Tiny Dancer by Elton John

About a year ago, a producer in San Francisco called me into a studio to sing for the video game Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore. Apparently the first American Idol Karaoke game had been a big hit (big surprise there), and they wanted to make another one.

Since the original masters of classic songs can be fairly expensive to license, games like Guitar Hero and American Idol sometimes commission musicians to perform cover versions. The interesting thing is, these covers are meant to duplicate exactly the performances heard on the originals. Now for the musicians that shouldn’t be too big of a problem, but for the singers, that can be a little tricky.

I gotta say it was a riot being a 23-year old kid from Florida singing Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” with a faux British accent. I was standing there in the vocal booth, hearing little snippets of the original song played back in my headphones as I tried to mimic Elton’s phrasing and diction into the mic.

Here’s a cover version of me singing “Tiny Dancer,” only this time, I’m not trying to imitate anybody.