A-ha performing live for MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice
According to NPR—and the ABBA blaring from my young adult daughter's headphones—we're in the midst of an 80s music revival. As a Gen Xer who came of age in the 80s, I think most of that decade should stay locked in a time capsule, but there are a few songs that have managed to remain timeless despite the synthesizers and bad hair.
A-ha's "Take On Me" is one of them. Despite its consummately-80s sound, the song with the famous sketch animated video is still enjoyable (if not a little earwormy—good luck once it gets stuck in your head).
But a lesser-known 2017 arrangement of the song is actually, miraculusly, even better. A-ha performed "Take On Me" for an MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice album, and it's significantly different than the original. The Norwegian band filmed the performance live on the island of Giske, dropping the electric piano as well as the tempo for a stripped-down version that has become a fan favorite. As of this writing, the video has 97 million views on YouTube.
"Take On Me" is one of 17 songs in the unplugged performance, but naturally the most popular.
“We’ve talked about this idea for so many years," guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy said. "And in many of our concerts we’ve also played some acoustic songs. But if you consider that we don’t use much technology at all when we write the songs, the idea of an entirely acoustic show makes total sense. Playing all these songs now in their acoustic versions is like returning to their origins.”
Watch and see how the slower tempo and simple instrumentation creates a sadder, more haunting version of their biggest hit.
"The fact he’s still got such a good voice after decades is incredible," wrote one fan.
This is music at its purest form. No light show, distortion pedals, autotune and massive audiences. Spotless," wrote another.
"By far the best version of this song that I have ever heard. It totally transforms the song when performed like this," shared another.
Another commenter made a poignant observation:
"The original version is like a soundtrack for a man living in the fast-paced life in the 80's all cool and hip. This one is like when the same man grows old and saying farewell to the fun memories of his youth."
And another summed up what most people feel seeing this:
"One version makes you dance and the other version makes you cry."
Conan O'Brien and Jack White discuss "Seven Nation Army."
There has to be something surreal about writing a song that has become one of the most recognizable on the planet. Since its release 20 years ago, the hypnotic thump of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” has become synonymous with sporting events, and its 7-note bassline is one of the most popular musical phrases in rock history.
The funny thing is that Jack White had no idea the song would even be a hit when he wrote it.
White shared the story of the song’s creation with Conan O’Brien on his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast. The subject came up after O’Brien told the story of going to a Dodger game with White, and the song was played over the PA system.
Jack White Didn't Know "Seven Nation Army" Would Become An Anthem | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend
White enjoys that the song has transcended his career and is no longer his own.
“It’s not mine anymore; it becomes folk music when things like that happen. The more people don’t know where it came from, the happier I am. You know, the more ubiquitous it becomes,” White said. “I’m sure many people chanting the melody have no idea what the song is or where it came from or whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s amazing.”
White also noted that he never anticipated the song would be a hit, adding that his label was initially reluctant to release it as a single.
“Other things we were working on, we thought were way more interesting,” he admitted. “No one ever knows; the label didn’t want to release it as a single. It just shows, even when you’ve got it right in front of your face, you still don’t know because you don’t know what’s going to connect with other people.”
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Official Music Video)
Watch the official music video for "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, directed by Alex & MartinListen to The White Stripes: https://TheWhiteStripes.ln...
The Magic Flute challenge has people trying to stifle their giggles.
They say laughter is the best medicine, and it's true. When we're in a bad mood, it's practically miraculous how a good laugh can lift us out of it. Giggles can help relieve stress, which is good for our overall health, and as Patch Adams taught us, raucous joy can even help our bodies heal.
Ironically, one almost surefire way to laugh is to be in a group of people who are trying to keep a straight face when something funny happens. There's something about trying not to laugh that makes it nearly impossible not to, especially when you're with others.
The "Magic Flute Challenge" illustrates this phenomenon beautifully—and hilariously.
This challenge is simple—a group of people takes turns trying to sing a piece of the famous aria from Mozart's "The Magic Flute" with no one laughing. Sounds easy enough, but some people's singing is…well, it can't really be called singing. Squawking, perhaps? Imitating a rooster with a bad cold? Whatever it is, hearing someone attempt to opera sing and having it come out sounding like a wounded animal is so funny, especially when everyone is supposed to keep a straight face.
This is one of those videos where picking one person to watch the whole time makes it funnier and funnier. Not one of them lasted through the whole thing. Can't really blame them.
Tuck this one away for when you're trying to figure out an activity the whole family can do together, or for when you and your friends are bored, or for when everyone in the household is cranky. Instant mood lift, right here.
Keep laughing, everyone. It really is good for us.
Musical geniuses take on many forms. But the ones who can seemingly pluck inspiration right out of the imaginary realm and create masterpieces on the spot are particularly astonishing.
Those blessed with this gift of expediency confound us because they appear to not be bound by the normal limitations of being human. Virtually any of us could create something impressive, given enough time and effort. But some savants have no barriers between them and that mysterious, divine substance that makes ideas into reality.
Mere mortals need processes, methods, rituals, even a dose of liquid courage (or something stronger) in order to conjure that sort of power within themselves. So those who just do it willy nilly…well, they’re practically gods.
It feels safe to put Sir Elton John in this deity category, if not for his discography alone, but for having that uncanny ability to create catchy, compelling songs in almost no time at all.
Take “The Circle of Life” for Disney’s “The Lion King," for instance. A well-known story behind this famous tune is that Sir Elton concocted it in less than two hours.
“I gave him the lyrics at the beginning of the session at about two in the afternoon. By half-past three, he’d finished writing and recording a stunning demo,” lyricist Tim Rice recalled.
But why read an anecdote? Why not see this talent in action?
Back in 2001, while interviewing with legendary British chat show host Michael Parkinson (who died Aug. 16, 2023), the “Tiny Dancer” singer was given the challenge of spontaneously making up a song to lyrics he had never seen before, written by Parkinson’s writing team.
Here’s how he did:
Yep, only Sir Elton could make a song about anything, even clogged storm drains.
Other folks who watched the video were left enamored. Here’s what they had to say:
“I am totally convinced he is the most talented musician of his generation. The lyrics don't matter, his ability to come up with the vocal melody and chord progression is nothing short of genius.”
“Elton shines so bright.”
“Elton and Mozart must have that same music gene. Their minds must work the same way, everything they read, see or hear, they read, see or hear in music.”
Maybe gifts like Sir Elton John’s are a rarity, but it’s a gift that touches so many.
A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from "Oklahoma!" "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Sound of Music" — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:
"Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study ... that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened."
Even better? There are tons of classic show tunes specifically about remembering.
Here are 23 tunes every Broadway fan needs to memorize for the day when it's not so easy to remember. It'll help to start brushing up now.
1. The one about remembering the good old days.
"Those Were the Good Old Days," "Damn Yankees"
If you're the devil in "Damn Yankees," that means the Great Depression, the Black Plague years, and when Jack the Ripper was running around. Good times!
2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.
Any playlist of show tunes about memory has to include this standard from "The Music Man," in which Professor Harold Hill remembers the best day of his life, when "Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town."
Whether or not any of it actually happened is ... up for debate, to put it mildly.
3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.
"Kansas City," "Oklahoma"
"Oklahoma's" Will Parker is so psyched about his Kansas City vacation he can't help bragging about it to all the other cowboys. And why not? It's a neat city! Have you been to Joe's Kansas City Barbecue? Neither has Will Parker, since he was there in 1906, but you should totally go.
4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...
5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.
"Where Did We Go Right?" from "The Producers"
Looking back doesn't always go well for characters in musicals. It definitely doesn't for "The Producers'" Bialystock and Bloom, as they tear around their office wondering how their incompetently directed, poorly acted, aggressively pro-Hitler musical wound up becoming a massive hit despite their every attempt to make it fail.
6. The one about remembering the little things.
"I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It," "Phantom of the Opera"
Perhaps the greatest testament to how emotionally transporting "Phantom of the Opera" is: Christine, removing the phantom's mask for the first time, can just straight-up claim to remember mist— like, one mist in particular — and no one calls her on it ever.
7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.
"The Barber and his Wife," "Sweeney Todd"
No character in musical theater is more nostalgic than Sweeney Todd, who, just moments after we meet him, croons this delightful ditty reminiscing about the time he was framed for a crime he didn't commit and banished from England so that an evil judge could rape his wife who subsequently poisoned herself.
A tune you can hum!
8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.
"Satisfied," "Hamilton"
Not sure if you've heard, but "Hamilton" is good, you guys.
After Alex and Eliza Schuyler meet and fall in love in "Helpless," Angelica Schuyler basically goes "Wicked" on her sister's song, recalling how agonizing it was watching her sister and the man who she herself is super into get together. But she sucks it up and buries it! Older siblings are the best.
9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.
"Maria," "West Side Story"
A classic from "West Side Story." Sure, it's about remembering a meet-cute that literally just happened — Tony and Maria's orchestral-swell-assisted gaze across a crowded gym — but Tony is super jazzed about it, so it makes the list.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.
"At the Ballet," "A Chorus Line"
The ballet isn't that great, but it's better than devastating childhood trauma. Score one for the ballet! Thanks, "A Chorus Line!"
11. The one about remembering old hobbies.
"Dentist!" from "Little Shop of Horrors"
"Little Shop of Horrors'" Orin Scrivello, DDS, is just misunderstood. I mean, who among us didn't "shoot puppies," "poison guppies," or "take a pussycat and bash in its head" now and again as a kid? The '50s were a simpler time!
12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.
"Momma Look Sharp," "1776"
47 years before "Hamilton" brought us the swaggery, ass-kicking side of the Revolutionary War, "1776" tore our guts out with this song, in which a courier to the Continental Congress recalls watching a mother comfort a young soldier as he dies at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Hercules Mulligan does the guest rap. (Just kidding. There is no guest rap. It's just gorgeously somber for a while and then over.)
13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.
"I Wish I Could Go Back to College," "Avenue Q"
Of course the sad-sack puppet man- and woman-children of "Avenue Q" want to go back to college! Who among us doesn't long for the days of term papers, humiliating romantic encounters, and crushing, debilitating debt? And meal-plan ice cream, too!
14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.
"Cabaret," "Cabaret"
Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Bowles from "Cabaret" is no fool! No matter how many lovers leave, or how much her career nosedives, or how nutty local politics get, she always remembers this important life lesson she learned from her good friend Elsie.
If only you had such a great, wise friend, maybe your outlook would be as good as Sally's. You could be so lucky!
15. The one about remembering last Christmas.
"Halloween," "Rent"
When it comes to the science of memory and cognition, "Rent" asks the big questions:
"Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories? When single frames from one magic night forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind?"
Poetic? Pathetic? We report, you decide.
16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.
"Rose's Turn," "Gypsy"
Ah, yes. "Rose's Turn." The 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers in "Gypsy," the most musical of all musicals. Truly, there aren't many things more enjoyable than listening to Mama Rose replay the events of the last decade and change inside her own brain in a slow-motion nervous breakdown as the notion that her entire life has been completely worthless gradually dawns on her with ever-increasing dread.
Did I mention how fun musicals are?
Trivia time! You know that thing in music where trumpets go, "Ya da da da daaaa DA. Da DA da DA!" You know that thing? This is the song that thing comes from.
17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.
"Ring of Keys," "Fun Home"
There's nothing better than a song that makes you want to shout: "I am so glad I'm watching a musical instead of a basketball game right now." This moment in "Fun Home," where Alison recalls seeing a delivery woman — the first person who looked like the woman she felt like — is really, really one of them.
"This is a song of identification that is a turning moment, when you think you’re an alien and you hear someone else say, 'Oh, me too,'" composer Jeanine Tesori told Variety. "It’s a gamechanger for Alison. And that’s just Musical Theater 101."
...And the entire audience bursts into happy tears forever.
18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.
"I Dreamed a Dream," "Les Misérables"
When your life isn't going so great, it's good to remember the positive! Things didn't exactly go super well for Fantine in "Les Mis." But, hey, she had a pretty good dream once!
19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.
"Turn It Off," "The Book of Mormon"
What's the ticket to living as fun-loving and guilelessly as the Mormon elders in "The Book of Mormon?" Don't just bury those traumatic, scary, impure memories — CRUSH THEM, OK?!
20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.
"Sarah Brown Eyes," "Ragtime"
Ah, young love. Even in "Ragtime," a musical that features racism, state violence, attempted child murder, and terrorism, at least we have this song, in which Coalhouse Walker Jr. recalls how he got his beloved Sarah to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with him with his peerless piano skills? So romantic.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
21. The one about remembering a scary dream.
"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "Guys and Dolls"
With, perhaps, only a smidge more credibility than grifter-from-another-mother Professor Harold Hill, "Guys and Dolls'" third-most-degenerate gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson recalls a terrifying dream where he had to convince a group of skeptical evangelical crusaders that he's decided to give up the dice once and for all.
Side note: People in musicals are unbelievably good at remembering dreams. This is, like, full detail. I'd be like, "Um, I was at the Statue of Liberty, and you were there? I think? It wasn't really you, it was like a combination of you and my dad. And we were in prison. But at the Statue of Liberty."
22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.
"Our Time," "Merrily We Roll Along"
The closing number of "Merrily We Roll Along" is actually the first chronologically, since the musical goes backward. It's the play's happiest moment — Frank, Charley, and Mary on a roof watching Sputnik go by, giddily talking about how thrilling, perfect, and successful their futures are going to be. It's so hopeful! But so sad, 'cause you already know all the achingly bittersweet stuff that's going to happen.
Lacey Schaffer-Thomas sings lead on Stevie Wonder's "Superstition"
Sometimes a person opens their mouth to sing and their voice blows you away, partly because it sounds nothing like you'd expect and partly because it's just that amazing.
Cue the vocal stylings of Lacey Schaffer-Thomas, a special ed paraprofessional in Fort Smith, Arkansas, whose back-to-school convocation performance with her fellow educators has gone viral.
In a Facebook and Instagram reel shared by motivational speaker Jon Gordon, we see a stage set up on a school gym floor with a group of teachers performing together as a band.
"So this happened before I spoke!" he wrote. "It was the coolest convocation I've ever seen."
A rock band made of teachers is interesting enough, but when the band plays Stevie Wonder's hit "Superstition" and the lead vocalist sound like Janis Joplin reincarnated—"like a legend," as Gordon wrote—you have an incredibly impressive combo.
People have been blown away by this woman's voice, as evidenced by the comments on Facebook:
"I wasn’t expecting that voice to come out of that tiny, beautiful lady!" wrote one commenter. "Loved every minute of this! Ah-mazing, powerful performance! Why is this woman not a well-known, famous name by now?"
"She's not singing, She's SANG'IN! My Lord Ms. Thomas! You were feeling it and you made us feel it too!" shared another.
"She betta SANG!!!!!! I love this idea!!! The kids get to see talent and feel welcomed," wrote another.
"Wow! That poor guy trying to sing with her," sympathized one commenter. "There’s no place in there for ya bud! She can handle that on her own! All these little jewels around the world that nobody knows about until somebody puts em on social media."
Schaffer-Thomas' family and friends showed up in the comments, too, with understandable pride:
"My beautiful talented Wife. Lacey is a paraprofessional working with special needs kids. She sings to her students every day and is the most amazing, positive human I know. I am so blessed," wrote her husband.
"That's my momma Lacey Schaffer-Thomas ," wrote her daughter. "She's actually a paraprofessional for an elementary special education class. She's incredible and I'm so proud of her! She's been singing her whole life! The entire band did a phenomenal job!!! "
The singer herself even chimed in when Gordon asked if he could tag her in the video. "Yes please! I don’t know if my heart can take it though. ," she responded. "I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude at all the kind responses this has generated. Thank you so much."
The praise is well-earned, ma'am. Keep on wowing everyone with that gorgeous, edgy voice.
Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” can bring most folks to tears already. After all, the song, created for a pivotal part in the “Barbie” movie, touches on the special kind of grief one feels for their younger, more carefree self that often fades away as we become adults. Plus Eilish’s airy, wistful voice feels innocent and weary all at the same time, touching right on the heartstrings.
Now, add onto that home video footage that perfectly shows the beauty and wonder of childhood that exists beyond the limits of time and space… and…excuse me? Does someone have a tissue?
In a viral video created by Carrie Moses, we see a side-by-side comparison of clips from her own childhood and those from her mom’s childhood, all while the song plays. There’s something so beautiful and healing about seeing how, whether it’s in the 60s or the 90s or even today, childhood still feels the same.
Joyful. Playful. Full of games. Full of dancing. Full of silly faces and pretty dresses. Full of zest. Full of life. Full.
Somehow along the way, our lives become full of responsibilities, worries, regrets…you know, adulting. And that light begins to dim. But it does come back in fleeting moments.
As you wipe the snot away, I leave you with one last touching quote from "Barbie," which clearly resonated with Moses as she created her montage, since she put it in her TikTok video:
“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they have come.”
," wrote her daughter. "She's actually a paraprofessional for an elementary special education class. She's incredible and I'm so proud of her! She's been singing her whole life! The entire band did a phenomenal job!!! 
"