Greetings and salutations, Zoners! How’d everyone do during this first week of the break? Going through withdrawals, starting to get the shakes? I know how it is. Hopefully I can tide you over with some great Musical Moments of The Colbert Report.
First, a couple of honorable mentions. Colbertnation.com made the narrowing down a little easier on me, since I couldn’t track down some of the clips I wanted. I loved “Teach Your Children” with Crosby, Stills and Nash — what most impressed me about that was that I couldn’t pick out Stephen’s voice among the others. He blended in seamlessly with guys who’d been singing together for decades. But the video can’t be found on the site — I assume due to copyright restrictions. Likewise, the trio of Willie Nelson, Stephen and Richard Holbrooke doing “On the Road Again” isn’t on the Colbert Nation site either. Narrowly missing the final cut was Stephen’s inspired and hilarious lip synch of “When Doves Cry” during his visit to the Smithsonian. I decided I wanted to keep these selections to actual vocal performances.
#5 – “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” Truth be told, I’d almost rather have included the outtake of Stephen playing Rock Band with Jason Chaffetz to this song — but I don’t think a Top 5 Musical Moments would have been complete without Stephen’s perfect parody of ’80s music videos. I shudder to think of all the music videos just like this that I enjoyed during my misspent youth.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Charlene (I’m Right Behind You) | ||||
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More after the jump!
#4 – Rep. John Hall – “Star Spangled Banner” Stephen has performed our National Anthem more times than any other song, many very good versions (including the trumpet duet with Wynton Marsalis as posted in DB’s honorable mentions, and one of my favorites — with Steve Carell at a Get Smart promo of some kind). But I liked this one with newly-elected Representative John Hall, formerly of the band The Orleans (the song starts right at about 3:25 if you want to skip ahead).
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| John Hall | ||||
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#3 – Duet with John Legend – “The Girl is Mine” Enjoy it now while you can, this video has a tendency to disappear quickly — Stephen and the honey-voiced John Legend performing the classic McCartney/Jackson duet, “The Girl is Mine” (link snared from the Colboards, h/t to Not Roland in a recent comment). BTW: Droooooooooooool.
#2 – Barry Manilow – “I Write the Songs.” Okay, now, see — until I saw this, I’d never heard Stephen sing before. You guys have no idea what kind of joy I experienced the first time I saw this clip. I believe I actually wept it made me so happy.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Manilow – “I Write the Songs” Duet | ||||
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#1 – Strike Week: Malcolm Gladwell, Andrew Young and the Harlem Gospel Choir – “Let My People Go.” Yup, snagging the number one slot, Stephen’s moving tribute to his striking writers.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Let My People Go | ||||
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Those were the Top Five that I came up with — what are yours? Did I miss anything super-obvious? Other than the entirety of the Colbert Christmas Special? That too made the honorable mention list for me, but I decided I couldn’t choose just one, and stuck to regular TCR episodes instead. What your favorite musical moments?
Oh how I love rewatching all of these! :) They’re all fantastic, thank you for putting them together. My two favorites are Let My People Go and This Land id Your Land.
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Aww, you picked some great ones! I think you definitely higlighted all the great musical moments in TCR history thus far. I didn’t see it coming – but I totally should have – that “Let My People Go” was number 1. Good choice! :)
I’m also partial to the recent “rap” that was supposed to be a battle with Michael Steele, the Colbert remixes, and “Singin in Korean”!
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I couldn’t agree more with your first choice! A great musical moment from what had to be one of the best TCR episodes ever.
I love the duet with John Legend just because Stephen’s singing is so lovely. And the “I will kick your prom king ass” line is hilarious.
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Agree. That episode was one of my favorite (I remember my mom walking in and seeing me watch the Filliam H Muffman segment and laughing with me).
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I would include Stephen singing with Wilie Nelson and Richard Holbrooke. It was a bizarre trio.
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Those are all great and def. agree w/ the #1 choice, but I think the “Singing in Korean” bit was the most hilarious of all. I also enjoyed his glee when he sang w/ Tony Bennett!
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oh definitely!!!!!
I always sing this when my mother walks into my room. One day I did the dance moves to it while in a bikini down at the park.
My fave move, is the side fist bump.
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Stephen and John Legend…sigh… I love it! All good picks, though! wouldn’t change a thing! :)
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Finally! Yay!
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SC “I’m gonna kick your prom king ***!”
JL “Don’t waste your time…”
Perfect! :D
Many thanks, Roland and nerdygirl.
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Great picks, nerdygirl! What a fun list. I, too, would’ve had Singin’ in Korean as well. I spose we could have gone nuts and had a top ten musical moments with Stephen. There have been quite a few.
I always love it when he sings. So fun. As an aside, I love how he knew all the words Let My People Go, when no one else did but the choir. Sing it, Stephen!
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Singin’ in Korean would definitely be in my top three. I also enjoyed Stephen singing “Dance With Me” with John Hall more than the star spangled banner. And Stephen trying to figure out what songs Hall had done after thinking he was part of Hall and Oats. “Brick house” and “Summer Breeze” were among those mentioned. That whole BKAD was one of my favorites.
But a GREAT list all the same. “Let My People Go” was probably the most moving so it is indeed a good choice for number one. Though I personally would have had trouble choosing between that and John Legend.
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My choice would definitely be John Legend and Stephen singing ‘Star Spangled Banner’. Such a beautiful rendition!
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Oh! Anytime he sings the star-spangled banner is an amazing performance. ^_^
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As a Korean girl named Charlene, I’m very partial to “Charlene” and “Singin’ in Korean” (haha, though I could barely understand what he was saying, if I hadn’t read the subtitles!). But Stephen singing anything patriotic is his forte, really. :)
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“Let My People Go” was and still is the oddest use of Malcolm Gladwell that I’ve ever seen. That being said, it was a fine moment nonetheless.
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I can’t watch the videos right now because I’m afraid I’ll burst out laughing here at work…
But they’re all classics, definitely. Charlene is my personal favorite, because it was the first sequences for me that really straddled the line of so-stupid-I-can’t-believe-I’m-still-watching moments that seem so memorable.
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The missing video is here:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/BjAgNpE_LvM/
(Chinese analogue to Youtube)
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