My 2021 Youtube Playlist

My yearly Youtube playlist is mostly made up of media ephemera that's difficult to categorize, and the only thing they really have in common is utilizing a strong musical element. Still, I think that they're worth recommending and writing about. This batch includes more advertisements, tie-in music videos, late show hijinks, and oddball musical numbers you probably forgot about.

Don't Forget to Watch the Movie - Loews Movie Theaters ran these pre-show PSAs starting in 1996. I never knew they existed before I stumbled across them online, and now I'm a little mad that I didn't get to actually see them when they were shown in theaters. It's so wonderfully nostalgic to see so many of the Sesame Street gang again in their prime, singing a song composed by Tony Geiss. Two years later, Loews would commission another Sesame Street pre show short, "A Brief History of Motion Pictures."

Lady Marmalade - Since we're firmly in the era of millennial nostalgia, it's time to revisit that moment in history when Patti LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" was covered by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink as a tie-in single for Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!" The media blitz around this thing in 2001 was insane. Everyone watched the music video, directed by Paul Hunter, with a special appearance by Missy Elliott, on repeat. The glitzy cabaret outfits, the trippy anachronistic visuals, and the masses of camp value are so much fun. I've searched in vain for the drag queen spoof version of this I remember floating around a few years later.

Jackie Chan Sings "A Whole New World" - If you haven't heard by now, Jackie Chan is something of a recording star in China. Here is his cover of "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin" with Nana Ou-Yang, for Ou-Yang's "Cello Loves Disney" album. The pair also played a father and daughter in the 2017 sci-fi thriller "Bleeding Steel."

Jimmy Fallon Recreates "You Spin Me Round" - One of the most delightfully nerdy things I keep going back to is Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd's recreation of Dead or Alive's bonkers music video for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record). The original video is a priceless artifact of the 80s, with Pete Burns with the giant hair and eyepatch, the disco ball, the color guard, and the fashion choices. The fact that Fallon and company went shot for shot, and got so close to the original just makes it funnier. This was one of several music video recreations done for "The Tonight Show," but "You Spin Me Round" is far and away the best.

Ping Pong the Animation - Here's the title sequence of "Ping Pong the Animation," set to Tada Hitori by Johnny Bakudan. I enjoy it because it is such a departure from the standard, formulaic anime OP, showing off the visual style of director Masaaki Yuasa, easily its biggest asset.

Liza With a Z - After successfully collaborating on "Cabaret," Bob Fosse, producer Fred Ebb, and Liza Minelli put together this concert film, "Liza With a Z," described as "the first filmed concert on television." Fosse won Emmys for direction and choreography, part of his legendary 1972 streak that included "Cabaret," "Pippin" and "Chicago." "Liza With a Z" was thought lost for decades, before being dug out of the NBC vaults and remastered in 2006. The clip here is of Minelli singing "Son of a Preacher Man."

BBC 2008 Olympics spot - Legitimately, one of my favorite things to come from the 2008 Olympics was this BBC ad, created by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, better known for their collaboration on "Gorillaz." The beautifully animated little spot depicts characters from "Journey to the West" heading to the games, and demonstrating various athletic feats along the way. The Chinese vocals from Jia Ruhan as Guanyin, sending Monkey off on his journey, are especially poignant.

Everybody's Coming to My House on Colbert - I considered including a segment of the recent David Byrne musical film, "American Utopia," on this list, because it's amazing. And then I found this clip from 2018, when he appeared on Stephen Colbert's show to promote the musical, and decided that it belonged here instead. I just love the way that it's staged, the way that it incorporates Colbert and the audience, and the energy that it brings. "American Utopia" will be around for a long time, I'm sure, but this particular performance truly feels like ephemera.

Corky and the Juice Pigs "Dolphin Boy" - And on that note, it took me way too long to find this clip of Canadian comedy musical group, Corky and the Juice Pigs, performing "Dolphin Boy" on "MadTV" in 1996. The appearances of Corky and the Juice Pigs are pretty much all I ever liked about MadTV.

"The Forty Year Old Virgin" End Titles - And finally, boy there were a lot of familiar faces in "The Forty Year-Old Virgin," weren't there?


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