Add Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” to that list.
Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” can be sung to the tune of “O Tannenbaum.”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” can be sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun.”
I thought Cat Stevens wrote “Morning Has Broken.” I had to edit my post when I read it was published in 1931.
“Child in a Manger” is from the 19th Century.
FYI: “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” was written as a female’s response to “Wild Side of Life” later, so naturally used the same tune. Ican’t speak to the genesis of the other songs.
Only if “sounds just like” = “is”
Or better yet . . . “Hernando’s Hideaway.”
I love that version, but dear God the years were not kind to that band.
At my daughters last birthday party they played a game where the girls would quack a song and the rest would have to guess what song they were doing. After about 10 mins I cracked and had to explain that they were all the same tune!
Also A Home in the Meadow from the movie “How The West Was Won”
The Eydie Gorme recording “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” showed up decades later as “A Night Like This” by Caro Emerald and others.
The 1954 hit “Till We Two Are One” is really a slowed-up version of “Jimmy Crack Corn.”
In fact, slow it down still further and it sorta resembles “Ebb Tide.” Far out. Shows you the possibilities inherent in merely altering the speed of a composition.
“When This Ruddy War Is Over” is sung to the melody of “What A Friend I Have In Jesus”.
Tempo and rhythm are surprisingly important. Years ago my mom, a piano teacher, attended a workshop/conference for music teachers and saw a demonstration of this. The “speaker” sat at the piano and played the correct sequence of notes that comprise the melody of “The Star Spangled Banner”, but completely changed the rhythm. Nobody could identify the tune until … she played the correct rhythm, but using only a single note. Then everybody immediately identified the song.
I’m pretty sure Slapshot’s Shoot Charlton Heston uses the exact same riffs as Marduk’s Panzer Division Marduk.
“Sittin’ on Top of the World” = “Come On in My Kitchen”
Half of Chuck Berry’s music sounds eerily like the other half of Chuck Berry’s Music.
Fortunately, both halves are great.
I believe it began life as a tune that Hans Leo Hassler composed for a love song: Mein G’müt ist mir verwirret.
It was later recycled in several different psalms. Its most famous use may be in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
I’m not gonna re-read this entire thread, so this has possibly been already mentioned:
Tom Lehrer’s “Elements Song” is the same melody as “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General,” from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. And there have been many other parodies and pastiches as well, like the “Boy Scout Merit Badge Song.”
Don’t know if this fits exactly, but on a recent Old 97’s album, songwriter Rhett Miller took Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” and wrote completely new lyrics, calling the song “Champaign Illinois”. Dylan agreed to the use of his old song in return for co-writer credit on the new song.
Yes, correct. It was later adapted as the folk song “Because All Men Are Brothers” by Tom Glazer and was well-know to folkies. This is where Paul Simon picked it up.
I found my idea had been ninja’ed a year ago … by me. Oh, well.
One I’ve never really understood, The Animaniac’s Countries of the World is supposedly The Mexican Hat Dance, but with different notes. I don’t know how it could be the same tune if it has different notes, but people a lot more expert at music than I am have tried to convince that it’s true.
I just listened to it. I don’t think it’s a straight copy of The Mexican Hat Dance, but there are four places where it clearly quotes the main theme: Costa Rica through Guam, Syria through Spain, Tunisia through Ghana and Ethiopia through the end.
I went to a concert of sorts many years ago where a ‘supergroup’ of folksingers did their thing. I wondered if they knew more than 2 songs as that’s all they seemed to sing all night!
Westlife took the tune from Rainbow Zephyr for their (released around the same time IIRC) Hey Whatever
All I Want Is You- Barry Louis Polisar and Countdown- Beyonce
