At this point in the draft I have no idea what songs will come off the board next and whether a lot of my favorites will get drafted at all. Still, considering the original video of this next song had over 8 million YouTube views I suppose this is as good a song as any to take.
In 2003 Outcast released the critically acclaimed
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below which was a double album that really a pair of solo albums from Andre 3000 and Big Boi. The first single "Hey Ya" came from Andre 3000's "The Love Below" was a hit and was only knocked off the top of the charts by Speakerboxxx's "The Way You Move".
In 2006 Mat Weddle, who was the frontman of the band Obadiah Parker (a named he's retained for his solo work after the group disbanded) played a solo version at an open mic night which was videotaped and became a viral sensation. This version gave the song an entirely different vibe. I assume that most people saw the original as I did, as a goofy, funky feel good tune complete with the fun video of different versions of Andre 3000 playing every instrument. Slowed down and with more focus on the vocal, the song was revealed as more of a treatise on love and whether it can last. Well, at least for the first half of it.
It's a real testament to Weddle's version that pretty much every subsequent cover of this song was a rip off of his arrangement, almost always without credit. Even Scrubs had the character Ted performing his version on the show.
Obadiah Parker
Hey Ya!
2006
Here's the studio version:
and the live video from the open mic night
The original
Outcast
Hey Ya!
from the 2003 album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
