BB King has long been recognized as one of the greatest blues musicians to grace the world of music and one of the artistic leaders in innovative solo electric guitar playing. However, fans were shocked when a video surfaced of BB King covering a track by the neoclassical heavy metal musician Malmsteen. Many couldn’t quite believe that the king of blues was playing a heavy metal track. Well, Music Man readers, that’s because he wasn’t.
With the skills of modern video editing, Richard Duade, who runs the ‘Amazing Rare Footage’ YouTube channel, used old BB King footage and edited it together with the Malmsteen track to make it appear as though the iconic musician truly was playing Malmsteen’s hit. It was so convincing that he managed to fool many who saw it. However, not all could be fooled, with one eagle-eyed music fan commenting, “BB is so good he can play in Em while playing A pentatonic.”
Here at The Music Man, we love creatives with a sense of humour. Music fans appreciated the unique idea behind the video too, joining in with the joke as one fan commented, “If you look closely, you can see Jimi Hendrix on glockenspiel.” Off the back of the enormous popularity of this video, the editor was inspired to make many similar videos, such as ‘Zakk Wylde Plays George Benson’ or ‘John Mayer Plays Benny Hill’. However, at 1.9M views, ‘BB King Plays Malmsteen’ remained the most popular.
Richard Duade even turned the tables when he edited a video entitled ‘Yngwie Malmsteen Plays BB King’. Here he showed Malmsteen playing his guitar with a BB King track flawlessly edited over top. The comedy reached new heights as the large orchestra behind Malmsteen appeared to play silently. To top it off, a Windows XP error sound jarringly played when Malmsteen appeared to adjust the guitar levels on his board, clearly indicating the video’s fake nature.
These inspired videos bring a comedic light to the work of these highly respected musicians. Whilst paying tribute to their status and talent in the musical sphere, the videos turn the adulation of these musicians on its head with a light-hearted touch that showcases the amazing power of video editing. Despite how much all of us at The Music Man would have loved to see the legendary BB King hammer out a face-melting heavy metal solo, these videos also exist, of course, as a gentle reminder not to believe everything we see on the internet!
If you would like to hear more from this talented guitarist you can subscribe to their YouTube Channel for more incredible music. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram , or visit their official website .
