Boyce Avenue: "Locked Out of Heaven" (2013)

You would have to have been living in a cave to not be aware of the  Bruno Mars (Peter Gene Hernandez) version of "Locked Out of Heaven". The recording, part of his latest release called  Unorthodox Jukebox, is a great album with a startling number of diverse offerings. The lead single from the album, "Locked Out of Heaven" has reached number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canada and the top ten in several countries worldwide. The album's second single, "When I Was Your Man", has reached the top ten of fifteen countries, including number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

In researching "Locked Out of Heaven", we stumbled upon this beautifly stripped down acoustic cover version performed by Boyce Avenue. Since you can go anywhere on the net and read about Bruno Mars, let's talk about this band.

Boyce Avenue, consists of the three brothers, Alejandro, Fabian, and Daniel Manzano. The brothers first came together as a band in 2004 when Alejandro (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Fabian (guitar, vocals), and their older brother Daniel (bass, percussion, vocals) reconnected after pursuing their respective educational goals. Daniel graduated from Harvard, then joined his other two brothers who were attending the University of Florida. They started playing arounf Gainsville and wrote original music. They would go on to record videos which helped the band get traction via YouTube. Several albums are available through their site, Itunes or Amazon. A new album is expected soon. They have played some great venues in the United States and have a large international following. 

Some of the first few videos they posted included acoustic versions of songs such as Justin Timberlake’s “LoveStoned”, Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”, among many others. The videos resonated instantly with YouTube viewers. And to date, the band has over 300,000,000 views on YouTube and over 700,000 subscribers to their channel, making theirs one of the most frequented channels worldwide on YouTube.

From their own website: Early on, the band wanted to set itself apart from other acts that had achieved success online by taking its music straight to the people, live. Believing firmly in the strength of their online fans, and in its music, the band booked a stand-alone show in New York City in January of 2009, for their first ever performance in the city. Surprising label and industry folks alike, the show – perceived by others as a gamble – was an enormous sellout and success. Since then, the band has been steadily touring the world over with similar results.

Here is the Bruno Mars original, followed by the acoustic version by Boyce Avenue: