diff --git a/stepmania/src/SDL_utils.cpp b/stepmania/src/SDL_utils.cpp
index 7c17507266..b2f8e28379 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/SDL_utils.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/SDL_utils.cpp
@@ -161,8 +161,22 @@ void ConvertSDLSurface(SDL_Surface *&image,
 
 	/* I'd really like to do away with this, but a lot of song images use it.
 	 * I suppose this should be yet another hint, but they're getting cumbersome ... */
-	if(!(image->flags & SDL_SRCCOLORKEY))
-		SDL_SetColorKey( image, SDL_SRCCOLORKEY, SDL_MapRGB(image->format, 0xFF, 0, 0xFF));
+	if(!(image->flags & SDL_SRCCOLORKEY)) {
+		/* Annoying: SDL will do a nearest-match on paletted images if
+		 * they don't have the color we ask for, so images without HOT PINK
+		 * will get some other random color transparent; so we have to make
+		 * sure the value returned for paletted images is exactly #FF00FF. */
+		int color = SDL_MapRGB(image->format, 0xFF, 0, 0xFF);
+		if( image->format->BitsPerPixel == 8 ) {
+			if(image->format->palette->colors[color].r != 0xFF ||
+			   image->format->palette->colors[color].g != 0x00 ||
+			   image->format->palette->colors[color].b != 0xFF )
+			   color = -1;
+		}
+
+		if( color != -1 )
+			SDL_SetColorKey( image, SDL_SRCCOLORKEY, color);
+	}
 
 	/* We don't want to actually blend the alpha channel over the destination converted
 	 * surface; we want to simply blit it, so make sure SDL_SRCALPHA is not on. */