It got Sam Cooke right, too. Or I did.

[fancycwabs]

I thought I'd play around a little with the Midomi iPhone App, and see what songs came close when I sang 'em.


Previously I'd had some luck singing "Summer Nights," but there are plenty of bad examples of that for Midomi to compare. I thought I'd try some slightly more obscure items (not terribly obscure, as another human being--beyond the original artist--has to have covered the song a capella for Midomi to find a match).


First, an attempt at Queen. Clearly I didn't do a great job, since it selected "Bohemium Rhapsody" as the first guess.


Then, some Jonathan Coulton. I was surprised that the second (and only other) choice was TLC's "Waterfalls," as Coulton's cover version lifts just a little from "Leaving On a Jet Plane."


As contrast, I tried my hand at the original. As a white man, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Midomi thought I was a white man trying to rap.


Some Beatles,


Who knew "I Touch Myself" and "You Were Meant For Me" could be confused for one another? I'm cuing up Jewel the next time I watch Austin Powers.


Some relatively obscure Frank Sinatra,


And some better-known Sinatra. Midomi has a hard time with things that have a rubato lead-in, like "Luck Be a Lady" because the singer's pauses can throw the rhythm off. On the other hand, I'm not surprised to see as many Japanese results, as I understand that "Ruck Be A Rady" is very popular with the Karaoke bunch--just behind "Moon Liver."

Anyone else out there with an iPhone, check it out! It's free, and you can see whether you can carry a tune in a bucket or not.

Comments

[acsumama.livejournal.com]

Jokes about stereotypes of Japanese pronunciation are HIGH-LARIOUS.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

I worked for a Japanese company as a "slave" (their word) for seven years, and discovered that the Japanese are thoughful AND sloppy, hard-working AND lazy, meditative AND shallow, just like us.

Also, they often switch the pronounciation of R's and L's--even in written speech. It took me ten minutes to figure out what an EALTH CABLE was once, and I had the electrical symbol sitting right there next to the words.