Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" is one of the biggest songs of the year, and easily one of the most ubiquitous. And one of the most covered. The existence of the many, many YouTube-posted interpretations of his song has not escaped Gotye, also know as Wally de Backer.
De Backer has scoured YouTube and curated his favourite "Somebody" covers into a new video remix called "Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra."
"Reluctant as I am to add to the mountain of interpretations," writes the artist on a post accompanying the video, "I couldn't resist the massive remixability that such a large, varied yet connected bundle of source material offered. "
The final cut features a variety of instruments and styles, including the viral cover by Burlington, Ont., rockers Walk Off the Earth (their single, at one point, outsold Gotye's original), choirs, Pentatonix's a cappella take and clips from the Vancouver Canucks/Gotye parody, "Canucks Playoff Song." A full list of source videos was posted on Gotye's blog.
The remix was handcrafted by Gotye, who states: "All audio and video in Somebodies is from the YouTube user videos featured, each of them a cover or parody of Somebody That I Used To Know. No extra sounds were added to the mix, but I used some EQ, filtering, pitch-shifting and time-stretching to make the music. "
Watch it below:
Related:
Your definitive list of Gotye covers
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Gotye vs. Elliott Smith: Battle of the same-name songs
Luiz Bonfa and the song that inspired "Somebody That I Used to Know"