If any Martians on, well, Mars are reading this: we are SO sorry. Not all of us like the Black Eyed Peas.
Rapper will.i.am can boast of an accomplishment that is out of this world: His latest single premiered from Mars, making it the first song to debut on another planet.
The Black Eyed Peas singer wrote the song, “Reaching for the Stars,” to mark the successful landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet this month. A far cry from his regular hip-hop tunes, it features a 40-piece orchestra set to a futuristic beat.
The song is set to transcend time and cultures, he said. (Via)
Should the Earth be blown to bits in the next couple of days, we can’t say we didn’t have it coming. NASA has a long, thankfully non-Black Eyed Peas musical history, beginning with “Jingle Bells” being performed as a practical joke by Gemini 6 astronauts M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford in 1965. Since then, a copy of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” was stashed aboard the Voyager spacecraft and hundreds of songs have been played as wake-up calls for bored astronauts. Most of the selections are from exactly who you’d expect — the Beatles, Elvis, Queen, Johnny Cash, etc. — but every so often, a truly baffling song will be played tens of thousands of miles away from Earth. Here are 15 of the most confounding.
“Cheeseburger in Paradise” by Jimmy Buffett
“Doctor, Doctor” by Thompson Twins
“Picky Picky Head” by Wailing Souls (from Cool Runnings)
“The End” by the Doors (such a downer, you guys)
“Beer Barrel Polka”
“Only Wanna Be With You” by Hootie and the Blowfish
“Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors
“To the Moon and Back” by Savage Garden (I get that it’s space-themed, but still, Savage Garden?)
“The Impression That I Get” by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
“Round and Round” by Ratt
“Galileo” by Indigo Girls (I’m sure someone, somewhere, protested two LESBIAN folk singers being played in space)
“Best Years of Our Lives” by Baha Men (good for them, having more than one song)
“Push It” by Garbage
“If I Had a Million Dollars” by Barenaked Ladies
“Camelot” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
