# Inserting song lyrics into alternate tunes: List your faves! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419 "2010-09-29T01:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/1 "2010-09-29T01:15:16Z")
Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for **Amazing Grace** fit nicely into the tune for **Gilligan’s Island** , and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. Likewise discovering that **O Little Town of Bethlehem** and **House of the Rising Sun** could be interchanged (example on youtube [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJP68GrLT38)) was also a treat. Anyone else have similar faves? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/2 "2010-09-29T01:19:29Z")
The Spider-Man theme can be sung to the tune of Eidel Weis. My multimillion dollar idea is to record that and make a multimillion dollars. All I need is to record it and for someone to give me all that money. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/3 "2010-09-29T10:45:24Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for **Amazing Grace** fit nicely into the tune for **Gilligan’s Island** , and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. So can Emily Dickinson’s “[Because I Could Not Stop For Death](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395)” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/4 "2010-09-29T11:11:02Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for **Amazing Grace** fit nicely into the tune for **Gilligan’s Island** , and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. > > Likewise discovering that **O Little Town of Bethlehem** and **House of the Rising Sun** could be interchanged (example on youtube [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJP68GrLT38)) was also a treat. > > Anyone else have similar faves? Funnily enough I have a recording of the Blind Boys of Alabama singing **Amazing Grace** to the tune of **House of the Rising Sun**. It all syncs up! I’m now off to play all four tunes over the opening of the Wizard of Oz… ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/5 "2010-09-29T11:17:19Z")
I once heard the lyrics to Green Acres over Purple Haze music. Pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/6 "2010-09-29T12:18:04Z")
I came in to point out that **America the Beautiful** could be interchanged with **Auld Lang Syne**. Then I realized that those two can _also_ pretty much synch up with **Amazing Grace** , **Gilligan’s Island** , **O Little Town of Bethlehem** , and **House of the Rising Sun**! I think there is a global conspiracy afoot. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/7 "2010-09-29T14:49:40Z")
My cursory research has indicated that a lot of songs are written in “ballad meter” and are hence pretty interchangeable. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/8 "2010-09-29T15:13:03Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > > > Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for **Amazing Grace** fit nicely into the tune for **Gilligan’s Island** , and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. > > So can Emily Dickinson’s “[Because I Could Not Stop For Death](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395)” Someone once pointed out to me that many of Emily Dickinson’s poems can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/9 "2010-09-29T15:22:21Z")
[Stairway to Gilligan’s Island](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI) ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/10 "2010-09-29T16:10:01Z")
Lately I’ve been playing with singing the words of The Star Spangled Banner to the tune of the old Soviet national anthem. There are some rough spots like gleaming/streaming only have one note for two syllables but on the whole, it works surprisingly well. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/11 "2010-10-01T05:53:48Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Funnily enough I have a recording of the Blind Boys of Alabama singing **Amazing Grace** to the tune of **House of the Rising Sun**. It all syncs up! I’ve heard this done at a little fundie church. But my friends can beat that. At _their_ little fundie church, the pastor intoned: _“And now, our young Middle School ladies Lulu and LaVerne are going to play **Amazing Grace** to the tune of **House of the Rising Sun**. As a flute duet.”_ Notice? It was an instrumental. And no one, at the social hour afterwards, remarked on the fact that they’d just been sitting in church listening to _ **House of the Rising Sun** _. On flutes. Played by Middle School ‘ladies’. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/12 "2010-10-01T08:59:05Z")
I sing (in church, too) **Amazing Grace** to the tune of _Knocking on Heavens Door_ - love that ballad meter. I have also sung **O Come all Ye Faithful** (with some slight lyrical modifications) to the tune of _La Bamba_. The experts at this are the **I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue** team, for whom **One Song to the Tune of Another** is a regular game. I have heard some marvelous stuff, but much of it escapes me now. Check out Youtube (search on ISIHAC, or One Tune) for some examples. Rob Brydon is marvelous - he can really sing. The first show he did, he sang along with a Tom Jones number (with the music silenced at some point), and was spot on the timing after singing half the song without the music. My real favourite, though, is Weird Al’s **Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies**. Si ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/13 "2010-10-01T10:44:21Z")
The song **On Top of Old Smokey** can be sung to the theme of **Chariots of Fire**. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/14 "2010-10-01T12:01:43Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > The experts at this are the **I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue** team, for whom **One Song to the Tune of Another** is a regular game. I heard one of the panel on this great show sing Squeeze’s ‘Cool For Cats’ (hardly a lyric with ballad metre) to the tune of ‘Windmills of Your Mind’. Brilliant. MiM ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/15 "2010-10-01T13:31:55Z")
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” can be sung to the tune of “Hernando’s Hideaway,” as can the traditional doxology (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”) ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/16 "2010-10-01T14:59:14Z")
**freckafree** beat me to it. The juxtaposition of that sassy Latin beat with the request for blessings sung by a passel of staid Protestants never fails to crack me up. (But in a good way.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/17 "2010-10-01T15:19:40Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > > > Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for **Amazing Grace** fit nicely into the tune for **Gilligan’s Island** , and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. > > So can Emily Dickinson’s “[Because I Could Not Stop For Death](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395)” As noted in the mouseover text in [an XKCD from a few weeks back](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=63928). The discussion thread there gets into the ballad meter thing too. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/18 "2010-10-01T15:21:31Z")
Interesting tidbit: songs and poems that can be sung to ballad meter, can also be sung to the tune of “Stairway to Heaven.” But NOT vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/19 "2010-10-01T16:30:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Not long ago it was pointed out to me that a lot of song lyrics fit well into other well-known tunes. Specifically, that the words for Amazing Grace fit nicely into the tune for Gilligan’s Island, and vice versa. I found it incredibly amusing to belt out the inverted tunes, and friends and family found it quite annoying. So can Coleridge’s _The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_, which is especially ironic, all things considered. And your OP mentioned the one I came in to mention – O Little Town of Bethlehem to House of the Rising Sun. I heard it almost 20 years ago, on an album called “A Twisted Christmas.” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419/20 "2010-10-01T16:50:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And your OP mentioned the one I came in to mention – O Little Town of Bethlehem to House of the Rising Sun. I heard it almost 20 years ago, on an album called “A Twisted Christmas.” See my link in the OP for that one, it goes right to [that particular cut](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJP68GrLT38). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-song-lyrics-into-alternate-tunes-list-your-faves/555419.md?page=2)