"Love Removal Machine"'s lyrics with "I'm Your Man"'s music would rock.

July 23, 2007 8:05 PM

Music Filter: looking for pairs of mashups where one uses song A's music and B's lyrics, and the other uses B's music and A's lyrics.

The only pair I've encountered that comes close is "Rockerfaction" (Rockafeller Skank lyrics, Satisfaction music) and "Satisfaction Skank" (Satisfaction lyrics, Rockafeller Skank music, but only for part of it).

posted by Lucinda to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

It's all encompassed in one mix, but I heard this mash-up of Outkast's "Hey Ya" and Queen's "We Will Rock You" (first download link) on the radio last night and was blown away. It alternates back and forth between which song's music is being sampled and which song's lyrics are being sampled.
posted by sarahsynonymous at 8:08 PM on July 23, 2007

The Theme to Gilligan's Island can be sung to Amazing Grace, and vice versa. Strange but true. It all comes down to scansion.
posted by tzikeh at 8:32 PM on July 23, 2007

I've heard the lyrics to Pinball Wizard sung to the tune of Folsom Prison Blues. And indeed, Youtube has one - starts around 1:18.
posted by nightwood at 9:11 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

It sounds like this is exactly what you are looking for.
posted by Industrial PhD at 10:44 PM on July 23, 2007

Amazing Grace lyric, House of the Rising Sun tune, by the Blind Boys of Alabama.
posted by Gungho at 4:13 AM on July 24, 2007

Blind Boys of Alabama combine the lyrics of "Amazing Grace" with the music of "House of the Rising Sun". Also, not too sure if this fits into your 'style', there is a French female singer (not sure who), who combines the lyrics of "Little Drummer Boy" with "Bolero".
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 4:18 AM on July 24, 2007

You might track down old BBC episodes of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, where they have a regular segment featuring just this sort of hilarity.
posted by catesbie at 5:05 AM on July 24, 2007

Response by poster: Not quite what I'm looking for...sarahsynonymous is closest, but I'd ideally like two separate songs (like in nightwood's version, I'd want someone to put Johnny Cash singing to the Who's music, and then a totally separate song with Roger Daltrey singing to Johnny Cash's music. Or in Industrial PhD's version, you'd have a second album where the song/lyrics combinations are reversed.)

Not covers, but DJ mash-ups.
posted by Lucinda at 5:29 AM on July 24, 2007

Given a little bit of time and effort, this is something you could almost certainly do yourself. There are lots of forums and guides devoted to mash-ups--if you've already got an internet-connected computer, everything else you need is readily and more-or-less freely available.
posted by box at 6:12 AM on July 24, 2007

The Hood Internet is awesome and does a new mash-up every weekish. They tend to pair hip-hop lyrics with indie rock music, to really cool effect.
posted by non sum qualis eram at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2007

Again, not quite what you have in mind, DJ Earworm's No one takes your freedom is a single track that alternates the vocals for Scissor Sisters - Take your Mama with the instruments for The Beatles - For No One and vice-versa.
posted by adamrice at 7:33 AM on July 24, 2007

The Pixies' Here Comes Your Man mashes up either way with the Pretenders' Back on the Chain Gang.
posted by umbú at 10:28 AM on July 24, 2007

'A Day in the Life' and the Green Acres theme are quite interchangeable.
posted by OneOliveShort at 10:30 AM on July 24, 2007

This might take a bit of looking, but mashculture really only uses a limited pool of artists, so there's got to be reverse mashups.

Sorry I couldn't find a decent list.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 11:56 AM on July 24, 2007

It's probably going to be hard unless you look for people's first mashup experiments; usually just A+B isn't enough to produce an impressive tune, you know?
Lenlow's got a good list of mashers, but he and they're all established (and awesome, in case you're also just looking for music).
posted by zusty at 9:12 PM on July 24, 2007