straight to My Feet" (performed by MC Hammer & Deion Sanders)
11. "Rumbo N Da Jungo" (performed by Chuck D & The Wreck League)
12. "Rap Commando" (performed by Anotha Level)
13. "Worth Fighting For" (performed by Angélique Kidjo)
14. "Something There" (performed by Chage and Aska)

Like the movie, the Street Fighter soundtrack album can't be considered a runaway success; in the US it peaked at number 135 on the Billboard 200 and 34 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – not a disaster, but hardly a solid-gold smash hit in the same way Street Fighter II had been in arcades.

Only one of the songs on the album charted as a single in the US - Rally Ral's "Something Kinda Funky", which reached 39 on the Hot Rap Singles. Even so, the soundtrack shifted half a million copies in the US, so it will have made at least a few Bison Dollars for those involved.

In the UK, MC Hammer and Deion Sanders' "Straight to My Feet" limped in at number 57. You can see the music video – which includes stars from the movie – above.

Do you still have your copy of this album? Let us know with a comment.