For those of you that don’t want to click on the link, it’s the William Tell Overture.
Thank you!
Edited thread title for clarity, and moved to Cafe Society from MPSIMS.
And I thought it was going to be “Funky Drummer.”
For clarity: Do you mean “sampled” in the sense of
- Sampled in a song by creating an ostinato of a short section (or part) and looping it, as in techno/hip hop/remixes.
OR
- Has small chunks used in TV, movies, etc.
It is up there but I’d bet that Beethoven’s 9th (4th movement) is done more and nothing beats the Canon in D by Pachelbel.
If we’re talking the first defintion of sampling the intros to “Apache” and “Take Me To The Mardi Gras” rank right up there.
I’ve always liked Spike Jones’s take on it. 
Yes. And not just the finale: Carl Stalling loved the “Storm” and “Morning” sections of it and used them liberally in Warner Brothers cartoons. The “Morning” section is still used from time to time in Two and a Half Men.
Nope, I vote for Yakety Sax, which makes *anything *funnier.
Hey, what do you know? It works.
I am so going to hell! 
EDIT: I mean… ‘That’s just wrong.’
.
My Mother used to tell me the lyrics of the William Tell Overture could be remembered as where the Lone Ranger takes his garbage.
To the Dump,
To the Dump,
To the Dump, Dump, Dump
I’d put my money on “The Star Spangled Banner.”
They used it in burlesque shows, too.
Titty, rump
Titty, rump
Titty, rump, rump rump!
On payday people went
To the bank
To the bank
To the bank, bank bank!
Whenever you see waltzing in the movies, 90% of the time, it’s Johann Strauss and around 75% of the time, it’s to “The Blue Danube”
And I’d say “God Save the King/Queen” (aka “My Country Tis of Thee”) pops up in movies a lot more than our national anthem.
Interesting question. Certainly William Tell is up there… yet, there’s some damn, stung contenders. The ones I’ve noticed more than anything in films are:
Also Sprach Zarathustra (probably my all time favorite)
Midsummer Night’s Dream: Wedding March
Beethoven’s 9th (I was going to say his 5th, but this really does’t seem to appear in many films)
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik: Allegro
Handel’s Messiah (Hallelujah Chorus)
Nutcracker: Russian Dance Trepak & the March
Romeo And Juliet Fantasy Overture
(and so much more! Perhaps I notice these more, because they’re among my favorites of the more popular classical pieces)