Wall Street is constantly making music. Sometimes it belts out tunes that tickle investors' ears, but other times it hums little ditties that shareholders would rather not hear. Let's review some of the tunes heard on the Street last week.

1. "Oops, I Did It Again" by the Microsoft Melody Machine

On Thursday, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that it's pushing back the release of Office 2007. This is nothing new for Microsoft. Its history has been plagued with delays and other whoopsies of this sort. After already delaying the release of the new version of Windows, dubbed Vista, Microsoft is now going to miss the crucial holiday season with both products. This is important for Microsoft shareholders, since the divisions responsible for Windows and Office made up more than 50% of the company's 2005 revenue. It's anybody's guess just how much of a near-term revenue impact this will have, but continuing to alienate the customers who rely on Microsoft products could have a pretty bad long-term impact.

2. "Stand by Me" by Steve Jobs and the Apple Artistes

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was hoping its shareholders would join in a rousing chorus of this oldie-but-goodie as it became the most recent technology company to suffer a controversy regarding stock options given to company officers. Apple discovered the options trouble through an internal investigation it conducted in response to increasing concerns in the industry. Though at first blush the options in question at Apple may not be as troublesome as some of the other high-profile cases have been, it's a tough call to make until more information comes to light. In any event, Apple joins a growing number of major technology companies to have options problems, including Intuit, Monster, Mercury Interactive, CNET, and Rambus. This problem only added to Apple's agony, which began earlier in the week when American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu suggested that the newest generation of iPods may be delayed.

3. "Ridin'" by Hardcore Honda

Honda (NYSE:HMC) is going to be rapping this Chamillionaire tune along with some new compadres in Indiana after announcing that it will be building a new plant in the Hoosier state. For the reportedly low, low price of $142 million in tax credits and other incentives, Indiana was able to beat out other states, most notably Ohio, vying for the new $550 million plant. While U.S. auto manufacturers Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group continue to struggle, their Asian counterparts Honda and Toyota are picking up the pieces, particularly with their leadership in the fuel-efficient and hybrid categories.

4. "It Was a Very Good Year" by the Warren Buffett Crooners

I heard a rumor that Warren, el capitan of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) (NYSE:BRKb), has sung this Frank Sinatra classic 44 times -- once for each year since he began buying Berkshire Hathaway stock back in 1962. Buffett announced this week that he will be earmarking 10 million B-class shares of Berkshire Hathaway for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand the foundation's resources. As of last Friday's closing price, this gift is worth a cool $30.4 billion, which, according to a letter from Buffett to the foundation, will be made available starting with a grant of 500,000 shares this year. While this is an unprecedented act of charity, it is also an extension of the Buffett's own genius. Throughout his career, Buffett has been lauded for his ability to pick out the excellent managers and companies that have awarded such great returns for Berkshire shareholders. That has foregone the potential legacy of setting up his own foundation to take advantage of the good management and talent already established under the Gateses only serves to further justify the kudos he's gotten all along.

5. "Crazy" by Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Rockers

Ben and the Fed were rocking to the Gnarls Barkley smash hit on Thursday as they watched the market react to the latest round of interest-rate hikes. In a peculiar case of "sell the rumor, buy the fact," the Dow finished the day up 216 points while the Nasdaq climbed 63 points in the wake of the Fed's quarter-point interest-rate hike. Of course, the 25-basis-point hike was less than the half-point hike that some Fed watchers were starting to talk about, and the Fed's released statement was decidedly less hawkish than previous statements had been. But since the sell-off on Wall Street began in early May, investors, or at least traders, seem to be hanging on every word from any of the Fed board members and are creating plenty of volatility based on interest-rate expectations. With the Fed's most recent statement that the "extent and timing of any additional firming" will depend on further economic data, it's unlikely that we're going to see that volatility die off quite yet -- or get that darn Gnarls Barkley song out of our heads.

For more recent rockin' Foolishness:

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Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer loves the beautiful music of Wall Street but doesn't hold shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy is always a hit.