Organist Paul Fey Plays 'He's a Pirate' on World's Largest Pipe Organ

Organist Paul Fey has performed "He's a Pirate" from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' on the world's largest pipe organ, the Midmer-Losh instrument at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. A video of the performance, highlighted by music blogger Eric Alper on November 8, 2026, shows the Disney theme rendered on a machine of staggering scale.

How big is the Midmer-Losh organ?

The numbers define the story. The organ contains 33,112 pipes. It has seven keyboards. It was built to fill an enormous auditorium, and it does.

That pipe count needs a frame to register. A large church organ might hold a few thousand pipes. The Midmer-Losh holds more than ten times that figure. Seven manuals — the term for an organ's keyboards — put it far beyond the two or three found on most concert instruments.

Alper, writing on his site That Eric Alper, put the scale bluntly: "the scale is absolutely ridiculous." He opened his post with a fitting line for the material: "Pirates need a bigger ship for this one."

What does the performance sound like?

Fey takes a familiar film theme and pushes it through an instrument designed for maximum sonic reach. According to Alper's write-up, Fey "turns the familiar" melody into something sized to the hall — the source notes the sound was built to fill an enormous auditorium, and the video captures that collision between a Hollywood tune and a colossal machine.

The choice of piece matters. "He's a Pirate," Klaus Badelt's main theme from the 2003 film 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,' is one of the most widely recognized orchestral themes of the past two decades. Hearing it on 33,112 pipes recontextualizes both the tune and the instrument.

Why the Midmer-Losh draws attention

The Boardwalk Hall organ holds the distinction of being the largest pipe organ in the world, and it has long attracted organists looking to test its limits. Videos of performances on the instrument routinely circulate among music audiences online, and Alper's post is the latest to push one into wider view.

Fey's video joins a growing catalog of popular music transcriptions performed on the instrument, where the appeal lies in the mismatch: a swashbuckling film theme delivered with the full weight of the world's biggest organ.

The takeaway, in plain words: one organist, seven keyboards, 33,112 pipes and one pirate tune — and a video that shows why the Midmer-Losh keeps its title.