Gathered at the front of a church, are six men that look like they are ready to bust out some soulful music. Dressed in all black they start to sway, and you know that a hit is about to follow. The familiar baseline of ‘Stand by Me’ can be heard but it’s not coming from a range of instruments. The music is coming from the men and their upright bassist.
It’s not quite a capella but it sure is close, and what these men can do with their voices is amazing. All melodies and harmonies of the popular song can be heard just from five of guys, while the base player fills in the rest. There are a lot of covers of this song, its simplicity and popularity make it a common song to recreate by artists of all styles, but theres not many that can sing it like this.
One man on the end leading the pack, sings most of the lyrics, while the other four take the back-up vocals and harmonies. It’s always a treat when the man on the other end breaks out his falsetto to echo the lead singer during the highest parts of the song. The bass player stays consistent with his part, keeping the rest of the singers on track.
The singing is great, but not long into the number, they have synchronized moves to certain parts of the song.There bops and slides to different parts resemble something straight out of the sixties, similar to popular groups like the Temptations or Supremes. Though their choreography isn’t complicated, it fits the song well, and makes the performance that much more entertaining.
Their group is called Cover Story, a group that mostly performs on the streets of New York City ,but their YouTube channel has become very popular. This particular YouTube video has gained hundreds of thousands of views and raked in hundreds of positive comments from people all over the world. They’ve performed other covers of popular Motown songs, like ‘This Magic Moment’ and ‘Book of Love’, just a few songs that show off their old fashioned, soulful voices.
Today’s music is filled with pop and country voices that all sound so similar. Let’s hope that this group of soulful singers continue to make music to stand out from the crowd and bring back the Motown sound.
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