Watch legendary album covers come to life in this brilliant & hypnotic music video, Mayokero, by Israeli comic artist Roy Kafri. Watch Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, Madonna and more start singing on the sleeves! This is the best slice of entertainment you’ll watch today!
You might not have heard of him but Roy Kafri is a comedic singer and beat-boxer from Israel and this track, Mayokero, is the first single to be taken from Kafri’s album, Acowpella Beatbox.
The amazing music video is the work of Vania Heymann, a second year student in Bezalel School of Art and Design, who actually got a whole crew of actors involved to help him put the classic album covers into live singing action.
Among the albums featured are: Michael Jackson’s Thriller, The Smiths’ Meat Is Murder, Simon & Garfunkel’s Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, Prince’s eponymous second album, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, and Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisted.
You’ll also see: Françoise Hardy, Lionel Richie, Aretha Franklin, ABBA, Madonna, Lou Reed, Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Ahmad Jamal, Big Star, Serge Gainsborugh and Jane Birkin, and The Beatles.
Out favourite bit of animation is the bringing to life of the iconic Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd to blazing life – and the banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico turning bad! The video also has a story about a man with great taste in music who chucks out his old vinyls and gets into consumer electronics…
Take a trip with FKA Twigs in a hallucinatory new concept film for Google Glass, entitled #throughglass. Watch her, and her doppelgängers, perform an amazing and bizarre dance. This is FKA Twigs directorial debut and it’s completely mesmerising. The stunning, highly-regarded choreography, combined with the use of lightening fast technology makes Google Glass look cooler than it ever has before.
FKA Twigs uses the glasses to search everything from moving footage of Benjamin Milan and British krumper Dominant to manga-inspired eye makeup. The score for the short film is a kaleidoscopic reworking of her debut single, Video Girl, along with parts of Glass & Patron, a track she has never released. The featureless white expanse of the background, plus the über cool first-person mirror shots and the incredible dancing makes for a truly bizarre, but quite beautiful video.
The Mercury Prize-nominated artist is about to go on tour throughout North America, with one show in Canada and a few shows in Europe.
Google Glass went on sale in the US on April 25, 2013 and in the UK on June 24 2014, with the high-tech wearable purchasable to anyone over the age of 18.
Cover songs are mainly about one artist paying homage to another and showing admiration for their work. Now and again however the revamp turns out to be an even bigger hit. Here are our top ten cover songs that either became more successful or are, in our opinion, a better, shinier version of the original.
You’d never have guessed that this huge 90’s hit was not an original. The song was originally written by Prince for his side/project band The Family. He only released one album under this name, Nothing Compares 2 U was on it but never released as a single. Sinead’s close-up and personal, multi-award winning video is as powerful as the ballad she so emotionally delivers. There are even pretty convincing tears. Sinead’s version reached international fame in 1990 topping charts all over the world, going platinum and gold in four countries. Even the US was cracked by the haunting song of a lost love, and stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.
As far as power-ballads go Johnny Cash absolutely nails this one, appropriately released first by Nine Inch Nails in 1994 on the album A Downward Spiral. The original version was a hit rock song but reached critical acclaim and worldwide recognition when released in 2003 by Cash. The song was written by Trent Reznor who had reservations about Johnny Cash covering his song but later summed up Cash’s version with this quote…
“I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure.”
This was one of the last singles released by Johnny Cash before he died in 2003; quite a sign off.
First released way back in 1970 by The Guess Who, this rock tune reached number 1 on the Billboard Top 100. Lenny’s slower and far sexier version released in 1999 won him a Grammy for Best Male Rock Performance in 2000 and featured in the smash hit movies; American Beauty (Kevin Spacey does a great sing-a-long in the car to this), The Muppets, Austin Powers, Game Change and The Cable Guy. The video features actress Heather Graham raunchily writhing around on top of a bus, a lot of Americana, a shed load of leather outfits and even more sexy bikini clad girls either rocking out to Lenny or bouncing along on big motorcycles. Not a wonder this became so popular!
The English Indie band The Zutons released this song in 2006 on their album Tired of Hanging Around and reached number 9 in the UK charts. However when Amy Winehouse came along and decided to pluck this song out of semi-obscurity and perform it in the BBC Radio One’s Live Lounge, the days of this being The Zutons’ song were blown out the water. When Winehouse collaborated with Mark Ronson, as well as him pumping his expertise into her Back to Black album, they recorded Valerie together and…BOOM; Valerie was born again as Mark and Amy’s adopted, and internationally famous, love child! Their version spent 39 weeks in the UK charts in 2007-8.
This classic warbler from Whitney featured in The Bodyguard, which she stars in alongside Kevin Costner, was first released by Dolly Parton in 1974. It featured on Dolly’s thirteenth solo studio album Jolene and twice reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 Country Songs. Whitney Houston released the song in 1992 and since then it has become one of the biggest selling singles of all time. Whitney’s R&B Soul and Smooth Jazz style rendition, a far cry from the original Parton Country & Western version, is number nine on NME’s Greatest Number One Singles in History List.
The original recording of Hallelujah was by Leonard Cohen who wrote and released the song in 1984, this version received little attention. In 2004, Buckley’s version (inspired by a previous cover by John Cale) was ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and became so popular there was even a book written about it. It did not, however, hit the charts immediately. The album on which his version of Hallelujah appeared was released in 1993 but the single first charted in 2006 and from here it hit the top of the polls in many countries. Buckley unfortunately didn’t live to witness the ultimate success of his cover due to his untimely death in 1997. This posthumous release sparked far more interest and resulted in worldwide recognition. Rolling Stone Magazine described the rendition – “Buckley treated the song like a tiny capsule of humanity, using his voice to careen between glory and sadness, beauty and pain. It’s one of the greatest songs ever”. The Buckley version of the song was used in many TV shows such as The O.C., Ugly Betty, ER, Scrubs and The West Wing to name but a few.
This was first recorded and released by Lori Lieberman and written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel in 1972. Roberta Flack heard the song on a plane journey and wanted to put her own spin on it, she did so and made the song a huge hit. Whether her version or the Fugees’ is better is debatable and despite the addition of a sample from Bonita Applebum by A Tribe Called Quest that was added by the Fugees, Flack and Lauren Hill have a very similar delivery of the haunting melody. Simplicity and originality may be your preference but both tunes were super success stories as cover songs. Props should go to Roberta for picking out the tune and making it her own to provide Lauren Hill and The Fugees with the version they eventually developed, which, apparently, became so popular they had to remove it from the shelves in order to give room to release their next track from the album; Ready or Not.
It is very difficult to say whether this is a better version of Blondie’s song One Way Or Another as it mixes in with another very big hit of the 70’s Teenage Kicks, both of which were huge successes in their own right. One Direction recorded the track for Comic Relief / Red Nose Day 2013, a yearly charity event which raises millions for the underprivileged via comedy events and a huge TV show in the UK. The band has gone from strength to strength since the X Factor and has become a huge worldwide success story. Mashing together two seventies hits and releasing it as their own single could have been catastrophic but as it was for such a good cause the single hit the big time resulting in being nominated for British Single of the Year at the BRIT awards, reached the top ten in the charts of 17 countries, it went gold and platinum in 8 countries……Blondie’s version was also a huge hit for her but in comparison she didn’t stand a chance competing against the teenage fan following of 1D.
This track, originally by David Bowie, has inspired many cover versions but the one that out shined and out sold the original was Nirvana’s. Featuring on their MTV in Unplugged in New York album in 1994, it is quite a simple and honest version of the cover but Cobain’s vocals and the band’s unmistakable sound made this a truly unique version of the song. Bowie was said to be impressed that his music had reached the depths of the US in order for Nirvana front-man to consider remaking a song of his. He also was said to have liked the Nirvana version but did not like it when kids would approach him and say it was great he was covering Nirvana songs after performing the song again on tours!
This is not exactly a cover song being better than the original as much as the original recording never being released at all! Consequently it was rewritten to suit its new owners. It seems that Anton Zaslavski (Zedd) had it right when he realized the track he had written for his album Believe did not quite fit and so passed it on to Bieber’s team who adapted it for the young star and his choice of rapper, Nikki Minaj. The song went global and topped the charts all over the world just adding to the crazy success the young Canadian has achieved.
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
French DJ and Producer Watermät has a brand new entry in the UK charts this week at Nº15 with Bullit. Crowned as an Essential Track by Pete Tong earlier this year and one of the most streamed songs of the summer in Ibiza, this gorgeous groove defines a #feelgood vibe.
Tiesto, in an interview with Billboard Magazine in August, when asked ‘What’s next for EDM genre, which trend will we be talking about 6 months from now?’ said “This track ‘Bullit’ by French DJ-Producer Watermät is going to be huge”.
Watermät has been composing tracks for many artists in the past, before deciding in late 2013 that it was his time to take the stage and share his love for dance music with the world. His first self released EP Sparks including the tracks Sparks and Something About U was released in December 2013. After that, the buzz around Watermät started rolling and Spinnin’ Records took their chance to sign him for his next track Bullit on their Deep imprint in February 2014. Bullit was released on Spinnin’ Records in May 2014.
During the massive double-weekend event of the Tomorrowland festival in Begium, Bullit was the 2nd most streamed track – it was also the 2nd most streamed track in Ibiza this summer – quote an accolade. Watermät was also the most played artist in July this year on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 Dance Music.
The Ting Tings fabulous retro music video for their new single Do It Again is, without a doubt, the best video you’ll watch all week! Step back into the 1970’s and enjoy the technical brilliance of this psychedelic visual for this instantly infectious disco-tinged track. Brilliantly directed by Andrew Daffy, you see Katie White and her gorgeous hair walking a treadmill surrounded by über cool TRON-like lighting effects with Jules De Martino rocking the drums and providing back up.
The quirky British duo unveiled the music video for their brand new single a few days ago on VEVO. The track, which will officially be released on November 3, is taken from their upcoming album Super Critical which will be released on October 27.
After taking some time off from the music industry, The Ting Tings are back with a bang and have abandoned their indie-pop-rock sound and embraced vintage disco music. We think it suits them perfectly and that Super Critical will be a must-have album.
Jules De Martino said that the song is about “not being lazy” and Katie added that “it’s about the need to lighten up, stop the paralysis of criticism and do anything that makes you feel good.”
Afroman remixes his 2001 mega hit Because I Got High in support of marijuana legalization. The lyrics have been changed to show a more positive and accurate message about marijuana. The Grammy-nominated rapper released the video in conjunction with medical marijuana dispensary locator app Weedmaps (the Yelp of legal marijuana dispensaries) and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) – a nonprofit organisation.
NORML Director of Strategic Partnerships Sabrina Fendrick said in a statement: “NORML is thrilled to have brought Weedmaps and Afroman together to create this unique cultural collaboration merging art, entertainment and activism into a single campaign that highlights many of the positive benefits of cannabis, and raises awareness for the legalization initiatives coming up in the 2014 November elections.”
Afroman swapped the original negative lyrics like, “I was gonna pay my child support/ But then I got high” for ones including: “I had problems with glaucoma/But then I got high”. The original track took over the radio airwaves back in 2001 and although it showed marijuana in a negative light, it basically just poked fun at stoners and the whole marijuana culture. The new remix talks about how marijuana can be used to treat many disorders, plus help the economy.
“Because I Got High put me on the map – it’s what got me a record deal, a Grammy nomination and made me a household name. Getting high – and rapping about it – got me to where I am today and I’ll be forever grateful for that. With the current political battle with states trying to legalize weed, I thought it was a good time to educate – or set the record straight – about marijuana’s benefits, which is why I wanted to remake the song.” Afroman told Rolling Stone.
NORML tagged the song’s release with its campaign, dubbed Smoke the Vote, which is raising awareness for the upcoming 2014 elections in which Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. will vote on the legalization of marijuana for adults.
The widely considered global god of rap, Eminem, turns 42 today. To celebrate we have a playlist of his top 10 latest hits straight from his official YouTube Vevo channel.
Along with his extensive career in rapping, record producing, songwriting and acting, he’s also a dedicated father to now 18 year old Hailie and adopted daughters Whitney, 11 and Alaine, 20. (How time flies!) We all recall his poignant song Mockingbird which told the story of their struggle as a family, released in 2004 featuring his girls when they were just tots. Now, 10 years later and Eminem is going stronger than ever. As of June 2014, he has been deemed the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time, having sold 45,160,000 albums and 31,000,000 digital singles. He is the second best-selling male artist of the Nielsen Soundscan era, and the sixth best overall selling artist in the United States.
A very happy birthday indeed to Marshall Bruce Mathers III, Eminem, and The Real Slim Shady!
This conquering collaboration with Australian singer Sia is from his upcoming compilation album Shady XV. The track was officially released to iTunes late August of 2014 after premiering in trailers for the film The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington. The album now has an official release date of November 28, 2014. What’s so inspiring about this track is the clear message in his lyrics that we can all take with us through any obstacle we face in life.
Released February 5, 2014 as the fifth single on his eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Eminem collaborates with band member from Fun, Nate Ruess in this touching song. Through the lyrics and music video we see a rekindling of love between Eminem and his mother. Over the years we’ve experienced through his confessionary songs and true-to-life movies that their relationship was at best dysfunctional. This one could be classified as a tear-jerker if you’re not careful.
This is the fourth time rap sensation Eminem and pop sensation Rihanna, come together to make music history. Released back in 2013 on October 29, the song relates to the singers coming to grips with their inner demons.
Premiering on YouTube back in early October of 2013, it was released as the third single from his eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Unbelievably, or believably, Eminem managed to spit a total of 1,560 words on this track, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for ”Most Words in a Hit Single.” The video also won the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Editing.
First released as a pre-order bonus for the Call of Duty: Ghosts video game. The song is the second single from Eminem’s album The Marshall Mathers LP2 and debuted at N°17 on the US Billboard Hot 100 before swiftly moving up to N°16. The chorus features vocals performed by Liz Rodrigues of the music group ”The New Royales”
This was the first single off the album The Marshall Mathers LP2. The video won the Outstanding Video Award at the Detroit Music Awards ceremony, 2014. Debuting at N°1 on the UK R&B charts and obtaining a whopping 362,000 downloads in just the first week after it’s release in the US.
Shooting back to 2010 when Space Bound was released as the 10th track on his album Recovery. The song has an atmosphere of sadness and loss of hope reflecting Eminem’s love life. The music video features Sasha Grey, a former pornographic actress who plays the part of his hypothetical girlfriend. His girlfriend betrays him, and this sparks the two sides of Eminem to unfold, one loving and sensitive, and the other violent and crazy.
Sampling the song What Is Love by Haddaway and featuring gangster rapper Lil Wayne, it was an interesting combination of sounds by two of the hottest MCs in the game. Foreseeably well received by fans worldwide, the music video follows the theme of bullying, and how retaliation against hateful people comes about.
The original demo to this song was written and sung by singer-songwriter Skylar Grey. Eminem took it a step up when introducing his intense versus and then had Rihanna’s powerful voice on the chorus. With five grammy nominations and multiple awards in pretty much every major ceremony in the industry, it is no surprise that the video clip broke a YouTube record when released for Most Hits in One Day, being 6.6 million.
Released as the lead single on his 2010 album Recovery, it won: Best Rap Solo Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards, Best Male Video and Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and Outstanding National Single and Outstanding Video at the Detroit Music Awards. If that’s not enough to prove what a great song this is, then I don’t know what to tell ya!
Apple has done it again! Just when you thought the hype was slowing down they have again stepped into the spotlight and revealed the world’s thinnest tablet. They also released an iPad Mini 3, a 5K resolution iMac, a souped up Mac Mini and the new operating system OS X Yosemite. But it was the iPad Air 2 that stole the limelight in last nights keynote presentation.
The iPad Air 2 might be thinner than a pencil – its only 6.1 mm thick – but with its 64-bit A8X processor its a powerhouse as well. It’s the same size – 9.7-inch, 1536 x 2048 264ppi display – as its predecessor, but there is zero gap between its screen layers allowing Apple’s design team to shave off an incredible 1.4 mm. This video explains it graphically:
– The much talked about anti-reflective coating which reduces glare by 56%. Not bad! – Apple’s new A8X processor, delivering a 40% faster CPU performance and more than double the graphical capability of the original iPad Air. – Rear camera upgrade to an 8-megapixel iSight with a f/2.4 aperture and auto HDR. Can shoot video in 1080p and slow mo footage in 720p. Lots of new shooting modes are available including Panorama, macro and burst. – Front-facing FaceTime HD camera with a a f/2.2 aperture on the front for selfies and video calling. – The M8 motion co-processor (found in iPhone 6) – Faster WIFI – Touch ID fingerprint scanner – Supports 20 different LTE bands (wireless internet) which is more than any other tablet on the market – Battery life is approx. 10 hours for general usage – A barometer for atmospheric-pressure monitoring – Available in Space Grey, Silver and Gold options
Both tablets are available for pre order today (Friday October 17) with a release date slated for the end of next week.
How much does it all cost?
iPad Air 2 WIFI only 16GB $499 64GB $599 128GB $699
SHOWTIME! We continue our series of ‘In Performance at the White House’ – a series of concerts created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the exclusive setting of the nation’s most famous home. To see last weeks post, ‘Burt Bacharah & Hal David’, click here.
Carole King “Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song” is a concert hosted by the President and Mrs. Obama East Room of the White House. The concert includes performances from Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood. President Obama presents the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Carole King during the event.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Carole King began her career in the 1960’s, when along with her then husband Gerry Goffin, wrote more than 25 charts hits, many of which have become standards. King found success as a performer with the album Tapestry which topped the US album charts for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than 6 years! Between 1955 and 1999 she wrote 118 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 61 hots on the UK charts. In 2005 music historian Stuart Devoy found her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts 1952–2005.
King has made 25 solo albums during her career, her most recent non-compilation album was Live at the Troubadour (2010) – a collaboration with James Taylor that reached Nº 4 on the charts in its first week and has sold over 600,000 copies. She has 4 Grammy Awards to her name and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. She received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2013 – the first woman to be so honoured.
“Carole King’s body of work reflects the spirit of the Gershwin Prize with its originality, longevity and diversity of appeal,” commented Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
Download these shows and add them to your music library This is part of a 10-week series that we will be running on our blog, with the music videos conveniently separated into individual performances so that you can save and download your favourite artists, or the whole show if you prefer. Creation 5’s YouTube feature lets you download videos so you can watch offline when you’re travelling and enjoy great music on-the-go. Don’t forget that you can download Creation 5’s YouTube In-app purchase absolutely FREE, which normally costs €4.49 ($4.99), as we currently have a promotion running in celebration of hitting 450,000 downloads on the App Store!
Tap any video title to open it in Creation 5!
In Performance at the White House: Carole King: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (May 2013)
01. Carole King – Beautiful 02. Trisha Yearwood, Gloria Estefan & Emeli Sandé – Will You Love Me Tomorrow 03. James taylor – Up On The Roof 04. Gloria Estefan – It’s Too late 05. Trisha Yearwood – So Far Away 06. Billy Joel – The Loco-Motion 07. James Taylor & Billy Joel – Cryin’ in the Rain 08. Jesse McCartney – Home Again 09. Emeli Sandé – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 10. Carole King – Jazzman 11. Carole King – I Believe in Loving You 12. Carole King – I Feel the Earth Move 13. Carole King, James Taylor & Full Cast – You’ve Got a Friend
We’re loving the new music video from Passenger for his brilliant autobiographical track 27 – it’s his most fun visual yet! It takes you on a comical trip through his past characters and life. Filmed in Los Angeles last month and directed by James Lees, the video premiered yesterday (October 15) on Digital Spy. Passenger walks through a bright, theatrical LA set where he is trailed by past characters and habits from his life – “I hope you guys enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it,” he wrote in the video’s description.
British folk/rock singer Passenger, a.k.a. Mike Rosenberg, reached international stardom status with his breakthrough single Let Her Go – the video for which has accumulated over 418 million views on YouTube. The song was taken from his 2012 LP All the Little Lights. He released his latest album, Whispers, in June this year and it peaked at Nº12 in the US and Nº5 in the UK, receiving positive reviews. 27 is the latest single to be lifted from Whispers, his 5th studio album.
Passenger is about to embark on a 19-date sold-out headline tour of the UK – including two shows in London on December 7 and 8.
Here’s the song that started it all for Passenger. (To watch in Creation 5, tap here.)
