About

Mobile Ringtone Covers are instrumental tributes and musical remixes featuring custom arrangements of trademark ringtones that typically come preloaded with most cellular phone and other mobile devices. On YouTube, many musicians and instrumentalists have shared audio and video recording of themselves performing the familiar melodies.

Origin

One of the earliest known instrumental tributes to cell phone ring tones can be attributed to YouTuber Andrea Vadrucci's drum medley of Nokia's early monophonic ringtones (shown below) uploaded on August 16th, 2007. The video has accrued more than 4.2 million views as of May 2016.

Spread

On November 22nd, 2007, YouTuber Foggiano83 uploaded a video of an Italian musical ensemble performing an impromptu cover of Nokia's famous "Gran Vals" ringtone in jest after they're interrupted by a ringing cell phone of one of the audience members (shown below).

On December 25th, 2008, YouTuber Shivam220 uploaded a hip hop remix sampling a Nokia ringtone. On May 17th, 2010, YouTuber Al Wood uploaded a recording of himself performing a Ukulele rendition of Nokia's "Gran Vals" ringtone.

On July 30th, 2011, YouTuber Greatmilan uploaded a video of classical violinist Lukáš Kmiť performing a solo concert at Orthodox Jewish Synagogue in Presov, Slovakia, during which the music gets interrupted by the sound of a Nokia cell phone ringing from the audience. Immediately afterwards, Kmiť whimsically proceeds to play out the melodies of "Gran Vals" (shown below). A few months later, the video went viral after it was submitted to Reddit on January 21st, 2012.

On May 17th, 2012, YouTuber JulianSteelMusic uploaded a duet performance of iPhone's "Marimba" ringtone on the marimba (shown below, left). On May 19th, 2014, MetroGnome uploaded a video of himself mixing iPhone's "Marimba" ringtone using a launchpad (shown below, right)

On April 1st, 2016, YouTuber ToxicxEternity uploaded a heavy metal tribute to a series iPhone ringtones (shown below, left). On May 11th, 2016, Tony Ann uploaded a video of himself performing a piano arrangement inspired by various trademark ringtones associated with mobile phone companies (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References