There’s a song by Orbital called “Halcyon” that has a part where they mix together Bon Jovi’s “You give love a bad name” and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a place on Earth” and they blend together flawlessly.
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame… ooo heaven is a place on earth.”
I’ve also got an arrangement of “Lean on Me” by UPenn’s acapella group, Off the Beat that continuously has bits of other songs going on in the background that somehow fit in harmony to “Lean on Me.” (The songs include “I’m too sexy,” “Voices Carry,” “Working on the Chain Gang,” U2’s “One,” “The Gambler,” “Walking on Broken Glass,” and “Wonderwall.” It’s pretty amazing.)
I’m not talking about a traditional medley here, but I’m not sure what else to call it. I’m also not talking about ‘sampling’ where the bits and pieces of the song are so small that they’re usually unrecognizable. The songs are all recognizable, and just happen to have a certain riff or structure that lets them fit together.
Anyone know of any other songs like this? I find them fascinating.
Segway is the word for it…where one song moves flawlessly into another.
From the second CD of music from the Sopranos TV show, a combination of the Police doing ‘Every breath you take’, segwaying into a Henry Mancini song ‘Theme from Peter Gunn’ If you saw the episode, it makes perfect sence.
I think the ultimate version I’ve heard of this is the Avalanches. Their album Since I Left You is composed almost entirely of sections of songs; as I understand it, there are over 500 samples. This is pushing the line a bit with what you’re after, but most of the “samples” are quite long and compose the melody of the song; it’s the manner in which they’re put together that’s mind-blowing.
“Frontier Psychiatry” is simply brilliant. Check out the video.
I heard a song once called “You Enjoy My Aeroplane” that was a combination of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Aeroplane” and Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself.” It was the actual songs, though, played at the same time. They fit together nicely.
Sounds a little bit like mashups aka bastard pop. In mashups, you take, say, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and seemlessly layer over the vocals to Destiny Child’s “Bootylicious.” Check out Soulwax for an example of this stuff.
It sounds like what you’re thinking of is a little less extreme, but similar in principle. Other experiments included layering the Strokes with Christina Aguilera, or the Smiths with Eminem.
In mashups, the source materials are the instrumental and vocal tracks of the songs being bastardized. Generally, the songs are left fairly intact, but are cut up to fit together. This means that one of the tracks (usually the vocals) will get pitch-shifted or time compressed to fit the key of the instrumental tracks. Songs don’t have to match tempos or keys completely. It helps if they’re close to each other, though. The main thing is the melody line sung has to fit the chord progression of the instrumental track being used. This doesn’t mean the two songs have to have the same chord progression, just be compatible with the melody.
Also, the point is to mix two absolutely disparate songs together, and make them work.
That said, I’m sick of mashups. They’re just too gimmicky for me.
This somehow reminds me of my habit of rewriting one song to fit the tune of another. “Paint It Black” sung to the tune of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, for example. People look at me like I’m nuts.
There is always “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes off of You)” performed by the Pet Shop Boys. They basically covered two songs and put them into one, switching back and forth. Pretty good stuff, in my opinion.
I’ve heard all three of those examples you named! Is Soulwax an artist creating these mash-ups, or a website, or what? I’d love to hear more, and possibly download them (if that were legal, of course.)
Peter Schickele does this in a number of his classical music parodies. For example, “Eine Kleine Nichtmusik” is just “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” with dozens of other classical tunes cleverly inserted (e. g. “I Dream of Jeannie” over the second movement theme.) Also worth a listen is the second movement of his “Quodlibet,” in which the orchestra plays all nine Beethoven symphonies at once.
Don’t remember where I got it or who’s responsible for it, but there’s a version of NIN’s “Closer” out there with the music to “Stayin’ Alive” behind the vocal track. The songs meshed together perfectly.
Going farther back, in 1961 The G-Clefs–pretty cleverly, IMO–sang the Four Tunes’ 1954 hit “I Understand (Just How You Feel)” over “Auld Lang Syne” and made another hit.
Drat! You stole my example. From the same genre, the KLF (though they might’ve been the Timelords at the time) have a great version of Rock & Roll part II (aka the “hey” song :rolleyes: ) blended with the Dr. Who theme song. It’s sounds like it’s SUPPOSED to be like that. Neat stuff.
Dread Zeppelin’s first album Un-led-ed contains reggae covers of Led Zeppelin songs. Oh, and the singer is an Elvis impersonator.
Really.
They do “Heartbreaker” spliced (and spiced!) with “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound Dog” (according to allmusic.com, I don’t remember the “Hound Dog” part). I know it sounds silly, but they are a tight, tight band and are just great for parties. And “Heartbreaker” has never sounded so awesome…
Frank Zappa: At the end of “Call Any Vegetable”, the band starts playing “The Star Spangled Banner”, “America The Beautiful”, and “God Bless America”. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, he says that technique is a reference to Charles Ives, “who is noted for his use of multiple colliding themes.”
