Kurt Schneider wins the Internet again...with WHOM?!?

YouTube superstars Alex G, Kurt Schneider and Sam Tsui are back with the next great viral hit. Joining the team is a blast from the past you may not recognize.



Thirteen months ago, the Pitch Perfect Cups Song was all the rage on the Internet. You remember the one; it was the stunningly beautiful Anna Kendrick's audition to join the Barden Bellas in the smash hit Pitch Perfect and, in time, became Kendrick's first hit single which sparked thousands of covers from the YouTube community. One such cover caught my particular attention one night early in July 2013. I sat down to watch new videos from my few dozen subscriptions, but spent hours stuck replaying this particular Cup Song cover.



YouTube sensation Kurt Hugo Schneider, the Yale-educated musical and video-engineering mastermind behind a number of viral cover songs, had struck gold with his Cups cover. Featuring Schneider's best bud Sam Tsui and fellow YouTube singing stars Alex G and Kina Grannis, this one-take live performance featured a twist on the traditional "cup game" which provides the percussion to the original song. Add in a perfectly-blended four-part harmony and the authentic joy of four friends in perfect musical sync, and the ultimate viral hit of Summer 2013 was born.

Flash forward to August 2014. Again, winding down for the night, I opened my YouTube subscriptions and the top video listed was titled "Epic Patty Cake Song (I'll Think Of You)", uploaded by the impeccable Kurt Hugo Schneider. I spent the rest of the night savoring the four-part harmonies and human percussion - this time provided by an advanced version of the children's patty-cake game - I had fallen in love with in the Cups cover 13 months before.


(Here, watch it again because you didn't get enough the first time.)

Schneider's Epic Patty Cake Song is an original song written and arranged by Schneider and Tsui, entitled "I'll Think Of You." "I'll Think of You" brings back Cups' four-part harmony accompanied solely by man-made percussion, shot live and in one take. Alex G joins the duo for a reprise performance, but Grannis is this time not a part of the quartet. In her place is a girl who at first glance is unfamiliar, but once you learn her name is unmistakable.

Remember 10 years ago when Disney Channel was still somewhat enjoyable for the preteen demographic? There was a certain supporting actress in a number of those Disney Channel shorts, shows and movies who - at the time - I referred to as That-Cute-Girl-On-Disney-Whose-Name-I-Still-Haven't-Learned.

You couldn't go two hours on Disney Channel without seeing this face.

Her name, as I eventually made an effort to discover, is Alyson Stoner. While she never really stopped being active as an actress and - like just about every other 2000s Disney star - singer, Stoner's work became less relevant among the younger half of the millennial generation.

Alyson grew up like the rest of us, and quite possibly better than most of us.

Stoner just celebrated her 21st birthday, and appears to be finally emerging from the pre-teen "life in high school" genre of film, focusing on more age-specific roles....and music!

Does this collaboration with YouTube royalty mean Stoner is once again becoming relevant among the late-teen/early-20s age group she is a part of? Let's hope so; not only was she able to avoid going off the deep end like many other child stars our age (read: Cyrus, Miley), Miss Stoner also has an enjoyably pleasant singing voice.

If you need to catch up on That-Cute-Girl-On-Disney-Whose-Name-I-Still-Haven't-Learned like I did writing this post, Stoner is on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Kurt, Sam and Alex are continually producing content for their respective YouTube channels. Thirteen months from now, perhaps the trio will have released the next installment in what should certainly be a long-lived video series.