Charlie Puth took part in Jimmy Fallon’s semi-frequent “Musical Genre Challenge” Tuesday night on The Tonight Show, in which musicians have to improvise a random combination of a song and a genre it doesn’t belong to.
It’s a lot of fun and very silly, considering that Fallon also has to participate in the challenge. But it’s also a good excuse to showcase the full range of an artist’s talents — and with Puth it was no different.
The late-night host started off with a Nineties R&B slow-jam version of “The Cha Cha Slide,” followed by an EDM version of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers.
Puth began with a “Broadway” version of Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” which mostly sounded like Puth doing a straight cover of the song. (Puth writes piano-based pop songs, after all.) But things really got interesting when he was asked to do a version of his hit single “We Don’t Talk Anymore” as sung by The Doobie Brothers. Cue one of the best — and most unexpected — Michael McDonald impersonations in recent memory.
Puth has a third studio album on the way, and has released three singles from it so far: “I Warned Myself,” “Mother” and “Cheating on You.”