Ever wanted to (A) See dozens of musicians around the world play “Stand By Me” and/or (B) brighten up your day? Well you’re in luck, as today’s Distraction of the Day provides both of those services!

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

A Gizmodo article describes how this video came to be:

This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added some metal percussion to it.

And from there, it just gets rock ‘n’ rolling bananas: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.

Not that anyone should need cheering up on such a beautiful day, but this video is fantastic. A classic for the ages. We can’t wait to see more!