A cappella covers have a tendency to go viral, but have you ever heard a one-man a cappella band recreate an entire punk rock song from scratch, mimicking drum beats, bass guitar, and lead lyrics all at once?
Musician Jared Halley brought Green Day fans to their knees when he dared to cover a chronological medley of the punk band’s greatest hits using only one instrument: his shockingly versatile voice.
His mind-blowing rendition has amassed over 2.5 million YouTube views to date, and Music Man readers can check it out in the video above…
In this megalithic split-screen video, Jared dresses just like Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong during the band’s iconic American Idiot era – black shirt, red tie, eyeliner, and crazed facial expressions crafting the ultimate punk rock parody.
But once fans get past the inherent comedy of his tribute, Jared’s cover becomes completely jaw-dropping. Starting with the high-speed hit, “Basket Case,” Jared doesn’t merely sing Billie’s top lines perfectly, but backs them with vocal recreations of the palm-muted guitar riff, studded with backing vocals stepping in and out of frame each time it’s their moment to shine.
Before long, he’s beatboxing Tre Cool’s drum kit with fantastic precision, the split-screen squares soon filling with countless Jareds all adding their magic to the track.
Just as listeners are getting to grips with the madness going down, Jared slides seamlessly into a ballad – “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” – diving into a brand new mood complete with the tinny hums of a vocal-acoustic guitar, and lead vocals which tap straight into Billie Joe’s own legendary tones.
The pace amps up with “Holiday,” settles back with “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” where Jared perfects a vocal phaser, the clip wrapped up with an astounding take on “21 Guns.”
But as it all plays out, one extra element emerges which is destined to blow your mind: Jared films each split-screen segment in one uncut take, using his unbelievable sense of timing to glue his cover in place. There are no jump-cuts in the video between songs or sections – just twenty straight clips of Jared sliding in and out of frame in perfect time for each vocal addition.
Spellbound viewers have been battling it out in the comments over which a cappella song they like best: countless highlighting Jared’s spot-on “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” rendition, others hitting back with how good “21 Guns” sounded, and even more spilling their love for the screens where Jared is just dancing to his own music.
Yet one top commenter brought Jared’s Green Day fandom together when they wrote to the tune of 6,200 likes: “When you joined the wrong Zoom conference…”