Help me identify the demo song for the Yamaha PSS-30 PortaSound Keyboard (1987)

my parents bought this cruddy little Yamaha 25+ years ago, so I've been putting up with it for nearly my entire life. when you press the demo button, it plays a marching-band-style melody that segues into 'Yankee Doodle'. does anyone know where the intro melody comes from? is it a common arrangement of 'Yankee Doodle', or is it part of some other song? or is it an original composition? this is something I need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gZn7TXtrdY

for what it's worth, the bassline for the Violent Femmes' Country Death Song is somewhat similar. maybe they have a common (folk/country/polka/march?) origin?

(also fwiw I looked up a bunch of Yankee Doodle marching band performances on youtube and spotify, and so far I haven't found a single one that uses this intro)

Interesting! I have no idea what that could be. I've been meaning to start a thread asking people to help identify a couple unfamiliar tunes that my kid's stuffed animal plays, sandwiched in a group comprised of popular classical numbers. But then, I've been thinking about starting that thread for 4 years.

Sounds to me like some quickly written intro that some Yamaha proggrammer tacked on just to have some sort of lead-in, since Yankee Doodle to my knowledge doesn't have a well known introduction. Doesn't sound like a separate/real song to my ears.

This sounds so uncannily like what I expect a cheapo late-'80s keyboard to sound like, esp. that pitched percussion on the offbeats.

so it isn't a rare unreleased Sousa march? *heartbroken*

I still feel like the programmer might have been channeling/adapting some old public domain melody. if it were an original composition, though, would it be copyrighted and credited to the programmer? I have no idea how these things work.

that dinky cowbell percussion sound appears in all of the preset beats, including the disco one.

The manual says 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'.
http://nurykabe.com/dump/text/PSS/page/manuals/PSS-30_00.pdf
Intro doesn't sound traditional, neither does the sweet drum breakdown at the end.

my mom's keyboard doesn't play that sweet drum breakdown! it sounds like the uploader pressed one of the rhythm buttons right after the demo song ended.

this demo song playlist has some sick vaporwave jams. currently vibing to Yamaha PSR-530 - Bossa Nova

Is that trying to rip off Billy Joel's 'Just The Way You Are' or Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', or both? My Yamaha PSS-790 has a style preset called 'New Age' that sounds like the music for a daytime TV show.

And it seems that the PSS-270 actually has 'Just The Way You Are As It's Demo Tune'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDe2aXCPkjk&index=14&list=PLF62562B5B586CE52
Which I kind of should know, as I own one. Actually I just dug mine out and it randomly changes the preset every couple of bars during the demo - funny when it uses something like 'Machine Gun' or 'Fireworks'.

Sounds to me like some quickly written intro that some Yamaha proggrammer tacked on just to have some sort of lead-in

^^^ yeah, I'm going with this. It makes it sound a little more arranged. (fwiw, it sounds to me like just a vamp on the main chord, the relative minor, the five and back to the one.)

ha, thanks for the musicological analysis

(although it's mildly distressing to see the soundtrack to my childhood exposed as hackwork)

you should try posting this on tipofmytongue on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/

it's great for mysteries like this.

Our one has a massively arranged version of "Its the way that you love me" Paula Abdul.

for what it's worth I recognise the little intro line in the original post but I can't place it either

And it seems that the PSS-270 actually has 'Just The Way You Are As It's Demo Tune' (...) Which I kind of should know, as I own one. Actually I just dug mine out and it randomly changes the preset every couple of bars during the demo - funny when it uses something like 'Machine Gun' or 'Fireworks'.

My grandparents had this and I would spend long periods of family gatherings listening to it loop around the presets. Had no idea it was a Billy Joel song until years later.