Microsoft's Songsmith has become a cult phenomenon, but probably not how the software giant wanted it to be.
If you’ve never heard of it, Songsmith is a program that can give an automatic musical accompaniment to any vocal track you give the computer. The basic aim is give the karaoke singer the chance to live out their dreams and become an all-round musician. It launched in America with an astonishing promotional video (see below).
But as a Microsoft spokesman said recently, Songsmith is being "used in ways we haven't quite imagined." People have been taking the vocals from hit songs and then adding Songsmith backing tracks to them. The results are funny, bizarre and sometimes disturbing.
Below, here is our Top 20 tracks remixed by Songsmith. This post comes with a health warning. Listening to them all as I have just done might make you go a bit doolally. Please use the comments section to send in some of your favourites too.
1. Ozzy Osbourne: Crazy Train
If the train in question was filled with old bearded men with banjos. Yes, that crazy