THE BEST Music

Mary Had a Little Lamb is one of the easiest songs to play on the piano. But can you play it while lying in bed with your keyboard on the other side of the room? Korean YouTuber 이름미정 has figured out a method that involves taping lengths of string to the keys, then yanking downward on them from across their bedroom.

“I’m a princess. And I wonder about my neighbors even though I don’t have them.” Musician Bill Wurtz’s latest track is a bit of a lyrical headscratcher, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying every second of light and bubbly musical journey.

Let us kick it like it’s 1986 now with this fun and delightful cover version of the Portugal. The Man tune Feel It Still. Musician Mick Mazz gives the already sweet track an added candy coating with a heaping helping of ’80s synthesizers that make it sound like something by A-Ha.

The Village People’s 1978 hit Y.M.C.A. has long outlived its disco origins, morphing into a crowd favorite at sporting events and parties, as people make letters with their arms. While the original was happy and upbeat, Melodicka Bros.’ cover version is anything but, transforming the track into a sad and introspective ballad.

Musicians John Oates and Saxsquatch teamed up to perform this totally different arrangement of the Hall & Oates classic Maneater. Our favorite sax-playing sasquatch brings a fresh new sound to the 1982 track, along with way more body hair than Daryl Hall ever had.

Since we finished WandaVision, we’ve been going back and watching all the movies of the MCU in the proper sequence. We just watched The Avengers, so its theme song is fresh in our heads. Perhaps then, it’s no coincidence that we stumbled onto MayTree’s melodious A Cappella version of Alan Silvestri’s theme from the movie.

Editor The Unusual Suspect loves to cut up movie dialogue and reassemble the pieces into the lyrics from pop songs. After entertaining us with Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5, he’s created a music video for Wham’s equally cheesy earworm Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go using clips from 189 different movies.

When it comes to superstitions, letting a black cat cross your path right up there on the list. Mitzi the black cat comes with her own soundtrack as she walks across a keyboard, performing an appropriately creepy and dissonant piece of horror movie music to set the stage for any bad luck she might be bringing.

A 32-piece orchestra needs need a pretty big stage for all of those musicians and their instruments. Jonathan Kayne has solved this problem by replacing those pesky humans with stepper motors. The members of his band never talk back, and they play everything from All-Star to Piano Man to The Mandalorian theme.

TikToker gazzahh’s loves to whistle while he works on tasks around the house. His wonderful rendition of If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz will surely bring a smile to your face. We also enjoyed his versions of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five and Sweet Georgia Brown.

Cher is known for her incredible vocal power, soufulness, and showmanship. To demonstrate her versatility, she played all of the major roles in a mini production of the musical West Side Story for her 1978 show Cher… Special. The same show featured a heaven vs. hell musical battle between Dolly Parton and The Tubes.

Ksawery Kirklewski used Processing to create this intriguing computer animation that manipulates outlines of virtual humanoid figures. The interactive version on the project website automatically selects a random assortment of vignettes in sync with the music’s rhythm. The track is from wh0wh0’s debut album.

When is a flute not a flute? When it’s a street barricade, of course. Musician Xavier Lozano demonstrates as he performs a brief piece of music on a metal barrier he drilled out to work as a wind instrument. Lozano is known for his ability to transform unusual objects into musical instruments.

VGMtogether coordinated more than 160 musicians around the world to join in an online concert celebrating video game music. Their subject, the soundtrack from Paper Mario: The Origami King. Kudos to project director Laura Intravia and her team for putting it all together.

Musician Clint Robinson puts on his best red cardigan and comfiest sneakers to rock out a death metal version of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the theme song from the classic kid’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. We’re pretty sure Clint has scared all the children off of his block.

(Flashing images) Filmmaker Páraic McGloughlin created this mindblowing music video for Monolink’s track The Prey, incorporating the incredible sculpture of artist Tomàs Barceló. Páraic created the dizzying visuals by cutting between similar objects, locations, and perspectives in rapid succession.

Google Arts & Culture’s online exhibition offers a fascinating look at the history of electronic music. The museum features content from cultural partners around the world and looks at the people, technology, and creativity that paved the way for modern music. You can also play with AR Synth, a virtual electronic music studio.

Musician Moritz Simon Geist creates music with the help of robots. For this performance, he set up a pan filled with hot oil, popcorn, and sensors that triggered strikes on a drum kit each time a popcorn kernel burst open. The resulting beats are definitely giving us a jazz fusion vibe.

Ever since The Wellerman collaboration blew up on TikTok, we’ve heard a number of covers of the folk sea shanty. Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee put his spin on the tune by turning it into an old-timey ragtime song. Bonus points for sliding in the Gorillaz and Darude references.

Daft Punk may no longer make new music, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the musical masterpieces they’ve left us with. Stylophone expert maromaro1337 pays homage to the robots with an electronic medley of 10 classic tracks, including Robot Rock, Digital Love, Technologic, and Aerodynamic.

The lobby music from the Nintendo Wii’s Mii Channel is like the modern-day equivalent of elevator music. The soft and soothing soundtrack has been the subject of many memes and cover versions, but this is our favorite. Alex Moukala reached out to 30 musicians around the globe to join him for this epic jam session.

Sesame Street’s The Count sings along with NY polka-punk band Gogol Bordello’s track Start Wearing Purple, a song about growing old and going senile, which seems rather ironic for a vampire who is likely immortal. He’s also already purple.

Aussie kid’s music group The Wiggles dropped by the Triple J studios to record a playful cover version of Tame Impala’s 2012 hit track Elephant, and tossed in a little taste of Fruit Salad to go accompany the fat synth-pop sounds.

Dustin over at There I Ruined It absolutely annihilates another classic song by turning it into the worst version of itself. His terrible Dixieland jazz version of Queen’s We Will Rock You will certainly have Freddie Mercury turning over in his grave.

We always get chills when we hear the The Flaming Lips track Do You Realize?? Musician Viktoriya “Vika” Yermolyeva performs her original piano arrangement of the song that manages to capture the emotion and weight of the original, an impressive feat without Wayne Coyne’s lyrics and vocals.

Crazy as it sounds, Snarky Puppy drummer Larnell Lewis says he never heard the Metallica track Enter Sandman before now. But it didn’t take much time for him to pick up the rhythm, which he proved with a flawless performance right after his first listen in this video from Drumeo.