Last Music Monday at Google

I've decided to leave you with a lovely version of one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Watch what happens in this square in Sabadell, Spain when the little girl drops a coin into the musician's hat. (Note: this is actually a TV commercial for a Spanish bank, but the performance is quite special, and what is a flash mob anyway but the reactions of the spectators?) 

I hope the music leaves you with a smile, as it does for me and as it did for this commenter:

I have watched this video many times; it always lifts my spirits.  When I get to the point that I'm feeling as though everything is hopeless, I come to watch this; I see the joy on the faces of everyone from every apparent walk of life - and especially the excitement on the faces of the children in the crowd. I wonder how many of those children will remember this for perhaps the rest of their lives, and may look to music to be the path they take in life.

Monday music - heavy metal edition

There's a really good band called Disturbed that is quite successful in the heavy metal genre.  You may already know of them, but I did not. It turns out that over the past 20+ years they have released 7 albums, 5 of which debuted consecutively at number one on the Billboard 200 albums list. Only two other bands have ever done this - Metallica and the Dave Matthews Band.

In 2015 Disturbed released the album Immortalized, the 5th of their 5 consecutive number ones.This album included a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's The Sounds of Silence (originally released in 1964). Interestingly, the Disturbed version uses the singular name "The Sound of Silence." If you want a lot of detail on that subject, see this article.

Disturbed performed the song live on Conan O'Brien's late night show in March 2016, accompanied by a beautiful sounding group of backing musicians. David Draiman's rendition of this song is a brilliant example of how a lead singer and a band can perform so well even when they venture outside their traditional style.