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Classical music themes 'borrowed' in rock music


Dan26030

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I'm compiling a list of classical music themes that were 'borrowed' by pop/rock music writers. The obvious ones are

All By Myself (Eric Carmen, Celine Dion) --> Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2

Annie's Song (John Denver) --> Tchaikowski's First Symphony

This Night (Billy Joel) -->Beethoven "Pathetique" Sonata

Any others?

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Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale is said to be Bach's "Air On The G String" filtered through Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman"

The song "Groovy Kind Of Love" Sounds a lot like Clementi's "Sonata Rondo"

Joni Mitchell references a lot of classical pieces in her work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nutrocker by B.Bumble and The Stingers in 1962, based on Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite." Also recorded by Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1972.

Lot's of other things by Emerson, Lake & Palmer such as Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", Sibelius" "Karelia Suite", Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique Symphony (#6)".

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Both Elvis Costello ("Accidents Will Happen") and Blues Traveler ("Hook") use the infamous "Canon in D Major" chord progression written by Johann Pachelbel. It's a pretty funny reference in "Hook" because the song is about writing a song with a "hook" in it that will stick in the listener's head. Anyone who has heard Pachelbel's Canon has probably gotten it stuck in their head for at least a few minutes! =:P

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And of course there's "A Fifth of Beethoven" from the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, (based on Beethoven's 5th symphony).

And then, extended from that is Thicke's "When I Get You Alone", which is based on "A Fifth Of Beethoven", which in turn is based on Beethoven's 5th.

Also, Barry Manilow's "Could It Be Magic" starts with a snippet of Chopin's Prelude in C Minor.

There you go. Two more for the list!

Jude

:bow:

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In the early and mid-seventies, there have been several German bands, especially EAST-German bands, which used classic tunes in their music. Bands like "Electra" and "Stern Meissen" adapted (is this the right word?) works from Mozart, Rachmaninov, Bach, Borodin etc. I guess that the blueprint for this was a Dutch band called "Ekseption".

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  • 2 weeks later...

FYI...A Fifth Of Beethoven was performed by Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band....Also, WM&TBAB performed a disco version of A Night On Bald Mountain. Also during the 70's, Meco made quite a carrer of revamping & re-releasing classical pieces as well as movie soundtracks within the disco genre. :afro:

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