The top 5 GTA reveal trailer theme songs of all time
Dec. 12, 2023Grand Theft Advent | Tom Petty’s Love Is a Long Road is the latest reveal trailer tune, but where does it rank among the series' best?
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Just a few days after theGTA 6 traileraired, Tom Petty’s estate toldBillboardthat streams of the late music legend’s 1989 hit, ‘Love Is a Long Road’, had jumped over 8,000%. If the power of a banging song being chosen to score a Grand Theft Auto game reveal didn’t already speak for itself, then those incredible numbers surely did.
Since theGTA 6trailer’s shock reveal last week – following an internet leak that pushed Rockstar to jump the gun by 15 hours – our first look at Vice City has been viewed over 140 million times on the developer’s officialYouTubechannel. Petty’s iconic droll plays no small part in the final package, which is clearly reflected in the theme song’s uptick in interest. But where does Petty’s Love Is a Long Road rank in the grand pantheon of GTA reveal trailer backing tracks? That’s a good question.
Read on for the answer. Here are the indisputable, categorical, and totally unbiased top five GTA trailer theme songs of all time, ever.
5. Grand Theft Auto 3
Welcome to Grand Theft Advent – a month-long celebration of Rockstar’s enduring crime sim series. Be sure to check in on ourGTA 6 coverage hubfor more every day throughout December.
Song:Giacomo Puccini – O Mio Babbino Caro
Okay, so please forgive me if this wasn’t actually GTA 3’s reveal trailer, but Ithinkit was. Clearly it was part of the game’s promotional campaign, but given it predates YouTube and isn’t specified on wikis and archived forum threads (not to mention the fact that my memory as a 37-year-old who first played GTA 3 aged 15 might be playing on tricks on me), I think we’re good.
Against the dulcet, operatic tones of Giacomo Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro, this GTA trailer announced a new dawn with flair and finesse, showcasing 3D Liberty City and the unscrupulous folk who power its seedy underbelly. With gangsters, guns, and gaul, this really was a GTA trailer for the ages – one which, despite looking pretty dated now, echoed the cinematic previews of Goodfellas, Casino and Scarface.
(Video credit:GTA Series Videos)
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Song:Philip Glass – Pruit Igoe
A moodier trailer for a moodier game, this orchestral number by composer Philip Glass perfectly encapsulated Grand Theft Auto’s evolution from its 3D to its HD Universe. Gone were San Andreas and Vice City’s cartoon-like aesthetics, this time replaced by the faux-NYC cityscape of Liberty City and its beleaguered protagonist Nico Bellic. “Things will be different,” says the GTA 4 antihero, and Glass' Pruit Igoe against the city’s timelapse footage helped prove it.
Song:Chakachas – Jungle Fever
(Video credit:GTA Series Videos)
Song:Tom Petty – Love Is a Long Road
Song:Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
“Why did I move here? I guess it was the weather,” says Michael De Santa at the beginning of theGTA 5reveal trailer. Small Faces' Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake then incrementally builds around the mundane life in Los Santos – Grand Theft Auto’s answer to LA – De Santa wishes he was living, before breaking into drums and strings as we’re shown how one of the game’s three protagonistsreallylives. Burning cars, police chases, bank heists, armed robberies, helicopters and planes tearing through the skies above; the GTA 5 reveal trailer showed so much in such a short space of time, combining the perfect song with the perfect reveal trailer.
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