Thursday, May 28, 2009

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

this is so amazing:




SALT LAKE CITY -- Two songs -- "Love Story" and "Viva la Vida" -- are getting a Utah musician a lot of national attention.

One day, Jon Schmidt and his daughter were listening to her favorite song, which is "Love Story" from Taylor Swift. She told him to put it on his next album, but as he played it he noticed something.

"I did a slight rhythm variation on Taylor Swift's melody, [and] it turned into the exact rhythm of the Coldplay song," Schmidt said. So, he mixed the two.

Schmidt says he spent 100 hours working on it and actually got numb to it. "When I posted it, I kind of wasn't sure if it was a good song, to tell you the truth," he said.

Well, with over 1 million views in roughly six weeks, Schmidt says it has become the second highest-rated music video of all time on YouTube. He says a lot of credit for the arrangement goes to Steven Sharp Nelson, who plays cello and the bass drum, at the same time mind you. Schmidt calls him a "cellist/kick-drummer."

Schmidt doesn't anticipate any roadblocks in putting this song on his next album. Coldplay's attorney has already given permission, and he says Taylor Swift's attorneys are close to doing the same. The album, Bonus Tracks, is expected to come out in August.

9 comments:

Heatherlyn said...

He's doing a concert in Sept according to his site to release the album. We are hoping to make it!

Jillene said...

He is an AWESOME pianist!!

Anonymous said...

We count as at least a dozen of those million Youtube hits! We've watched this clip over and over AND OVER in the last few weeks! Jon Schmidt is the BOMB!!!! Think he'll ever come west and do a concert on the coast? We are SO THERE if he does!

in time out said...

We have been to a concert of his. He was amazing. His CD's are something that calms me often...He will be around again....love the mans talent.

Wendyburd1 said...

It's lovely

Unknown said...

This was brilliant! So awesome. I've never heard of him before...of to check him out...

Anonymous said...

cool!~

Shawn said...

Very cool! Although I am so sick of Love Story, as all my voice students want to sing it! :)

By the way---could you help me out and come over to my blog and read about how to vote for me at MMB?

I'd appreciate it!

FunnyGal KAT said...

Wow, absolutely beautiful. And it's so amazing that it's all done with just two instruments and a drum (oh, and two very, very talented musicians, of course!) Thanks for sharing-- I hadn't heard of Jon Schmidt before this.

on marriage

'Will you, um, marry me?' I haven't seen you in weeks! You don't look happy or excited about the prospect of our marriage! You're asking me to give up my - my freedom, my joie de vivre for an institution that fails as often as it succeeds? And why should I marry you anyway? I mean, why do you wanna marry me? Besides some bourgeois desire to fulfill an ideal that society embeds in us from an early age to promote a consumer capitalist agenda?
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