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Our 5 favorite silly Jack Black songs that go great with ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie's ‘Peaches’
Black's always had a tenaciously great knack for belting out stupidly stellar comedy tunes.
What Nintendo fan among us knew that Bowser had a such a booming power ballad in him? Thanks to The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Jack Black’s soulfully tortured breakout tune, “Peaches,” the song’s official music video already has racked up an insane 6.5 million YouTube views…a number that’s still climbing like a Koopa army on the march.
For new Jack Black fans, “Peaches” makes for a whopper of a gateway intro to the rest of the Bowser voice actor’s extensive musical comedy catalog. But for longtime lovers of Black’s unquestionable musical skills — especially alongside Tenacious D partner in crime Kyle Gass — it’s just a killer new addition to a tune library that’s equal parts goofy and genuinely great — like really, actually, we-totally-mean-it awesome.
“Peaches,” in fact, has us in the mood to revisit more of Black’s bodacious balladry, which sent us down a rabbit hole to unearth more sneaky-good songs from the actor’s not-so-distant past. Ready to be wowed by Black’s wacky knack for cramming equal doses of the stupid and sublime into killer pop tracks masquerading as straight comedy? So are we — so keep scrolling!
'More than Words' video remake (with Jimmy Fallon)
What could be more fun than a pair of comedy stars accidentally showing off a serious sliver of their not-so-hidden musical talents? Back in 2015, Black and NBC funnyman Jimmy Fallon teamed up for their best Extreme impersonation in an impressively buttoned-down, shot-by-shot remake of the band’s iconic black-and-white music video for smash 1990 ballad, “More Than Words.” Hey, no one ever accused Fallon of being deficient in the music department, either: Long before his present-day hosting gig on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he'd been falsetto-crooning like a natural on comedy tracks like 2002's amazing “Idiot Boyfriend” — a song way worth checking out in video form not just for Fallon's funky pipes, but for an uncredited, early-career appearance from none other than a pre-New Girl Zooey Deschanel.
'Master Exploder'
Somewhere just beneath the surface, Black’s incredible musical talent pokes through on occasion to give a pretty raw peek at how close Tenacious D probably could come to just ditching the whole comedy angle altogether and achieving legit musical stardom…or at least a bona fide cult following from mythic metal shred fans looking for their next Yngwie Malmsteen. Black don’t need no microphone to wail above the frantic strum in “Master Exploder,” a classically-keyed number that proves the D has always had a gift for straightforward songcraft (not to mention metal-liciously silly lyrics).
'Rize of the Phoenix'
Rising from the box office ashes of The Pick of Destiny, Tenacious D strode into the jagged Joshua Tree desert to surge back for the musical attack, magically manifesting guitars, swords, boulders, and bats like a pair of medieval Bruce Dickinsons to torture out a scream or two of triumph in the hilarious "Rize of the Phoenix." “What will we do about all the fans who have the D tattoo?” Black moans, with the band’s eternal quest for stardom supplying the answer: Just write another top 1,000-charting hit!
'Wonderboy'
If “Peaches” isn’t proof enough that Black’s demonic musical obsessions come with a lighter side, the Spike Jonze-directed video for Tenacious D’s “Wonderboy” might just have you brushing aside a tear or two — though it’ll still probably be from laughter. Scaling mountains tailor-made to serve as backdrops for a Nordic-themed battle of musical wills, Black's Wonderboy steels his nerve against the wiles of the mucky-muck hydra and nemesis Young Nasty Man…only to fall, in the sad poetic end, at the isolated mouth of a snowbound mountain cave.
'Tribute'
You just knew this song was gonna be on a best-of Jack Black list, didn’t ya? Okay, this is definitely not the greatest and best song in the world (it’s only a tribute!), but it’s likely the song that Tenacious D fans identify with the most. Black and Gass hack a karaoke kiosk in the official music video for “Tribute,” in order to realize their rock star dreams in a brimstone-backed scorcher that tells an epic crossroads tale of blowing Satan away with the band’s rockin’ chops…all in in what turns out to be a devil’s bargain for the devil himself.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now in theaters. Tickets are on sale here!
