--- title: Final Countdown Bela Fleck Banjo Cover: Video description: Thanks to legendary banjo player Béla Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn canonical: https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-19T21:39:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:03.131Z og:title: This Banjo Cover of 'The Final Countdown' Is Surprisingly Beautiful og:description: Thanks to Béla Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn og:url: https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Banjo Cover of 'The Final Countdown' Is Surprisingly Beautiful twitter:description: Thanks to Béla Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Banjo Cover of 'The Final Countdown' Is Surprisingly Beautiful by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 19, 2015 9:39 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 19, 2015 9:39 PM UTC Okay, so, just hear us out. This banjo cover of “The Final Countdown” — that irritatingly catchy ’80s jam — is actually lovely. Really, really lovely. The _A.V. Club_ invited banjo legend Béla Fleck and his equally talented wife, Abigail Washburn, to perform the tune — and they totally crushed it. Oh, Fleck and Washburn perform in ridiculous ’80s-style wigs to really evoke the spirit of the song. Now, just try and watch the video without picturing [Gob Bluth making a dramatic entrance](https://youtu.be/xMRA0r92iac). _Read next:_ [_How a $600 Banjo Saved My Life_](http://time.com/money/3380240/jennifer-miller-banjo-money-well-spent/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/"},"headline":"This Banjo Cover of 'The Final Countdown' Is Surprisingly Beautiful","datePublished":"2015-05-19T21:39:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:03.131Z","description":"Thanks to legendary banjo player Béla Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn","url":"https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3889929/the-final-countdown-bela-fleck-banjo-cover/","name":"This Banjo Cover of 'The Final Countdown' Is Surprisingly Beautiful"}}]}] ```