My late father was born in 1923 and had me late in life; I was born in 1975. Because of this I was blessed to be exposed to a lot of things a lot of my friends tended to shy away from. A few of those things happens to be classic movies and big band music, stuff that I still appreciate today; but that doesn’t mean that I still didn’t want to break away and listen to a bunch of pop, rock, and rap music in my teens. Every now and then we would find something in common, like a Sting, Whitney Houston, or U2 song.
This weekend I saw a special on CBS titled Movies Rock. I think if I watched this show with my father he would of hated most of it, but I’m pretty darn sure there was one performance we both would have bonded over.Â
Over the years I’ve grown fond of Usher Raymond who happened to be on this special. He also has an appreciation for classic movies, and he paid tribute to Gene Kelly’s ‘Singing in the Rain’ – and he did is oh so very well. You can watch the clip below, and below that clip is the original. Pay special attention to the similarity to costume, set, and choreography.  It was also nice to see him put his own little twist on this performance. This was one of the greatest tributes I think I’ve ever seen. Good stuff, yo.
Usher’s Version
The Original
We have something in common. My father was born in 1926 and I was born in 1977. He died when I was 9, but I have seen this version by Usher before and he would have LOVED it. He liked musicals and Singin' in the Rain was one of his favorites. I have passed that on to my own children. I wish there were somewhere I could buy it on dvd.