I'm a huge Earthworm Jim fan, I own them both (original and sequel) for the SNES, and I occasionally play them, but I decided I would start my GOG collection by buying nothing else than Earthworm Jim 1 + 2, and it's obviously the PC (DOS Box) version, that's fine (well, I've read there's a missing level in the DOS Box version, not sure if it's true so far). I thought that the added animated GIFs and Avatar pictures were neat, but the one thing I was mostly looking forward to was the sound track. I told myself that since they were the PC version that the sound track would sound clearer and crisper, but I was absolutely astonished when I started listening to it, and not positively so.
It actually sounds different, the melodies for the main levels tracks were altered, some of them a lot so, and you know that when Banjo Race and Darkworm Rag are the only two tracks that come close to what it sounded like on the SNES you've got a problem. I mean, at least... if at least the "difference" would sound as good as or better than it was, I wouldn't complain, but dammit, don't go around and scrap and botcher Buttsville, Junkit and Submerged. The same goes for EWJ2 as well. I'm wondering if the composer is the same, or if those "PC version sound tracks" were just some remixes done by one of the guys at GOG?
Anyhow, original composer or not, I must say to conclude this that the 16-Bit SNES version of both sound tracks was MUCH better, I would go as far as saying that even the poorly sounding Genesis version sounded better simply because at least even that version retained the same melodies and beats intact. But... anyway, other than that, I guess I'm happy for buying games at GOG. My next one might be Beyond Good and Evil, or Fallout, I'm still not sure.

Haha, well, I see you disagree on all my points, it's fine, you're entitled to your own opinion. I still believe what I wrote however. If I knew how to code and program I would literally get the SNES soun track and port it to the PC version. There are a couple of PC version tracks I do like though, just that the majority of them are too different for my tastes.

PC: Tommy Tallarico (original composer)
SNES Genesis(Mega-Drive): Mark Miller (EWJ1) / Tommy Tallarico (EWJ2)
Far as some quick research turns up. Console credits may be sketchy, and Tallarico was just credited, while it was done by someone else.
Each soundchip produces different sounds, and the PC would of been recorded via various means, it's from the mod-era so a tracker is possible, but it could of been done live and converted to the CD audio.

Just tested your statement, and... you're right. The SNES is more sassy if you know what i mean.
I don't own a Genesis, so i will have to distrust your word :D
But i don't think the PC version is bad, it only possesses half the charm of the SNES score.

To each their own, I guess. I may be wrong, but I always thought that the PC soundtracks were made originally and the console versions were their best effort to preserve as much of the original sounds as possible (hence why the PC editions have some real instruments, at least in the second game) — from what I can tell.
I know for sure that the soundtracks here on GOG.com weren't re-scored or anything like that because it sounds exactly like what I remember (and I recently played through Earthworm Jim: Special Edition, the non GOG version, and it stacked up). I haven't played much of the console ports, but I think I vastly prefer the range that the PC soundtracks have.
I think the reason why we have our varying preferences comes down to what you're used to. Earthworm Jim is a game we love and to have something as pivotal as the game's music be something that doesn't match up with our memories of it is going to be a problem!
If you really want to hear something truly awful (in my opinion, again, it's nostalgia trumping all!), check out Gameloft's port of Earthworm Jim for the iPhone. They re-scored the music, remaking the original songs but failing to nail a few key spots (some notes were changed for the worse, the instruments have lost their charm, etc.) — it's too bad, really.

Surely you must be joking.
The soundtrack for the PC are the originals and have more instruments, beats,it just has more space to crank more sounds, all the sounds that are supposed to be in the songs. The Special Windows Edition sounds better than the SNES,Genesis and DOS version put together...Just because they loop better ;p
What you heard in the SNES version are the original songs stripped down because it was a SNES.

If Commodore hadn't gone bankrupt the same year EWJ came out (Yeah yeah, I know, OFFICIALLY they went under in 1995, but by July '94 they were already circling the drain. Thanks a lot Medhi.) I'll bet you the Amiga version, had there been one, would have blown any other version away (with the possible exception of the PC Engine, but I don't think the Annelid of Awesome was as popular in Japan, weird as he was), and with the AAA (successor to the AGA) chip in development, it might have been graphically superior as well. *sigh* Que sera, sera.

Except that in the cases of both EWJ1 and 2, they were released on the SNES and Genesis 5 months to a year before any of the platforms that allowed them to have the CD-quality soundtrack. So I'd wager it's entirely possible that they were initially composed in chiptune form, and later "remastered" for the other releases.

Regardless, it's always been the original composer at the helm for the soundtracks of both games, so they are as he intended them. And I personally love each and every tune in its remastered form.

Yeah right.

I'll defend that position to my deathbed!

Fair enough, but Turbografx's was better than both of them.

I like you

I only bought the games to get the soundtracks. Love 'em. Nothing wrong with how they sounded on the consoles, but I much prefer the PC versions.

Well, I too loved the SNES versions of the games, mosty EWJ2 and it's soundtrack.

Personally, I find the PC version soundtrack way better than the SNES one. I despise the Genesis' soundtrack btw.

Blatant console wars and Genesis did what Nintendon'ts aside, the best thing I can come up with is that you can google for the SNES soundtrack and burn it into a CD and mount it with a CD/DVD emulator program, like Daemon Tools, or simply put it into your CD/DVD tray and mount it with DOS Box.