THE BEST Music

Back in 2005, UK series From the Basement featured an intimate mini-concert from Jack and Meg White. For the first time, the entire performance is available for viewing online and includes never-before-seen footage from the session. The six-song concert includes Blue Orchid, As Ugly As I Seem, Little Ghost, and Red Rain.

John Cougar Mellencamp’s little ditty ’bout Jack and Diane is a sentimental song about days gone by. Among its many illustrative lyrics is the part about “Suckin’ on a chili dog outside the Tastee Freeze.” Tom McGovern decided that’s the only thing the song should be about, minus the Tastee Freeze part.

Like the U.S., the U.K. has had it pretty bad when it comes to the pandemic, with multiple quarantine lockdowns. Musician Brett Domino’s catchy little tune expresses his simple wish to return to some kind of normalcy with a pint of beer at his neighborhood pub – and it doesn’t even matter who with.

“There’s evil in the air and there’s thunder in the sky, and a killer’s on the bloodshot streets.” These are not exactly the lyrics that you’d think would pair with a guy wearing a bowtie, a vest, and a flat cap, but Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq brings his own flair to a Meat Loaf classic with a cover performed on his banjo/ukulele hybrid.

You know what every song could use whether it has one already or not? A good saxophone solo. Fortunately, Evan Jacobsen is here to fulfill that request, injecting an unexpected bit of soul into songs like The Notorious B.I.G.’s Big Poppa, Estelle’s American Boy, and Britney Spears’ Toxic, and Lauryn Hill’s I Need You Baby.

Inspired by Andre Antunes, musician Brandon Ethridge likes to add melodies to voices expressed in current events. In this short clip, he turns televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s impassioned sermon about a COVID-19 vaccine into an epic mini-musical. If this doesn’t get people stoked for vaccination, we don’t know what will.

Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little makeup. During a concert by Epic Symphonic Rock, a quartet of cello players (and a dude with a wooden box) jammed out this great sequence of tunes, including a Nirvana medley, Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, and System of a Down’s Chop Suey.

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, better known as Daft Punk may have just hung up their helmets. They posted this largely musicless video clip which features the duo separating, and Bangalter self-destructing his robot body. 1993 to 2021 was a pretty great run, but damn, we’ll miss them.

Wonder World shows us an unusual guitar that uses a motorized wheel to strum its strings, so the person playing it only needs to worry about the frets. Anthony Dickens‘ unique instrument has a other interesting innovations like the ability to output sounds one string at a time with the push of a button.

Thanks to video enhancement technology, we can now enjoy Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up in crystal clear 4K resolution at 60 fps. Revideo created this crisp remaster of the internet’s favorite music video using Topaz Video Enhance AI and RIFE (Flowframes). Here’s hoping the lawyers don’t yank it down.

Inspired by a lengthy livestream of Super Mario Odyssey, ThePandemicLight edited the brief but potent Blur track Song 2, and replaced all of Damon Albarn’s celebratory “Woo-Hoos” with the voice of Mario. It’s as brilliantly funny as it sounds.

Imagine for a moment that the Oasis hit Wonderwall was recorded in the 1980s, and the lead vocals were performed by Jimmy Somerville instead of Liam Gallagher. Deco did a great job mashing up the track with 1984’s Smalltown Boy. Their Spice Girls / Marvin Gaye combo is a good listen too.

Sax player Kevin Miller reminisces about his youth with this medley of tracks, looking back at each year’s favorite tune while exploring his evolving musical tastes. There are some serious guilty pleasures on the list, from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme to Tubthumping and Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.

The Museum of Classic Chicago Television aka FuzzyMemories.TV dusted off this classic from the wonderful world of Jim Henson. This is the original 1969 versio of Mah-Na, Mah-Na, a skit that would later gain fame on The Muppet Show. The tune was originally created for a crazy Italian mondo flick, Sweden Heaven and Hell.

Marcin Patrzalek is one of the most talented guitarists we’ve ever heard. Listen to his amazing fingerstyle arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir performed in an unlikely place – inside a parking garage. Be sure to check out his YouTube and TikTok channels for more incredible music, like his cover of Still D.R.E.

Ukranian folk-rock cover band Sedo i Ludy offers their unique spin on the Bon Jovi track It’s My Life, with a rollicking cover version that combines bluegrass with traditional Russian folk sounds. About halfway through it turns into a Haircut 100 version of the James Bond theme song.

There’s been quite an uptick in musicians performing popular songs in a medieval style known as “Bardcore.” Algal the Bard shared this Bardcore version of the theme from The Mandalorian. It sounds great, but not all that different from Ludwig Göransson’s original, which incorporated some exotic sounds to begin with.

Led by artist Tim Wakefield, Soundwaves Art Foundation creates dynamic prints based on audio waveforms from popular music. The non-profit collaborates with musicians to sign the works, then donates 100% of the profits to charities supporting refugee rights, social justice, music education, and COVID relief worldwide.

Frank Maglio’s Amazon parrot Tico likes to sing along when Frank gets out his guitar. So sit back and enjoy a avian little serenade as the bird does its best Robert Plant impression, and embellishes Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven with a bit of whistling.

Invented in the 1950s, but rarely seen, the Cristal Baschet is a musical instrument that produces sounds by stroking a series of glass rods attached to metal rods. The ethereal sounds it produces are the perfect complement to Hans Zimmer’s theme from Interstellar, performed here by Marc Chouarain at SFL Studio Féerique.

Created by Brendan Becker aka Inverse Phase in 2012, Pretty Eight Machine is an awesome tribute to the music of Nine Inch Nails, performed on 8-bit gaming and computer sound chips. Now, you can pre-order it as a vinyl double album. The set includes 13 tracks from the SE release, and will be pressed on splatter art discs.

Eshan Denipitiya celebrates his love for the music of Queen with a virtuosic medley of tunes performed on a Yamaha grand piano. Watch and listen as his fingers fly across the ivories with classical arrangements of We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody, and We Are the Champions.

When you sing a song, there are usually lyrics written down somewhere. But we never thought that way about beatboxing until now. Vocal master verbalese takes notes on the mouth sounds he makes to help explain his process, and to document his tunes so they can be replicated. More beatboxing lyrics here and here.

We’ve always loved the MGMT song Electric Feel. But what if it were a twangy acoustic track instead of a hip indie electro-funk song? Well, wonder no longer, as musician Alex Melton answers that question with a great arrangement that gives the song a whole new flavor.

Musician Astrophysics takes songs from various genres, and slathers them with a thick layer of 1980s electronic sounds, then complements them with appropriately retro graphics. There’s lots of great stuff to enjoy on their YouTube channel, but this synthwave remix of Outkast’s 2003 hit Hey Ya! is our favorite (so far.)

Guess we’ve got Sonic the Hedgehog on the brain today. Crank up the volume and enjoy another great cello performance by musician Samara Ginsberg that will have you dusting off your SEGA Genesis as soon as you hit play.