It’s Halloweekend, which means my favorite time of year is afoot — the Brian David Gilbert Halloweenified song cover season.
YouTuber Brian David Gilbert, in summation, is the perfect culmination of Gen Z humor and shockingly good editing skills for the lower-budget productions he creates, and his newest project — Bee Dee Gee’s Hee Bee Bee Gees — is equal parts funny-ha-ha and funny-I-can’t-believe-this-works. It made me hehe haha.
BDG’s HBBGs is the second iteration of what I hope becomes a Halloween tradition, with last year being dedicated to spooky ABBA (AAAH!BBA) covers such as “Mummy, Mummy, Mummy” (“Money, Money, Money”) and “Lay All Your Love On Me, performed by a vampire.” The whole spectacle can really only be described as a theater kid fever dream, but it is delightfully campy and well-produced. Gilbert’s vocal timbre is a perfect balance of polish and hilarity, and Jonah Scott’s arrangements and audio production on songs such as “Under Attack, performed by a murder robot (feat 2winz²)” — some lore: the featured artist is a boy band Gilbert created of characters that are all siblings and are all played by himself, if it wasn’t zany enough for you — make each track refined enough for actual unironic replayability. This new project is no different.
“After Brian David Gilbert and Jonah Scott revealed their sinful AAAH!BBA cover album, they retreated to their lair to study the occult findings,” the opener to “Stayin’ Alive” says. “But their arcane research revealed a more devilish truth: ABBA was not the only disco group whose songs could be sung by Halloween villains.” And, boy, were they right.
The two releases out now, “Stayin’ Alive, performed by a vampire” and “Tragedy, performed by a Werewolf” are classic Bee Gees hits with lyrical adjustments to make them more applicable to their creatures of choice. “Tragedy” has some silly ones, including “With no one beside you, it’s why wolf, not where” (instead of the latter section saying “you’re going nowhere”), and the visuals reflect the vibe, with Gilbert jauntily dancing, clad in an hilariously-makeshift werewolf getup (the elastic that holds his werewolf nose to his face makes me laugh every single time).
Beyond the songs themselves, Gilbert’s wit is prevalent throughout not only the videos but all of the marketing as well, which make the whole three-person project (Gilbert, Scott, and graphic artist/filmer Karen Han) feel incredibly cohesive — I would honestly put the thumbnails as posters on my wall without hesitation. One of my favorite little tidbits is the opening description to “Stayin’ Alive:” “even a vampire has rough times. but the bee (dee) gees are here to get you through it.” Short, sweet, a play on words? Come on! Gimme, gimme.
If you’re looking for some tracks to pregame to, these may be the perfect addition to your Halloween playlist. Not only can you watch a grown man make a fool of himself on the internet, but you can bop to the well-known choruses as you complete your frat crawl.
