Ariana Grande Never Sounded This Good, Hear The Scott Bradlee 1950s-Style Version of ‘Problem’

At age 21, Boca Raton, Florida native Ariana Grande is already one of the top pop stars in America, but as would be expected from a 21-year-old who gained her initial fame on the Nickelodeon kid TV show Sam and Cat, Grande’s audience is mainly teen and pre-teen girls.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. But it does tend to lead more, shall we say, seasoned music aficionados to dismiss Ariana Grande’s music as basically bubble gum — sugary, disposable pop. But what if we told you that in the hands of the right musicians, even a hit single by Ariana Grande could be tailored into a great song for those of us with more refined tastes?

That’s what Scott Bradlee does. The 32-year-old New York pianist lives for jazz, swing and other classic genres of music. He’s become well-known for his viral YouTube videos in which he —with his group Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox — rearranges contemporary pop tunes as classics from bygone eras.

In this video, he takes “Problem,” the runaway Ariana Grande hit from earlier this year — which also featured Australian rapper Iggy Azalea in the original version — and reworks the tune as a 1950s doo-wop classic, with sultry vocals by Postmodern Jukebox singer Robyn Adele Anderson and backup from New York City doo-wop singers The Tee Tones.

For our money, Ariana Grande never sounded this good. Give a listen and tell us what you hear. And if you want to compare, you can listen to the original version of “Problem” at this link.