You have not heard Billie Jean until you have heard it as surely Michael Jackson intended - played with lightning dexterity on a ukulele doubling as a beat box by a shaggy-haired Canadian.
Such was one of the delights which had the Wakatipu and Central Otago audience applauding wildly and stamping their feet when James Hill, accompanied by Anne Janelle on cello, opened for, then collaborated with, the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.
It was the first concert in the revamped Queenstown Memorial Centre on Thursday night and let the community see what it got for $3.1 million in donations and grants.
''Love what you've done with the place,'' Hill said, to laughter.
The duo proved charmingly adept at playing folk and bluegrass melodies of their own composition and answered the age-old question of what a ukulele sounds like when played using chopsticks.
The answer is ''extraordinarily good'', especially while Hill turned his four-string into a drum 'n' bass machine and Janelle played what can only be described as ''scratch cello''.
Just like the Beatles stopped squabbling and returned to greatness when Billy Preston joined the Get Back sessions, it felt like the orchestra raised their already high game even higher when Hill was within their ranks.
The seven-year-old orchestra brought us sunshine with new set additions including Bob Dylan's Paths of Victory, the Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty duet Stop Draggin' My Heart Around and Gene Pitney's The Boss's Daughter, as well as solid-gold crowd-pleasers Maneater by Hall and Oates, orchestra co-founder Age Pryor's declared favourite songwriting team after Lennon and McCartney, and Africa by Toto.
All were joyfully played with the trademark virtuoso strumming and plucking and multi-part vocal harmonies, complete with hilarious audience participation.
It was a ''uke-clear powered'' night to remember and the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and its special guests cannot return soon enough to Queenstown.
