In the deep recesses of the internet, where budding stars dump their content in hopes for algorithmic traction, Buff Correll has been honing his craft and peeking his bushy brows towards the edges of virality. For over 10 years, Corell Bufford has been creating , dancing and singing to his heart’s content, hoping someday to break into the mainstream as a performer and entertainer. 

While mainstream success might be out of reach, Correll has built a fanbase for himself through sheer force of will and tenacious consistency, releasing a steady stream of content that rivals our own Anthony Fantano in quantity.

The YouTube star, famous for his formulaic song and dance videos that feature him performing all sorts of songs, sat down with TheNeedleDrop.com for a retrospective on his career and an analysis of his art, hoping to help us answer the question: how do you do it?

“My father used to wake me up every morning to get up and dance,” Correll said in our interview. “When I felt depressed or didn’t want to do something he’d tell me, ‘get up and dance! Get up and dance!’”

Correll’s late father was a first-sergeant in the Army whom Correll said raised him to love music and dancing. When Correll graduated high school, he joined the Army to pursue a military career like his father, but he quit because he couldn’t fit in. “I was trying to follow in my father’s footsteps as a First Sergeant, and I didn’t do that, so I was depressed.” After several years of unemployment and obesity, a close-encounter with death led Correll to re-evaluate his life. He hired a personal trainer, got his body into shape, and burst from the ashes with the desire to become an entertainer. 

Correll tried several different avenues to get into the entertainment business, including a disastrous audition for America’s Got Talent, but he unexpectedly found his medium when he started uploading videos to YouTube. Correll’s first video was a cover of “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, but it was his second video, singing Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love”, that started getting him attention. When it was uploaded to World Star Hip Hop in 2013, the reaction was overwhelmingly negative, with viewers leaving deriding remarks on everything from his voice to his haircut.

Driven by self-discipline and his washboard abs, Correll danced through the chatter of the haters:

“Everyone was like, ‘you have the worst singing voice I’ve ever heard before in my life — your dance moves are okay, but your voice is terrible.’ So I just kept singing and dancing. I didn’t know about the results, but I knew if I stayed consistent I could do it.” 

Since 2013, Correll has consistently uploaded content — sometimes up to three or four videos a day — and, as of 2025, has amassed over 402,000 subscribers and millions of views, gaining legitimate fans and solidifying his audience through his determination.

Sorting through the comments on Correll’s latest videos, they’re quirky and endearing: 

“New Dance Steps!!! Great!”  - @papi1879

“THE SLOW MOVES ON THE INTRO ARE TOP TIER BUFF” - @PegasuTV

“You’re lying if you say he didn’t snap with the moves” - @kheyana01

“His neighbors pay his rent for the privilege of living so close to such greatness” - @PrestigeWorldwid3

While a lot of Correll’s drive appears to originate inwards, his real ambition stems from wanting to motivate his fans. “I want to inspire people like my dad did at the time. I want them to put the music on and get in a better mood, feel better about themselves, and want to help out people. Inspire people to do whatever they want to do. I think that’s what I was aiming for in the first place.”

Correll credits his bodybuilding lifestyle and personal trainer for helping him develop the determination to keep singing and dancing. “Bodybuilding is my foundation, without it I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “I couldn’t be this motivational and do it for this long without bodybuilding. Once I see the results, it leads to the music. Both passions come together, but I need both in order to do the video. I can’t have one without the other. That’s what it means to me to be Buff Correll.”

Inspired by the music, media, and dance moves of the 90s, Correll’s taste is like a time capsule. Whether he’s talking about music or basketball, his references always allude to 90s American culture, praising acts like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Prince, and Phil Collins for their influence on his style. For Correll, the day the music died was June 25 2009: “In [2009], [Michael Jackson] passed away and so the music wasn’t sounding good to me anymore.” Correll cites Michael Jackson as his greatest influence as a dancer, thanks to his dad playing The Jacksons’ records and watching MJ’s music videos on MTV. 

Although Correll self-admittedly doesn’t like to interact with fans too much because of the negativity he’s faced, they have become his gateway into learning new music. “I let [fans] talk, I don’t talk back to people. I take requests and people like to buy the shirts and stuff, but I’m glad just to have fans and that they’re out there and enjoying the work,” he said. “I’m very humbled by my fans, I appreciate them and the more they do requests the more I try to do all of them.”

Some of Correll’s favorite videos stem from fan requests. “I love ‘Cha-La Head’ from Dragon Ball Z,” he said. “I also love that one song, how does it go — ‘IT GOES IT GOES IT GOES GUILLOTIIIIIIINE’ by… who’s that, Death Grips? Yeah, I never heard of Death Grips before, but I like his music. ‘I’ve Seen Footage’ too, that’s a good one.”

Looking towards the future, Correll doesn’t know where his project will lead him, but he appreciates the consistency. “At one time I thought I was going to give up on Buff Correll, but life just is what it is,” he said. “I’m in my 40s now so I think differently about life, but Buff Correll seems to keep me in line a lot. Whatever I’m going through in my personal life, it seems that Buff Correll is still around.”

Fortunately, whenever Correll gets tired of posting videos, his channel has enough content to last almost a lifetime. And in order to highlight his expansive collection of videos, here are five of his best covers to date, according to TheNeedleDrop.

LET’S GET IT.

5. Even Flow - Pearl Jam [January 7 2025]

Released in 1992 as the second single from Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, “Even Flow” has resurfaced online in the last year as the soundtrack to a popular meme featuring the video game Skate 3. Players dressed as Jesus, or ‘Steezus Christ,’ would pull off mind-boggling skateboard tricks in sync with the song, usually with the ironic caption, "Explain this, atheists" What makes Correll’s rendition so outstanding are his guttural vocal inflections and his subtle facial expressions. From the opening lyrics, Correll belts out long, resounding notes that amp up the energy before he lets it rip in the anthemic chorus. In between the verses, you can catch him throwing glances at the camera, flashing the recognizably unnerving smile from his social media photos. Between the hype and the memes, this recent video became an instant classic the moment it dropped.

4. Electric Feel - MGMT [March 18 2019]

Buff Daddy comes out to play on this one. This has one of Correll’s funniest introductions, where he shallowly explores the origin of the acronym "MGMT" and shares his appreciation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Correll’s intros are generally funny on principle, but for this one it’s as if his vocal warm-up gained sentience and evolved into a long, never-ending sentence. When the song kicks in and that recognizable, swaying, wispy synth starts, Correll’s dance moves blast into overdrive. It makes it all that much funnier when the lyrics come in and Correll lands, very confidently, on the wrong key.  

3. Chandelier - Sia [December 1 2015]

Despite there barely being any dancing, this takes the cake as Correll’s greatest performance to date. He lays it all on this song, hitting Sia’s soaring vocal hits with such intensity, it looks like the veins in his neck are ready to burst. The few dance moves he does display carry the verses until his falsetto howling dares Sia to do better. There’s no holding him back, literally – there’s so much sweat dripping down his body he’d slip right out. Because nothing holds back Buff Correll – no haters, no music industry, no key changes, nothing can stop him from laying it down on this song. For all we know, Sia wears that giant wig to hide her tears because of how Correll has taken her song and made it his own.

2.  Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen [July 28 2016]

This video is the whole package: it’s one of Correll’s most ambitious covers, and his most intimate. Through interpretive dance moves and an evocative vocal performance, Correll flexes his range on one of the most eclectic songs in rock and roll history. He even finds the space to throw his own style into the song when he interrupts the spaces with Correll-themed ad-libs. Generally an elusive and private man, this video also contains glimpses into the lore of Correll, as he describes some of his experiences in the Army while stationed in Korea.  

 1. Fireflies - Owl City [Novermber 5 2018]

Of the three covers Correll has done of Owl City’s “Fireflies”, only two remain, and at nearly 2 million views, this particular rendition has become one of his most popular videos. Rocking some orange/blue shorts from Master Roshi’s Turtle School, he goes on an unhinged vocal warm-up about mayonnaise on slushies, before giving the second-best vocal performance of his career. The harmony between his dance moves, the song, and his vocals are in peak form in this video, sounding enchanted and inspired. It’s hard to have this video on in the background or anywhere around people, because it’s undeniably infectious and I’m always singing along by the end. There’s no denying that I would like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly, but no one turns heads like Correll singing this song.