Top 20 tracks remixed by Microsoft Songsmith

Microsoft's Songsmith has become a cult phenomenon, but probably not how the software giant wanted it to be.

If you’ve never heard of it, Songsmith is a program that can give an automatic musical accompaniment to any vocal track you give the computer. The basic aim is give the karaoke singer the chance to live out their dreams and become an all-round musician. It launched in America with an astonishing promotional video (see below).

But as a Microsoft spokesman said recently, Songsmith is being "used in ways we haven't quite imagined." People have been taking the vocals from hit songs and then adding Songsmith backing tracks to them. The results are funny, bizarre and sometimes disturbing.

Below, here is our Top 20 tracks remixed by Songsmith. This post comes with a health warning. Listening to them all as I have just done might make you go a bit doolally. Please use the comments section to send in some of your favourites too.

1. Ozzy Osbourne: Crazy Train

If the train in question was filled with old bearded men with banjos. Yes, that crazy

2. The Police: Roxanne

I still maintain that a better move for Sting would have been playing the steel pans rather than the ruddy lute. This video proves that. Sort of.

3. Queen: We Will Rock You

In the vein of the Sex and the City theme music.

4. Notorious B.I.G: Dead Strong

Biggie Smalls does hip-harpsicord.

5. Beastie Boys: Intergalactic

Remixed to the soothing tune of a piano. I have to admit, I kind of like it.

6. Oasis: Wonderwall

Awful. A Britpop classic with a hardcore drum ‘n’ bass/trace style track. Rips all the melody and soul from it. Awful, awful.

7. Radiohead: Creep

Take Creep. Remove guitars. Insert lounge band instead. Result? Thom Yorke's brooding and self-loathing sounds weird. More weird than usual.

8. The Eagles: Hotel California

If when The Eagles were kids, they were given a Casio keyboard and electronic drumkit for Christmas instead of guitars, they may have sounded a bit like this.

9. The Beatles: Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Done in a quiet jazz style. Paul McCartney sounds demented alongside the sleepy beat

10. Van Halen: Runnin' with the Devil

Club Jazz again. Watching Eddie Van Halen going thrusting about to this is particularly enjoyable

11. Marvyn Gaye: What’s Going On

A Massive Attack-influenced destruction of one the greats

12. The Cars: Just What I Needed

The terrific lyrics: “I don’t mind you coming here, wasting all my time” sung to music worthy of a porn movie. Makes them sound like the words of a stalker

13. The Doobie Brothers: Long Train Running

With added funk…

14. Survivor: Eye of the Tiger

Yeah, gimme some synth, yeah.

15. Weezer: Buddy Holly

Let us play an inherently catchy tune. But wait, we should scalpel out all the joy and those catchy bits. We’ll do that for a few minutes, and then contemplate suicide.

16. Nirvana: In Bloom

This is rock blasphemy.

17. No Doubt: Hella Good

Super geek alert! The author of this says: “No idea what to say about this one, kiddos. It sounds like the Lost Forest in Zelda: Ocarina of Time mixed with an auto repair shop... mixed with some gongs”. Sums it up nicely.

18. Michael Jackson: Beat It

With added (pointless) dance beats. Side note: slap bass should be abolished. Discuss.

19. Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up

A europop version. Argh, argh, no…

20. Eminem: Lose Yourself

“Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity”. After listening to all these songs, Slim Shady’s words have added meaning.

Update: My colleague Nigel points out that you also really have to watch this promotional video for Songsmith, which is beyond parody. Also note that the the computer in the ad is a Mac. Oh dear, oh dear.

Comments

[Sue]

Apple gives you Garageband, with masterclasses from Sting, John Fogerty, Norah Jones etc, etc.

Microsoft give you... Songsmith.

[plato]

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

That is just so embarrassing.

[Trevor]

Many thanks for these, Murad. Some are good, most very funny and imaginative. It just needs a bit of humour and possibly disbelief when looking at them though. Lighten up a bit - they are not the end of music as we know it and rather add to the many ways in which music can be interpreted and reinterpreted. I'm all for it. Such strange developments may well lead to tomorrow's classics - its how music has always developed. A new innovation and someone with a bit of imagination and flair develops something new. Bring it on!

[J]

Isn't that David Lee Roth in the Van Halen one?

[Patrick]

Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up (Songsmith Remix) sounds closest to the original. It's like nothing changed.

[Kort]

The Doobie Brothers with added funk - why hasn't someone thought of this before?!? Technology can be a blessing ...and a curse.

[Andy]

Why are none of the rap songs remotely in time?

[Cate]

Oh God, the Weezer one does make you reach for the bennies and the razor blade.

[ronnyragtroll]

How are all these songsmiths made ?? with found acapellas of the original songs ? how are the original vocal tracks isolated so well ?

[azz100c]

Thanks for linking to my videos!

Ronny: I use the original studio multitracks, so the vocals are isolated.

[Kevin]

In a full thunderclap of irony, the girl in the Microsoft promo is using a Macintosh laptop computer to play with Songsmith. You can see part of the Apple logo beneath the badly placed cutout flower on the lid... Oh dear. Aren't Windows PCs good enough to play Songsmith?

[Henrik Hjortshøj]

This is again a bad, low and in a sad way a funny Microsoft promotion video. I dont get it,- why is Microsoft always looking like fools running after people more clever, but less rich?

[Sven-Erik]

A shame all the videos were "not available in my region", but this was good entertainment. And the last one reminds of two things: No 1 is You can run Windows on a Mac (now there´s finally a reason) No2 is if you do don´t forget to put all those sticker labels on it (like Vista capable Truth or Dare).

[Jacob]

AHAHAHAHA and it runs on Mac :P

[Dude]

Songsmith is the ultimate proof of that Steve Ballmer is Anti-Christ.

[Hanna]

The Beastie Boys video is the only one that I could continue listening to after 30 seconds... if that. But it is rather good! Better than the original :-)

[peter jensen]

who got the idea to put flower stickers on a Mac ?
LOL

[Reference]

microsoft is hilarious

[dr.sputnik]

Wow. The "Hella Good"...erm..."cover version?" is just way random. Nice effort. Did someone put disco biscuits in the CD-ROM?

[jane]

Well, keep in mind, computers ARE deaf.

[PamelaH]

LOL..those were a hoot! And possibly the very worst midis I have ever heard.If you really want to have some fun singing, check out The Sims Stage Online. You can sing to REAL music, not midis.
Thanks for the laugh!

[Alex French]

Wow, something actually worse for the music industry than x factor. True story: when the guy in the advert said he could use Songsmith with his band, I actually gagged. Any musician with even a dash of talent and self-respect would never, ever go near this.

[tahrey]

I love the Rick Astley one, simply because of how surreal and unnerving that simple horizontal mirror effect makes the video. The music being subtly twisted from the original helps the effect. It comes over, overall, much like you would expect the output of a 10-year-old let loose with a soundtracker and a primitive animation program sometime in the late 90s.... (I've been responsible for one of those, a little of the other, and heard the much output of the latter. Painful in quantity.)

[Kate]

People with no talent, and no musical idea should not go near music 'writing' programmes. The results are above!

[tuvok]

Nirvana: In Bloom

I love this. I keep playing it over and over.

It's a new genre: antigoth.

[Chiara]

I actually prefer some of these versions, like the reggae Roxane...or the happy Eminem

[liese]

Has anyone else noticed that the wife in the ad bears a striking resemblence to Fergie the Duchess of York? I suppose times are hard all round...

[Larry Curleanmo]

azz100c wrote: "Ronny: I use the original studio multitracks, so the vocals are isolated."

Please tell me

1) how you got your hands on so many "original studio multitracks"?

2) how Songsmith get's a key & chords when there is no singing? and

3) how you synced them to the videos?

Larry

[Christopher Weekes]

These are truly terrible! If this is what Songsmith churns out for professional singers, imagine what it would do for a normal person like me!

[Juha]

The ironic or not really thing is that the Weezer song was included on the Windows 98 disc...

[GICarey]

Eye of the Tiger is Amazing!!!!

[Paulie]

Sorry, I've just had to pull my own head off.

[Julie]

I'm finding myself bopping along to the unstoppable cheeriness of Nirvana. Not something I've ever said before.

Muse doesn't work too well either. It sounds slightly nightmarish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emf_CrsBl1g

[John V.]

Eminem just sounds so.... HAPPY! :)

Lauging OUT LOUD at most of these!!! And I LOVE most of these songs in real life.

Thanks!!!

It strikes me that several of these versions actually sound quite good, in a weird way - 'eye of the tiger' as a sad euro-pop piano ballad is different, to say the least. Although I did notice that the eminem track is completely out of sync: I know computers are deaf, but I always assumed they could count...

I hope you realize that we all just rick roll'd ourselves.

[BJ]

You forgot Shock the Monkey by Peter Gabriel. It's shocking how the song changes in meaning. Look for it on You Tube.

[Andy]

As a music graduate, I plead with you all to pick up a guitar and learn something, it’s how I started. Do not leave it up to Microsoft. Their generic accompaniments sound like the mutant offspring from a Playschool and Sesame Street fling, held within the dark recesses of a tone deaf nursery school for the absent minded. Plus it will not teach you anything about music appreciation. Pretty funny though, in a frightening ironic way.

[OUCH!!!!]

The only one actually worth listening to and that actually worked well was eye of the tiger. The rest made me want to drive rusty nails through my ear drums, especially Beat it.

[Al]

I thought Rick Astley was better! How long til this version gets Rickrolled?

[NotAnAppleScophant]

What a bunch of hipper than thou jerks!

Songsmith is clearly for fun but if Apple had come out with it you clowns would be wetting yourselves about how brilliant it is.

BTW, it's not a mac in the commercial...Songsmith doesn't work on proprietary operating systems.

[PS]

Actually NOTANAPPLESCOPHANT, like it or not, it is a Mac in the commercial. If Apple had released this they wouldn't have made such an appalling ad. There's nothing wrong with the app, the problem is trying to sell it as anything other than a kids game. As soon as you try to make it look like software a musician can use with their band you fail. Know your market.

[Christ]

There is no way that is the real advert. No way, I refuse to believe it. I can't decide which sense it offends most, I actually developed a bad taste in my mouth whilst watching it. The first three tunes are the funniest.