Adele Amadeus Swift

I’m unashamed to say that I’m a huge fan of Adele’s music. I don’t mean to play the hipster card, but I discovered her around the release of her debut album, 19. All it took was one listen to the chorus of “Chasing Pavements” for me to believe that this young lady was destined for big things. Fast forward a few years: I own all three of her studio albums and, Lord willing, I’ll see her live in October.

I thought that Adele would make her way into my mashup canon, but I didn’t expect it to happen like this.

A few days ago, I found out about a lovely cover of “Hello,” the lead single from Adele’s latest album. Actually, calling it a cover doesn’t quite do it justice. The Piano Guys took it a step further and mashed it up with “Lacrimosa” by Mozart. I already knew about that song thanks to Evanescence’s second album, but I’d never actually heard it in orchestral form until I heard The Piano Guys’ mashup.

Now, if you’ve been following my work for a reasonably long time, I shouldn’t need to explain what happened shortly afterward. This isn’t even my first foray into chamber music, but nonetheless, this is a mashup which I am fiercely proud of. Given that I’ve released 87 other mashups, that’s saying a lot.

Photo credit: Leigh Graves Wolf (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Waiting For Law & Order

I love it when ideas come out of nowhere. That’s what happened with my latest mashup.

Mind you, one day last week, I was vetting possible combinations with a song from a movie: the theme from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Thanks to its infamous nature, it’s been on my radar for a long time. Even with that going for it, I ended up scrapping what I initially thought would have been a viable mashup idea.

Fast forward a few hours later. I was checking my Instagram feed when I saw an image of the late Jerry Orbach and a quote from a long-running American TV show: “In the criminal justice system…” The theme song from that show instantly came back to me; it didn’t take me long to find a suitable match for it.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found out that the man behind such well-known TV themes as Hill Street Blues and Magnum P.I. also composed this one. Once again, it’s an honour to pay tribute to the work of Mike Post.

Photo credit: Korok12 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, image modified from original)

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New Mashup: Beat My Hot Streak

I don’t consider myself a connoisseur when it comes to mobile gaming. Right now, I have five games on my cellphone and none of them are “Candy Crush Saga” or “2048.” I got rid of the former game before I could get hooked and the latter makes zero sense to me.

While I haven’t previously been a devotee of the “Angry Birds” series, I hold no hostile feelings towards it. It’s funny how something as simple as flinging birds from a slingshot can become so darn addictive.

Now, what happens when that concept is extended to racing?

I recently downloaded “Angry Birds Go!“, where you recruit and race with the Angry Birds characters you know and love – like Red, Chuck and Bomb, among others. Normally, mobile games gather dust after I’ve played them for a while, but this one’s got me hooked.

How hooked, you ask? I bought the coin doubler for $7.77 last night. No regrets whatsoever.

I was so impressed with this game’s music that I searched for a soundtrack. To my pleasant surprise, I found one by Pepe Deluxé, a duo I previously never heard of (although I may have come across a mashup with one of their songs). One of the soundtrack’s songs is called “Hot Streak”; as soon as I heard it, I started to consider potential matches for a mashup.

I’ll let you decide if I was successful or not.

Download
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/rjh65n30fj069tl/52BeatMyHotStreak.mp3?dl=0

While I’m at it, I’m not the only guy using video game music for mashups…

New Mashup: You Got Party Rock (LMFAO vs. Roy Orbison)

If there’s one thing you should know by now, it’s that I can’t resist a good joke…even when I’ve already used the acapella in question.

I originally came up with this idea about one month ago. When I vetted the quality of the instrumental, I thought that it sounded very good, but the presence of background vocals stopped me from bringing this mashup to fruition. That turned out to be a temporary delay; shortly after watching the new X-Men movie a few weeks ago, this same combination popped up in my mind again. Suddenly, those same background vocals were no deterrent to this mashup’s completion.

Hopefully, you get as much of a laugh out of it as I did.

Download
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xa5av8vph5hpici/51YouGotPartyRock.mp3?dl=0

Sources:
LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock – “Party Rock Anthem”
Roy Orbison – “You Got It“

New Mashup: Everybody Wants Something (Tears For Fears vs. A Great Big World)

I didn’t expect to be able to officially launch this on the same day as “Beautiful Panther,” but I know better than to look this gift horse in the mouth. 🙂

To further differentiate myself from the mashup pack, I like to mess around with songs which don’t have a 4/4 time signature. This particular idea came to me last year, but I was only able to bring it to fruition a few weeks ago. I was originally planning to switch between the vocals of Tears For Fears and A Great Big World. However, after initially starting this mashup with samples from Dr. No, I figured that I should go for broke and let the title of Tears For Fears’ song be the centrepiece of this concept.

You can judge whether I should have let A Great Big World say something. (Yeah, I crack myself up.)

Download
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9swjcz66xj5br4d/49EverybodyWantsSomething.mp3?dl=0

Sources:
Tears For Fears – “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”
A Great Big World – “Say Something“

New Mashup: Please Don’t Fire Me (Pink vs. Vangelis)

As you may know, I’ve been getting mashup ideas in unexpected places lately. This one is no different.

A Sunday morning church service isn’t where I’d expect to be creatively inspired, although that’s not to say that it’s never happened. I’m usually too busy singing (in my church’s choir and worship team) and concentrating on the sermon to even think about what my next mashup will sound like. However, during a recent sermon, my pastor quoted a Bible verse which talks about chariots of fire.

You can guess what happened next.

When I was younger, you couldn’t escape Vangelis’ theme song from the movie of the same name. I’m pretty sure that it briefly popped up in my mind at least a few times before that Sunday morning, but until then, that song wasn’t on my list of instrumentals I wanted to use. When my pastor quoted that Bible verse, this mashup was set in motion. I don’t usually refer to my mental Rolodex of songs when I consider mashup combinations, but that’s what I did in this case. I eventually settled on Pink’s “Please Don’t Leave Me,” which seemed like a good fit as I mentally put the songs together.

When I decided to hook these songs up for real, my initial suspicions were confirmed.

Download
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/g6cxc3lzdc6lh1u/45PleaseDontFireMe.mp3?dl=0

Sources:
Pink – “Please Don’t Leave Me”
Vangelis – “Chariots Of Fire“

New Mashup: Need My Baby Now (Lady Antebellum vs. Justin Bieber & Ludacris)

This mashup almost didn’t happen.

The original idea for it came when I heard Sheryl Crow’s “My Favourite Mistake” on the radio while I was working. When her chorus came in, I started singing the chorus from another song: Justin Bieber’s “Baby”. I thought I had a viable mashup idea, but my search for the Crow instrumental proved unfruitful. Fortunately, Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” popped into my mind as another candidate to match with The Bieb. After working the keys out, I concluded that this match was possible and decided to work on it.

Then I got cold feet.

During the verses in “Need You Now”, the keys switch from A to D flat. That latter key is the relative minor of the song’s main key of E major, so no issues there. However, what about that A key? Wouldn’t I fall into the Fifths Trap whenever Justin sings his E major (pitched up from the original key of E flat) over it?

In a word: no.

Remember the detective work I did last year which made me lose sleep? I did a much shorter version of it while I was showering a few days after I got the initial idea. Since that A is the sixth key in D flat minor’s scale, I figured that I shouldn’t have any key issues with The Bieb’s verses. When I came to that conclusion, I decided once and for all to do this mashup.

Here’s the result.

Download
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xm6485ps87ah4qg/38NeedMyBabyNow.mp3?dl=0

Sources:
Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris – “Baby“