Awesome A Cappella

Despite being made way back in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is still a scary movie. Part of what made it work so well is the haunting soundtrack by composer Bernard Herrmann. Korean a cappella group MayTree shows off their vocal abilities yet again with an excerpt from the film’s tense main title theme.

Celebrate Star Wars Day with a little musical interlude, courtesy of MayTree. The Korean a cappella group performed their playful interpretation of the jazzy tune that Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes’ was playing when we first visited Chalmun’s Cantina in A New Hope.

Shonkywonkydonkey has performed Weezer’s Undone and Radiohead’s OK Computer using his voice in place of all of the instruments. Now, he brings us some sunshine in a bag with his unique spin on Gorillaz’s self-titled 2001 album, including great tracks like Tomorrow Comes Today, Clint Eastwood, and 19/2000. 

We’ve always enjoyed musician Jared Halley and his multi-track a cappella performances. To celebrate Halloween 2023, Jared performed a fun cover of Bobby Pickett’s spooky classic Monster Mash, with backing vocals and dance moves performed by his 10-year-old son, Noah.

Matthew Van Ness has impressed us with his multi-track vocalizations of the Star Wars and Jurassic Park themes. Now he’s back to sing of all the instruments from another John Williams classic – the theme music from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Close your eyes and imagine Indiana Jones taking flight after escaping a rolling boulder and a shower of arrows.

We haven’t checked in with musician Smooth McGroove in a little while, but the talented A Cappella vocalist is still getting his groove on. Nintendo fans will love his multi-track cover of Koji Kondo’s main theme from Super Mario 64, otherwise known as Bob-Omb Battlefield.

Over the years, we’ve heard lots of covers of tunes from the Super Mario Bros. games, but vocalist Kohl Kitzmiller went all-in with this multi-track a cappella medley of 40 tracks from throughout Nintendo’s most popular video game franchise. This man has got some serious vocal range.

To celebrate the release of Guardians of the Galaxy 3, musician and producer Jared Halley performed a wonderful a cappella version of Redbone’s 1973 hit Come and Get Your Love. Jared’s multi-layered approach gives added depth to an already great song.

Beatboxer Hiss is unbelievably good at producing tones and sound effects with his mouth. In this short clip, he shows us how he replicated the Overworld Theme music from Super Mario Bros. 2, building it up layer by layer. The man is a living synthesizer.

The 1992 Weezer track Undone – The Sweater Song was a pretty stripped-down song, to begin with. But the original did at least have instrumentation. Not so much with Shonkywonkydonkey’s version of the tune, which he performed entirely with his voice (and a brief guest appearance by Ava Moutzouris.)

Vocalist Jared Halley has wowed us before with his one-man a cappella songs. This time, he took on the 1992 Green Day track Boulevard of Broken Dreams, using his voice to layer together every track of the recording. Also, we can’t get that one a nunna, one a nunna, one a nunna out of our heads now.

Instruments? Where we’re going, we don’t need instruments! The members of the Korean a cappella group MayTree hit 88 MPH with with another great performance, taking on the most recognizable part of Alan Silvestri’s main theme from Back to the Future.

Thanks to its prominent placement in the storyline of Stranger Things 4, the Kate Bush song Running up That Hill (A Deal with God) is enjoying a major comeback. Korean group Maytree unleashed their vocal talents with this a cappella version that had us feeling those emotions from the Dear Billy episode all over again.

With its strange textures and haunting lyrics and vocals, Radiohead’s OK Computer is a classic. But you’ve never heard it like this. Shonkywonkydonkey re-recorded the entire album with nary a musical instrument, replicating every sound with his voice. It quickly escalates from silly to awesome.

The members of Korean a cappella act MayTree turn in a spot-on vocal version of the original theme song from Mortal Kombat, complete with the whole “Test Your Might” part and the character intros. Get out your gamepads and start mashing those buttons!

The Paul McCartney and Wings song Wonderful Christmastime is one of our holiday playlist favorites. Musician Mike Tompkins puts his festive spin on the tune with an arrangement in which he performs not only the vocals but all of the instrumentation as well.