THE BEST Music

The opening theme of The Cleveland Show is certainly catchy, but it’s not exactly representative of contemporary music. So producer June Jissle Music got to work sampling and remixing the track into something a little more relevant with a little help from the Kanye/Kenny West episode. Original video on Instagram.

The members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain bring their own unique spin to the 1977 Stiff Records track Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, originally performed by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Being the afternoon tea-sipping sophisticates that they are, they tweaked the final chorus.

(PG-13: Lyrics) “Keanu Reeves, cyber arm under my sleeve… I blast ’em all, watch ’em fall like autumn leaves.” Hip hop masters Run the Jewels contributed a song to the soundtrack of Cyberpunk 2077 under the pseudonym “Yankee and the Brave,” which happens to be the title of one of Killer Mike and EL-P’s other recent tracks.

Italo Vegliante is an actor and musician who starred in Italian B-movies back in the 1980s. More recently, he’s used his talents to a create unique style that incorporates whistling, mouth sounds, and acoustic guitar. Here’s his fun tribute to the master of Wild West soundtracks, Ennio Morricone. He also created this piece of Internet gold.

To celebrate the release of the towering new PlayStation 5, guitarist Davidlap attempted to replicate the startup sounds from each of Sony’s game consoles, dating back to 1994’s original PlayStation. We think he did a pretty good job, but David admits the PS2 sound was really hard to recreate.

Jeremy Messersmith’s heartfelt folk tune looks back fondly on his childhood days playing video games. The track is accompanied by a wonderful papercut animation by Eric Power that includes imagery from classic games like Joust, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Tetris, and Asteroids. From the album Mixtape for the Milky Way.

While nobody can play a Flea bassline quite like Flea himself, we’ve gotta hand it to Charles Berthoud for his efforts, as he performs two handfuls of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ best and most memorable bass riffs and solos. Even more impressive is how he played them on a $85 electric bass.

Brass Against is known for its energetic brass cover versions of rock songs. Led off by the powerful vocals of Sophia Urista, their performances are like a lit stick of dynamite dropped into a fireworks warehouse. In this clip, they bang out an amazing original track that you’ll want to play at maximum volume.

William Sun Petrus took an old 1920s Remington Portable typewriter and modded it into an electronic drum machine. Basically, it works as a MIDI controller, so it can play whatever sounds he loads into Ableton. He had to remix the live audio so you could hear it over the mechanical clacking sounds though.

Back in 2015, Faroe Islands doom metal band Hamferð performed a moody, acoustic version of their track Deyðir varðar while a solar eclipse played out behind their backs. They timed the live performance perfectly and managed to resist the urge to turn around as day turned to night and back. (Thanks Kartin!)

Musician Ichika Nito loves to test out unusual guitar tunings. In this case, he came up with a set of notes that sound completely off-key when strummed, but he manages to still make sound good when playing. His EEEEEE and FFFFFF tunes are worth a listen too. (Thanks Craig!)

Cybertronic Spree is a Transformers-themed tribute band who plays a variety of cartoon, videogame, and anime theme songs dressed in awesome costumes. During a 2019 concert, they also performed a truly entertaining cover of Led Zeppelin’s emphatically chanted Immigrant Song.

Daft Punk and Radiohead are two of our all-time favorite musical acts. But what would it sound like if the robots decided to play Paranoid Android? Well, Jehan has the answer, and it’s pretty awesome. Between the fat synth beats and the wailing electric guitar, it reminds us more than a little bit of Muse.

Oy! Oy! I’m in love with the shape of you! There I Ruined It destroys yet another popular song. This time, they took Ed Sheeran’s pop hit Shape of You and imagined what it might sound like sung by a drunk guy during open mic night. We know chicks would still dig Ed even if he sounded like this.

Let us kick it like it’s 2017 now. The Vitamin String Quartet performs a socially-distanced cover of Portugal.The Man’s Feel It Still, bringing their energetic mix of classical and contemporary elements to the megahit track from a few years back.

Musician Samara Ginsberg recently entertained us with her lively cello arrangement of the Inspector Gadget theme. She’s back with another fun cover – this time taking on the classic theme song from Knight Rider with an 8-layered cello recording.

Oo-ohh, here he comes… Remixer DJ Cummerbund presents a love letter to Danny Devito’s “Man-Cheetah” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with a track that manages to blend Hall and Oates, The Strokes, The White Stripes, and Chris Isaak into a deliciously spicy bowl of musical gumbo.

We’ve been grooving to the Gorillaz album Song Machine, Season One since it dropped, and their team-up with Beck on The Valley of the Pagans is one of our favorite tracks. Now, we have the official music video, which just happens to have been created in Grand Theft Auto V.

Novelty band The Merkins celebrate the second season of The Mandalorian with a parody of the Guns N’ Roses track Sweet Child O’ Mine, with the lyrics rewritten to be about everyone’s favorite 50-year-old child, Baby Yoda. The lead vocals are spot-on thanks to special guest singer Alvi Robinson of the rock band The L.A. Maybe.

The members of Epic Symphonic Rock shared footage from one of their concerts, in which they performed a enveloping, larger-than-life orchestral medley of tunes from the Mario Bros. game franchise. Mega Man fans, they’ve got you covered too.

Musician Samuel Fu presents a great piano medley of memorable movie themes, with tracks dating back Hitchcock’s classic thriller Psycho, up through Marvel’s blockbuster Avengers Infinity War. Bonus points if you can identify every movie without looking at your screen.

Autotuning vocals in music is pretty much played out. While humans have had their fill of the effect, animals haven’t used it quite as much. Cpt. Autotune has taken care of that for us, with a silly series of videos in which cats, dogs, cows, chickens, and other animals get their vocals digitally smoothed out.

Back in 2013, Puddles Pity Party burst onto the scene with toned-down cover version of Lorde’s hit Royals he did with Postmodern Jukebox. Now, our favorite singing clown has returned to the well with a playful new wave arrangement of the track. Seriously, it sounds like it was produced by Ric Ocasek for a Cars album.

João Fuss’ YouTube channel is loaded with great classical guitar performances. Among our favorites is this cover of the Muse track Uprising which not only shows off João’s talents but the musicality of the original’s composition. His covers of Radiohead’s Karma Police and Dire Straits Your Latest Trick are also fantastic.

(PG-13) “Everything is crumbling.” The man behind Oingo Boingo and the music from The Nightmare Before Christmas among other things unwraps another Halloween present. Elfman created the track in 2020, saying “The cynical nature of the lyrics echo how I feel about living in a semi-dystopian world turned upside down.”

Better known to most as the theme music from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, John Philip Sousa’s The Liberty Bell March suits the sounds of a pipe organ very well indeed. Turn up your speakers and enjoy this enthusiastic performance by Jonathan Scott on the big Wurlitzer in Neuadd Pendre, Tywyn, Wales.