A guy named Josh Hosler has a neat website where you can see what the Billboard #1 single was on any given date, so I surfed around. It all reminds me of how out-of-touch I am and even more how long I’ve been out of touch. I look at the day before my birthday and I can’t recall a single song listed from the 00’s. My hipness apparently began in about 1991 and ended after 1996. I can actually name about 7 of 10 from both the 80’s and 90’s… but only one after 1996 (and a “country” song at that).

Alas, I cannot remember the song of my birthday, though interestingly the song in a previous year is Harry Nilsson’s “Without You”, which I’ve always had a place in my heart for (there was a period where I loved piano ballads with powerful voices). That lead to me Rhapsody and listening to the many, many versions of that song. Nilsson made it famous, but Mariah Carey’s is probably better known. Anyway, that lead me to Wikipedia to get more background, which lead me to one of the funniest videos that I’ve seen in a long time. (A video which is probably further proof of how out-of-touch I am).

Apparently, a singer for the Bulgarian version of “American Idol” did a cover of that song. The video became quite the sensation, so you’ve all probably seen it. Further proof of how out of touch I am. Anyway, I’m not a big American Idol person and I’ve frankly never seen the alure of the segments where they show wannabee contestants butchering songs. This, though, is priceless. Perhaps because of the language barrier. The exasperation of the judges and the back-and-forth at the end provide amazing bookends.

Apparently Mariah Carey was asked about it. It’s hard to hear her full response over the interpreter, and I’m loath to say anything nice about Mariah Carey (except that her version of Without You could have been much worse), but on the whole I thought she gave a pretty classy response.