Dragon Ball Wiki
Register
Advertisement
RTD2

Originally from The Tree of Might

Main Title,[1] usually referred to as "Rock the Dragon", is the theme song heard for the Funimation/Saban dub of Dragon Ball Z episodes 1-53, as well as for the original Funimation in-house dub of episodes 54-92. The song appeared on the 1997 album Dragon Ball Z: Original USA Television Soundtrack. It is also heard in the opening credits for the North American version of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.

The opening sequence featured scenes from Dead Zone, The World's Strongest, The Tree of Might, and the Saiyan Saga.

Background[]

Composition and musical style[]

On Dragon Ball Z: Original USA Television Soundtrack, the composers are listed as being Shuki Levy (the head of Saban Entertainment's music department) and Haim Saban, under the alias Kussa Mahehi. The original dub of Dragon Ball Z's first two seasons, which ran in syndication between September 1996 and May 1998, also listed Levy and Mahehi as the composers in the end credits.[2]

Saban Entertainment musician Jeremy Sweet sung the song, despite him only being listed as a music producer in the credits.[2][3] Sweet is known for creating various Power Rangers theme songs for Saban in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where he often went uncredited. Many believe that Ron Wasserman, who did the first Power Rangers theme and the 1990s X-Men theme, was also involved with the song in an uncredited capacity due to his association with Saban. Wasserman is listed alongside Sweet as a music producer in the credits, but has denied having any involvement with "Rock the Dragon", stating that he only did the background music for Funimation and Saban's edited dub of the first two Dragon Ball Z seasons. In a 2017 interview he said, "First of all in Dragon Ball Z with “Rock the Dragon” that isn’t me, I know a lot of people think it is. What I did is the score for the first couple years [and] that was handed to me after I left Saban by Saban because they said, 'Look here is a show we don’t really care about, so If you just want to score it at home, score it.' So it was an easy gig and I got to do whatever I wanted, so I went with this really heavy, weird stuff."[4] However, Wasserman's background score for the episodes still had certain instrumental musical cues which were modeled after "Rock the Dragon".[5]

The song is considered by many to have a punk or metal musical aesthetic, unlike with the original Japanese opening "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", which took more a melodic synth-based rock approach. When asked about "Rock the Dragon" in an Animerica Magazine interview, Funimation's Gen Fukunaga said, "It was done in Los Angeles [by Saban] and it's a very distinctive sound".[6]

History[]

It was the first opening song used in any English-speaking western dub of Dragon Ball Z. Funimation continued using the song in 1999, a year after they stopped working with Saban and Ocean Productions as dubbing partners for Dragon Ball Z. It would eventually be replaced by Bruce Faulconer's own composed theme for Dragon Ball Z starting with the Garlic Jr. Saga.

On peer-to-peer music sharing sites, the song is often falsely credited to the nu-metal group Linkin Park. Additionally, even after Funimation started doing their own in-house dub version and music, this song remained for the Captain Ginyu and Freiza sagas and the credits were switched from mostly Ocean/Saban cast and crew to just Funimation crew, which includes the new voice actors for that dub.

In 2013, an Ocean Productions-themed box set titled Dragon Ball Z: Rock the Dragon Edition was released.

Lyrics[]

Saban/Funimation English Version[]

[Intro]
Dragon Ball Z!

Dragon Ball Z!

[Verse 1]
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Come get me!

Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Come get me!

Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Come! A-come get me!

[Hook - instrumental]
Dragon Ball Z!

[Verse 2]
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Come get me!

Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon, Dragon! Rock the Dragon! Come! A-come get me!

[Hook - instrumental]

[Outro]
Dragon Ball Z!

Dragon Ball Z!

Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon Ball Z!

[7]

Hindi Version[]

(ड्रैगन बॉल Z, बॉल Z, बॉल Z)
ड्रैगन बॉल Z!
ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन, ये है ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन बॉल Z!
ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन, ये है ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन बॉल Z!

देखो! देखो कितनी पावर है हम में अभी
दुश्मनों को हम मज़ा चखा देंगे यूँ ही

ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन, ये है ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन बॉल Z!
ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन, ये है ड्रैगन-ड्रैगन बॉल Z!
इस दुनिया के दुश्मनों से कह दो जाके अभी (ड्रैगन)
हम से उलझोगे तो बच न पाओगे कभी (ड्रैगन)

जो भी हम से पंगा लेना चाहेगा कभी
उसकी तो हम एक पल में कर देंगे छुट्टी

(ड्रैगन बॉल Z!) ड्रैगन बॉल Z!

(Dragon Ball Z, Ball Z, Ball Z)
Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, ye hai Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, ye hai Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!

Dekho! Dekho kitni power hai ham mein abhi
Dushmanon ko ham mazaa chakha denge yun hi

Dragon-Dragon, ye hai Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, ye hai Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Is duniya ke dushmanon se kah do jaake abhi (Dragon)
Ham se ulajhoge to bach na paaoge kabhi (Dragon)

Jo bhi ham se panga lena chahega kabhi
Uski to ham ek pal mein kar denge chhutti

(Dragon Ball Z!) Dragon Ball Z!

(Dragon Ball Z, Ball Z, Ball Z)
Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, this is Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, this is Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!

Look! Look at how much power we have now
We'll teach foes a lesson just like that

Dragon-Dragon, this is Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Dragon-Dragon, this is Dragon-Dragon Ball Z!
Go tell the enemies of this world now (Dragon)
If you mess with us, you will never be able to survive (Dragon)

Whoever wishes to hassle with us sometime
We will defeat them in a second

(Dragon Ball Z!) Dragon Ball Z!

Trivia[]

  • When Funimation and Saban's Season 2 Namek Saga dub began airing in syndication in September 1997, a 10 second intro was created, which preceded "Rock the Dragon". It featured the dub's narrator, Doc Harris, shouting "Stand by for Dragon Ball Z, Coming Next!", along with music by Ron Wasserman. The 10 second intro wasn't included on the Pioneer/Funimation North American home video release of the dub. However, it was included on Madman Entertainment's region 4 release for Australia/Oceania. For the Season 1 Saiyan Saga dub, which ran from late 1996 to mid 1997, "Rock the Dragon" was instead preceded by live action intros with young children on bungee jumping ropes.[8] These were used on other shows Saban did around the same time, such as Eagle Riders, Samurai Pizza Cats and Season 2 of Masked Rider. The live action intros were edited out when Toonami acquired the rights to broadcast Season 1 in 1998, and they have never been featured on any home video release.
  • A version made in Chile of this song was included in the CD "Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z" from 1998. This version is sung by Álvaro Véliz and has the same lyrics as the US version, except that the "Z" is pronounced in Spanish and the initial shout is replaced by a "go!".
  • The theme for the AB Groupe produced Ocean dub of episodes 108 to 276 recycled a substantial amount of footage from this opening.
  • Ian James Corlett (Goku's original English voice actor) can be heard doing two power up screams for scenes from The World's Strongest in this opening. When the film was eventually dubbed into English in 1998, Corlett had been replaced by Peter Kelamis as Goku.
  • Despite The Tree of Might footage of Gohan turning into a Great Ape being used in the opening, Turles' hands that holds Gohan's face weren't digitally painted out, unlike in the actual airing.

Gallery[]

See also[]

References[]

Advertisement