Of all the incarnations of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories lead single “Get Lucky,” this weekend’s (RED) Auction after party brought the, um, Bono-iest. As the Telegraph reports, the New York auction on November 23 helped haul in more than $26 million to fight AIDS in Africa. Designers Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson put together the hugely successful auction with the U2 frontman.
Later, Bono and fellow U2 member the Edge joined Chic’s Nile Rodgers onstage for an after party at Sotheby’s galleries, including the above take on Rodgers-anchored “Get Lucky.” It’s all in, well, “good fun,” but it’s painfully implicit that Bono might not be especially familiar with the melody, considering he delivers the verse lyrics in an almost spoken-word cadence: When the eternally bugeye-shaded one murmurs Pharrell’s “What is it that I’m feeling?,” he’s only an extra pause away from William Shatner parody. Beninoise singer Angélique Kidjo‘s rip-roaring vocal steals the song, and you suspect even Bono would agree. All well-intentioned teasing aside, you should see how we sing after raising $26 million for a noble cause. (We’d probably forget the tune to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” or something like that.)
U2 recently shared “Ordinary Love,” from the soundtrack to Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and their first album in five years is reportedly penciled in for April 2014. Rodgers was most recently heard on Disclosure’s excellent “Together.”
Contrast and compare Bono’s “Get Lucky” with nine great Internet remixes, Darkside’s Daftside remix, a Nintendo-style eight-bit remix, Florence Welch’s impromptu live-band karaoke version, Daughter’s folk cover, and — well, we don’t have all night, do we?
