THE BEST Red Hot Chili Peppers

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.

In the words of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Choose not a life of imitation.” Musician Gamazda offers up a great piano cover version of RHCP’s 2002 hit “Can’t Stop” that’s so good that it even managed to score two thumbs up from the band that created it.

Thanks to the arcane copyright policing on YouTube, remixers like Jonny Wilson of Eclectic Method have found it harder to post content. His solution, keep the sound snippets so short that nobody can recognize them. His mashup of Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks maintains all of their texture, but none of their melodies.

Musician Luca Stricagnoli is back with another fantastic performance. Watch and listen as the fingerstyle guitar master’s fingers fly across the fretboard with a great rendition of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ melodic 2006 hit Snow (Hey Oh).

The consistently entertaining and enthralling Pomplamoose presents a fun recording that seamlessly blends Smash Mouth’s unkillable hit All Star with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ tracks Can’t Stop and Californication. That opening bass riff is still one of the best ever.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli presents another fantastic fingerstyle cover arrangement – taking on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2002 hit Can’t Stop on his triple-necked acoustic guitbass. The endlessly spinning camera made us a little queasy, but the music is worth a little dizziness.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea looks like a War Boy who happens to be a beast on the bass. But as Polyphonic points out, it’s ultimately his ability to harmonize with his bandmates – especially as a crest to John Frusciante’s minimal licks – that makes him special.

Musician Davie504 was asked by a fan if he could play some Red Hot Chili Peppers with an actual red hot chili pepper. Aiming to please, he obliged, and turned in a delicious medley of the band’s spicy blend of alternative, rap, rock, and funk flavors.

We’re not sure if we’re more impressed by Flea’s ability to nail Giorgio Moroder’s synth bassline, or former RHCP guitarist John Frusciante’s falsetto in this 2006 cover of Donna Summer’s disco classic. Anthony Kiedis’ dance moves, on the other hand…

EatMyUke is currently on a quest to learn how to play his 50 favorite albums of all time on the ukulele. Given how well he performed The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication, we think he’ll have no problem achieving his goal. That’s Matt Deakin chipping in on the drums.

Ten Second Songs‘ Anthony Vincent channels Anthony Kiedis, then takes a quick left turn to perform the Chili Peppers’ classic Give It Away in the style of 20 other musicians, from The Beastie Boys to Guns N’ Roses to David Bowie. The Twenty Øne Pilots bit was hilarious.

RHCP’s bass man teamed up with Fender to reproduce his beloved ’61 Shell Pink Jazz Bass, a very special instrument he received from a fan. The guitar has a road-worn shell with a maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, vintage style Jazz Bass pickups and a neck plate with art by Flea.

This single about battling one’s demons from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album The Getaway is sure to be a massive hit with its sharp lyrics, punchy rhythms, an infectious chorus, and a compelling music video directed by none other than Olivia Wilde.

James Corden fills every seat in his Range Rover with the members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as they sing a number of their hits, reminisce about their past, wrestle on someone’s lawn, and perform a brief tribute to the musical Oliver!, led enthusiastically by Flea.

(NSFW) While we’re hoping that The Red Hot Chili Peppers save us from Bruno Mars’ Super Bowl appearance, we can also understand that there’s a certain redundancy to some of their songs, as illustrated by this parody by Jon Daly.