Jack Tripper used Microsoft's Songsmith musical accompaniment program to make a bluegrass version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding." (Via Laughing Squid)

Previously:

Funny commercial for Microsoft's Songsmith - Boing Boing

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Takuan

Songsmith bears the Diana Moon Glampers Seal of Approval.
Takuan

their version of The Wall is better
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy_PxHOuwGw
midsentence

@ BLUE BALACLAVA

Not Nick Cave, but Rowland S. Howard, guitarist in the Birthday Party with Nick.

And yes, that version is AMAZING.
mzed

@D4G33Z

Forget about Dread Zeppelin. This is way better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU8XqHom_ho&feature=related
Comrade7

I’m glad good ol’ Jack Tripper is still active with hobbies after Three’s Company wrapped…
Anonymous

The coolest thing about boing boing is getting Tak’s reference above and knowing others will too!

As for songsmith, meh, it’s a toy for tween fans of popstars, and for that purpose it’s fine, it’s fun, maybe even better than (gasp!) guitar hero. (Running and hiding now…)
Billy Blight

Today on Boingboing; Laughing Squid.
snoproblem

Not bad, actually.

So far, IMO, the funniest songsmith mashup is Runnin with the Devil – damn near soiled myself laughing at that one…
grimatongueworm

Hey Billy… you shore gotta pretty mouth!
Jason Rizos

@IGPAJO

It’s for selling glow-in-the-dark towels. It’s the cool new thing.
scaught

I’ve seen a bunch of these and fail to find the funny. Any “shreds” video is way funnier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_M9zWORBuA
SamSam

Wow… I have to say, for a crappy program that a kid might use… that was actually pretty good!

It would never have hit the charts, and did start to get irritating after a couple minutes, but no matter. Many songs that DO hit the charts shouldn’t.

Perhaps it helps that I don’t know the original version…
cycle23

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmC28cXWqLc&feature=related

My favorite in the genre
HPHovercraft

The problem I have with Songsmith is that it doesn’t seem capable of any sort of consistency. The chord progression changes seemingly at random, without any seeming relation to what Mr. Idol’s singing at the moment. It really sounds like a fairly talented bluegrass band making stuff up as they go along, as opposed to a crafted piece of music.

Mildly amusing, but Songsmith’s got a long way to go before I’d ever consider it to be more useful than a Casiotone.
tubesoda

Is “songsmithed” the first new word of 2009?
Strophe

Good, good stuff.

Also:

http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07232002
jtegnell

I fully agree with #17. The bridge sounds terrible because of this.
d4g33z

Total bullshit. A new low in BoingBoing quality control.

Just saying.

Unicorn chaser: Dread Zeppelin

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=16LI4TUucW4&feature=related
jackie31337

starcadia @3: Hillbilly Idol?

If I had the authority to do it, I would declare you the winner of this thread.
Ian70

My buddy showed me about 2 dozen of these SongSmith’d videos last Friday. White Wedding was easily the funniest among them. The Oasis track was by far the coolest re-imagining of all.
Halloween Jack

I laughed loud and hearty at the one that used David Lee Roth’s vocals for “Runnin’ With The Devil”, but this was just tedious, as pretty much any paint-by-numbers meme is fated to become.
GregLondon

The uncanny valley… IT BURNS!
Bonnie

I think we just discovered Billy Idol’s new sound!
Next up “Dancing to Polka By Myself!”
Lauren O

My boyfriend and I actually thought this was kind of interesting. I’d like to see a bluegrass version of the song that is actually done by humans. I think it’d be pretty good, there I said it!
Duffong

I don’t feel so tough anymore.
dragonfrog

That was fantastic. Never mind the grumblers, they probably don’t like cream, kittens, snowball fights, or pretty girls with ukuleles either.
starcadia

Hillbilly Idol? Pfff.
jherazob

Linus Torvalds, the father of the Linux operating system, blogged about this same video, called it a work of genius :)

Here is the blog post
Maneki Nico

Takuan @ #10: love the reference to the Handicapper General! Hee hee.
Maneki Nico

Can’t. Type. Laughing. Too hard.

Also, I really miss the music video as an art form. That sequence with the bride in the kitchen where the toaster and the kettle blow up real good? Genius!
azz100c

So here I am, browsing through the 218 unread articles in NetNewsWire, and BOOM there’s my video here on BoingBoing.

Thanks for the link, and I’m glad those of you who enjoy my Classic Hits by Microsoft Songsmith series are getting a kick out of the videos.
Brother Provisional

“…and there’s nothin’ pure in this world”
ArnoDick

Is it just me or does this actually sound kind of good?
Cowicide

You guys were able to listen to the whole thing? I got about halfway through and found myself gritting my teeth… so I stopped it and stopped the pain.
igpajo

What’s the purpose of this software again? I watched about 20 seconds of that above and had to turn it off. Watched most of the commercial linked to before and still can’t think of a single reason I’d ever use this program.
retchdog

It then produced a sound which was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike music.
Wingo

This is actually not so bad. One of the best one of these I’ve heard.

In related news… where in the heck is everyone getting these awesome a capella tracks??
Teapunk

This hurts. Really.
blue balaclava

um, haven’t the boys in Slim Cessna’s Auto Club recorded this? No? Nick Cave, then?

Songsmithed version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding"

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