• Trinity College: Isaac Newton studied here, and also discovered the phenomenon illustrated on the cover of Dark Side of The Moon
• The Regal: The Beatles played here. Syd Barrett bought a ticket, but never made it to the gig because he had an interview.

So I installed Winamp on the laptop to try and use wireless sync. Had it scan my library, then popped on the “Top Rated” playlist. Eerily it started playing my favourite songs – from about 2 years ago when I last used Winamp – on a different computer! It must save rating/playcount information in the files I guess. Kind of nice, I haven’t listened to some of these songs in a long time and it’s evoking some serious nostalgia.

Amusingly in my library this is just titled “That Music From the Dancing Car Advert”:

It got me thinking, a lot of music listening history is stored on last.fm. It would be nice to be able to say “take me back to 200X” and cue up a playlist of stuff I was listening to then. Maybe pull up some timely photos from Facebook/Flickr to add to the experience, and some old BBC news headlines. Automatically lower the screen resolution to a suitable level – ok, maybe not that.

Next, the most 80s thing ever (and probably NSFW):
Amanda Lear – Wild Thing

Last, a cover version found in a really odd way. I was listening to the Dandy Warhols 2003 album Welcome to the Monkey House for the first time in ages. At least I was until partway through the opening title track when I noticed the lyrics:

When Michael Jackson dies
We’re covering Blackbird
And won’t it be absurd then
When no one knows what song they just heard
Unless someone on the radio tells them first

So on a whim I googled “dandy warhols blackbird”, and it turns out they kept their promise. And it’s pretty good too:
The Dandy Warhols – Blackbird

Well, that goes for the original anyway.

But replace the horrendous steel drums with a beautifully fashioned electronic backing (including almost 8-bit sounds), get a sweet young woman singing the bizarre lyrics, and dress up a dog for the video, and you get this. I couldn’t believe anyone could make this song listenable, let alone loveable, but they have.

And then just the other day I found this. It’s proof of Devo’s sheer awesomeness that they can make Soulja Boy sound good. I honestly can’t stop listening to it.

Charles Williams and his orchestra – Devil’s Gallop

Originally composed for the BBC Radio serial Dick Barton, this brilliant tune has since been used all over the place including Monty Python, kids TV show ZZZap!, and of course That Mitchell and Webb Look.

And as if it wasn’t awesome enough already, here it is being played by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Not good enough for you? Well here’s one of the greatest pieces of video game music ever, “Monty on the Run”, composed by the godlike Rob Hubbard. Listen, and you’ll hear that Devil’s Gallop was a huge inspiration. And marvel at the fact that this tune was all done to be played on the ancient Commodore 64.
Rob Hubbard – Monty on the Run Theme

Regularly cited as the best computer game music ever, this has rightfully been covered many times. This version is great, just look at his fingers flying about that keyboard!

The guy behind the music and video is rx2008, who was also responsible for the brilliant cutups of other politicians singing along to popular songs, including Bush doing Sunday Bloody Sunday. Plus he’s written some great songs of his own: did somebody out sugar in my tea? is one of my favourite tunes ever.

I just found @mr_hopkinson on Twitter, which reminded me of his excellent singing computer. Here it is, performing “Fool’s Gold”, by The Stone Roses.
Mr Hopkinson’s Computer – Fool’s Gold
There’s more at http://www.computersings.com/

Next is Placebo’s great cover of “Daddy Cool” by Boney M. This is from the special edition of Sleeping With Ghosts, which came with a whole bonus disc of Placebo cover versions.
Placebo – Daddy Cool