Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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NEVERLAND — Look, Michael Jackson will never be usurped as the King of Pop. That's just a truth of the universe that we must all accept in our lives.
The best mere mortal musicians can do is make Michael Jackson tributes and hope they don't totally slaughter the song, and the Internet is full of said tributes to the beloved pop king. To name a very tiny sample, we have tributes with bottles, tributes with classical guitar and dance homage tributes in movies and video games.
But I'm going to step out on a limb to say that this video might leave every other tribute in the dust. OK, maybe not, but I almost guarantee you've never seen one like it before.
Frenchman Patrick Mathis' obsession with the barrel organ started in the 1980s, according to his website, and that has culminated in an arrangement of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal." And we ain't talking no simple line of melody here. Mathis' arrangement is a complete and true rendition that he punched onto a card himself.
It's a delight in the extreme, and his talent is impressive. The 4-minute video is well worth your time. (Pro tip: Don't adjust your volume, there is zero sound until the 17-second mark.)
As Jackson might say, you've been hit by, you've been struck by a smooth barrel organ. (Yes, that was terrible. No, I'm not sorry.)
Yesterday's HYST?
Martha Ostergar is the former Video Productions Manager of KSL.com. She has moved on to write elsewhere, but she can't seem to break her habit of cruising the Internet for amazing videos and writing about them. Follow her on Twitter at @monstergar.