List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedia)

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List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedia)

Postby Tape Splicer » Sun Jan 01, 2012 1:21 pm

After reading the posts in "Is the Christmas music over yet?" and noting the comments about "Stewball" I checked "Wikipedia" and found the following list of poplar songs that were based on classical music. I have no idea how complete the list is but it is quite interesting... I am sure that other selections could be added to the list; for example...
One could add to this list many sacred songs written over the years. William booth the founder of The Salvation Army made a statement to the effect: Why should satin have all the good music, God made the notes... The Salvation Army used many secular melodies for their hymns. It also works the other way as well, the song "Now is the Hour" is based on a Maori hymn.

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List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedia)

1890s

(1891) "O Promise Me" by Reginald DeKoven & Smith, from the musical Robin Hood -- based on Musica proibita, the name popularly given to an aria in the 1888 Italian opera Mala Pasqua by Stanislao Gastaldon.
[edit]1910s

(1913) "Hungarian Rag" by Julius Lenzberg - based on the Second Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt.
(1918) "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" by Joseph McCarthy and Harry Carroll - based on the Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor by Frédéric Chopin.
(1919) "The Marine Hymn" by L. Z. Philips - based on the Gendarmes' Duet from Jacques Offenbach's opera Genevieve de Brabant
(1919) "Peter Gink" by George L. Cobb - based on the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.
[edit]1920s

(1922) "Goin' Home" popularized by Paul Robeson - based on the "Largo" from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"
(1928) "Lover, come back to me" in The New Moon by Sigmund Romberg - the middle section is based on "June: Barcarolle" from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, opus 37b.
[edit]1930s

(1930) "In an Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room" by Raymond Scott - based on Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 545
(1937) "Song of India", arr. Tommy Dorsey - based on "The Song of the Indian Guest" from Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko.
(1938) "My Reverie" by Larry Clinton - based on Debussy's Rêverie
(1939) "The Lamp is Low" - Peter DeRose and Bert Shefter - based on Maurice Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte
[edit]1940s

(1941) "Tonight We Love", by Freddy Martin, Bobby Worth and Ray Austin - based on Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op.23
(1942) "If You Are But a Dream", by Moe Jaffe, Jack Fulton, and Nat Bonx - based on Anton Rubinstein's "Romance in E flat, Op. 44,No. 1"
(1945) "Full Moon and Empty Arms", by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman - based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.
(1945) "Till the End of Time," words by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, popularized by, among others, Perry Como - based on Frédéric Chopin's "Polonaise In A Flat"
(1946) "Summer Moon" by Klenner, sung by Lauritz Melchior - based on Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird (Ronde des princesses)
(1949) "There's No Tomorrow," lyrics by Al Hoffman, Leo Corday and Leon Carr, popularized by Tony Martin, based on O Sole Mio by Eduardo di Capua.
[edit]1950s

(1952) "The Bigger The Figure", by Louis Prima - based on Rossini's Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville.
(1953) "Stranger in Paradise" by George Forrest and Robert Wright, in the Broadway musical Kismet - based on a theme from Alexander Borodin's Polovetsian Dances. Also in Kismet, the second movement of Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 which became "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads".
(1956) "Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)" by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning - based on a theme from Chabrier España, Rhapsody for Orchestra
(1958) "Catch a Falling Star" by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance - based on a theme from Brahms' Academic Festival Overture
(1959) "Once Upon a Dream" in the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty - based upon a waltz in Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty.
(1959) "Don't You Know" by Della Reese - based on "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's La Boheme
[edit]1960s

(1960) "It's Now Or Never" by Elvis Presley - also based on 'O Sole Mio.
(1962) "Nut Rocker" by B. Bumble and the Stingers, based on Tchaikovsky's "March of the Wooden Soldiers" from his ballet The Nutcracker.
(1963) "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter From Camp)" by Allan Sherman - based on Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" from La Gioconda.
(1965) "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys - based on J.S. Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach".
(1965) Diane and Annita's "A Groovy Kind of Love" is heavily based on the Rondo movement of Sonatina in G major, op. 36 no. 5 by Muzio Clementi.
(1967) "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum - (loosely) based on J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3, Air (commonly known as Air on a G String) and Cantata 140 "Sleepers Awake".
(1967) "Schroeder" in the stage musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - based on Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata".
(1967) "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" by Frank Zappa on Side 1 of his album Absolutely Free quotes from "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" by Gustav Holst from his suite "The Planets".
(1968) "Rain and Tears" by Aphrodite's Child based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major. Featured in the 2005 movie Three Times.
(1969) "Mars: The Bringer of War" by King Crimson on Epitaph - a progressive rock arrangement of Mars, from the The Planets suite by Gustav Holst
[edit]1970s

(1972) "Also Sprach Zarathustra" [I] by Deodato - a funk arrangement of Richard Strauss' composition of the same name
(1972) Pictures at an Exhibition by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - entire album based on the work by Modest Mussorgsky, with two original pieces ("The Sage" and "The Curse of Baba Yaga"), and a live cover of "Nut Rocker" featuring Clavinet
(1973) Joybringer by Manfred Mann's Earth Band - based on Gustav Holst's Jupiter
(1973) "American Tune" by Paul Simon -- based on Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
(1974) "I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield -- The instrumental riff between verses comes from the "Troika" portion of Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite written for a 1934 Soviet film, Poruchik Kizhe.
(1975) "Take my heart" by Jacky James -- romantic pop, huge success in Brazil, based on "In a Persian Market" by Albert Ketelbey.
(1975) "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen - borrows heavily from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. Same year, Carmen's "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" borrows from the Adagio of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2
(1975) "Could It Be Magic" by Barry Manilow - inspired by Chopin's Prelude In C Minor (Prelude #20: Largo)
(1976) "A Fifth of Beethoven" [I] by Walter Murphy - disco version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, featured in Saturday Night Fever
(1976) "Night on Disco Mountain" by David Shire - disco version of Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, featured in Saturday Night Fever
(1977) If I Had Words by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley - based on Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 in C minor (Organ Symphony)
(1979) Lady Lynda by Alan Jardine and Ron Altbach for The Beach Boys - based on Johann Sebastian Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
[edit]1980s

(1981) "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg - uses Peter Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
(1982) "Midnight Blue (Louise Tucker song)" by Louise Tucker and Charlie Skarbek - uses Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata
(1983) "This Night" by Billy Joel - uses Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata as the basis for the chorus
(1985) "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco
(1985) "Russians" by Sting - arrangement of the Romance in Lieutenant Kijé from Sergei Prokofiev
(1986) "Mars" by Emerson, Lake & Powell - arrangement of Mars: Bringer of War from Holst's The Planets
[edit]1990s

See also: 1990s in music
(1990) "All Together Now" by The Farm uses the chord progression from Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(1991) "Mea Culpa (Part II)" by Enigma samples the Kyrie eleison from Mass XI (Orbis Factor) in the Liber usualis.
(1991 and every four years thereafter) "World in Union", the official theme song of the Rugby (Union) World Cup, based on a segment of "Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity" from Holst's The Planets
(1993)
(1994) Hook (song) by Blues Traveler. The chord progression is loosely based on Pachelbel's Canon in D.
(1994) "Basket Case" by Green Day[1]
"Go West" by the Pet Shop Boys, emphasised the original 1979 Village People version's chord progression from Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(1996) "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis - chorus chord progression borrows from Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(1997) "C U When U Get There" by Coolio - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(1998) "Christmas Canon" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(1998) "The elephant never forgets" by Jean-Jacques Perrey - based on Beethoven's Die Ruinen von Athen.
(1998) "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" by Sweetbox - based on Bach's Air on the G string.
(1999) "Barber's Adagio for Strings" by William Orbit - a techno/electronic version of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"
(1999) "Love of My Life" by Dave Matthews and Carlos Santana on the Supernatural album. Main theme is a nearly literal quotation of a theme in the 3rd symphony of Johannes Brahms, with some rhythmic changes.
[edit]2000s

See also: 2000s in music
(2000) "Graduation (Friends Forever)" by Vitamin C - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(2000) Beethoven's Last Night by Trans-Siberian Orchestra - based on classical music, in particular, Beethoven.
(2001) "Yatta" by Happa-tai - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(2001) "Loving You Girl" by Norwegian band Opus X - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
(2001) "Crack City Rockers" by Leftöver Crack - features a keyboard intro/interlude from previous track (Stop the Insanity) of Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major" and it's chord structure is loosely based on the melody.
(2002) "Remember" by S.H.E - based on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
(2002) "One Last Breath/Six Feet From the Edge" by Creed
(2003) "I Can" by Nas - samples the theme from Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise.
(2005) "They" by Jem is based on Bach's Prelude in F minor (BWV 881).
(2005) "Adagio for Strings" by Tiësto is a trance arrangement of "Adagio for Strings".[2]
(2005) "Road to Joy" by Bright Eyes is based on the melody of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
(2006) "Lacrymosa" by Evanescence is based on the Lacrimosa movement from Mozart's Requiem.
(2007) "Grace Kelly" by Mika - Mika has admitted that he borrowed the main harmony from Figaro's famous aria Largo al factotum in the opera The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini.[3]
(2007) "The Second Coming" by Juelz Santana - samples the Gregorian chant Dies Irae.
(2008) "River of Dreams" by Hayley Westenra is based on the second movement (Largo) of Vivaldi's "Concerto No. 4 in F minor - Winter".
(2008) "Dear God" by Avenged Sevenfold
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Re: List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedi

Postby jon » Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:06 pm

What happened to the one that always comes to my mind as starting a small string of single releases, mostly minor hits, of upbeat full orchestral treatments of well known classical pieces: "A Song of Joy" by Miguel Rios. The conductor on that one, Waldo de los Rios, released a (small piece of a) Mozart Symphony that hit Billboard's Hot 100 exactly one year later, in June 1971.
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Re: List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedi

Postby PMC » Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:41 pm

jon wrote:What happened to the one that always comes to my mind as starting a small string of single releases, mostly minor hits, of upbeat full orchestral treatments of well known classical pieces: "A Song of Joy" by Miguel Rios. The conductor on that one, Waldo de los Rios, released a (small piece of a) Mozart Symphony that hit Billboard's Hot 100 exactly one year later, in June 1971.


There is plenty of Waldo De los Rios videos on Youtube. He died in 1977. Wikipedia has this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_de_los_R%C3%ADos
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Re: List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedi

Postby Howaboutthat » Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:06 pm

Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedi

Postby Tape Splicer » Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:57 pm

"Song Of Joy" (Himma a la Alegra) - Miguel Rios http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJOpMcac ... re=related
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Re: List of popular songs based on classical music (Wikipedi

Postby Tape Splicer » Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:10 pm

And here is the Spanish version of the same song: Himmo A la Alegria (Song of Joy) Miguel Rios

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xlQP7tbWs
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