SongSmith has been widely panned as inferior to Apple's popular virtual music kit GarageBand, but internet wits have discovered an alternative use for the programme and its musical limitations: creating dreadful reworkings of existing hits.

When the vocals of famous songs are run through the software, the backing tracks it adds are so unlikely that the end results often turn out as surreal reinventions of the originals.

Dozens of Songsmith reinterpretations have been posted on YouTube, including a hillbilly version of Billy Idol's White Wedding, The Beatles classic Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as if performed by a plodding hotel quartet, and a techno take on Wonderwall by Oasis.

Many of the videos have been viewed more than a hundred thousand times. The reaction from commenters has been mixed, with most appreciating the absurdity of SongSmith's efforts while others protest the "massacring" of their favourite tracks.

"Proof that computers shouldn't be allowed to make music," wrote one. Another said: "After you hear a few, your brain implodes into a sludge, and they start to sound bad-good. Or good-bad."

Beneath the dance version of Wonderwall, one commenter wrote: "This is a distinct improvement on the original."