Two more songs with interchangable tunes/lyrics: Yankee Doodle and Good King Wencelas.
I’m not sure what “more” means, but there’s the classic trifecta: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the ABC song and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. All not written by Mozart, contrary to popular belief and a Trivial Pursuit question, although he did write 12 variations on the original French not-children’s song , “Ah ! vous dirai-je, Maman”
Any Emily Dickinson poem and many hynms can be sung to the tune of “Yellow Rose of Texas” or the theme from Gilligan’s Island.
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” can also be sung to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island”
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
let nothing you dismay
A tale of a fateful trip
remember Christ our savior
That started from this tropic port
was born on Christmas day
aboard this tiny ship
The Gilligan’s Island theme seems to figure in a lot of these for some reason. You can also sing House of the Rising Sun, America the Beautiful and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem to it.
Actually, it’s funnier vice versa, especially when reaching the chorus:
Five passengers set sail for a three-hour tour
Three-hour tour
Five set sail that day for a three-hour tour.
Amazing Grace also fits the **Gilligan’s Island ** theme, as well as the theme from Dallas .
I’ve always thought Don’t Fear The Reaper and California Dreamin’ went together well.
BBC Radio 4’s classic show ‘I’m Sorry I Havent a Clue’ regularly has this round - songs sung to the tune of another. My all time fave being Squeeze’s lyrics of ‘Cool for Cats’ sung to the tune of ‘Windmills of Your Mind’…
MiM
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer can be sung to the melody of Free Bird.
Not to mention Willam Blake’s The Tyger.
My favorite is Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” sung to Hernando’s Hideaway.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
Etc.
The theme from Green Acres can be sung to Purple Haze
Green Acres (Purple Haze)
is the place to be (all in my brain)
Farm livin’ (lately things)
is the life for me (don’t seem the same)
Land spreadin’ out (actin’ funny)
So far and wide (but I don’t know why)
Just keep Manhattan ('scuse me)
Gimme that country side (while I kiss the sky)
Duhn-duhn-duhn
This is a little more obscure, but whenever I hear Nat King Cole’s “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup” (which is maybe once a month; I’m a fan), I want to sing it to the tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star”:
Darling, je vous aime beaucoup
When you wish upon a star
Je ne sais pas what to do
Makes no difference who you are
You know you’ve completely stolen my heart.
When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.
Turek, didn’t Elvis Hitler record that as “Green Haze”? Or was it someone else? I know I’ve heard it.
Because they’re all based on common meter which is characterized by lines alternating in 8 and 6 syllables (oftentimes iambic tetrameter followed by iambic trimeter, but not always.) Common meter is a subset of hymn meter which, as the name implies, was used in lots and lots of hymns. Also known as ballad meter. Songs and poetry used to be much more intertwined, so it’s only natural that songs and poetic meter would go hand-in-hand.
And a nitpick. Not all of Emily Dickinson’s poems can be sung to “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” Most of her poems are in common meter, but she also has work in 7s and 6s, common particular meter, long meter, short meter, and short particular meter.
The Blind Boys of Alabama sing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun.”
One of the Bob Rivers Chistmas albums has “O Little Town of Bethlehem” sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”
want2know
You are right - singing “Gilligan’s Island” lyrics to the “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” melody is a riot !
pulykamell
Thanks for that eloquent treatise concerning meter.
Someone on the Frank Zappa newsgroup pointed out that the verses of “The Torture Never Stops” can be sung to the tune of “California Girls.”
Flies all green and buzzing in this dungeon of despair
The prisoners grumble and piss their clothes and scratch their matted hair.
A tiny light from a window hole a hundred yards away
Is all they ever gets to know about the regular life in the day.
It kind of falls apart in the chorus though, but you can abridge it something like:
And it stinks so bad the stones been a-chokin’
(Stinks so bad the stones been a-chokin’)
Stinks so bad, and the torture never sto-o-o-o-ops…
You have to chop a few words out of the Gilligan’s Island theme to get it to fit the tune of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen:
Just sit right back and hear a tale about a fateful trip
That started on a tropic port aboard this tiny ship
The mate, a mighty sailin’ man; the skipper, brave and sure
They set out on a three-ee hour tour, three hour tour
They set o-out on a three-ee hour tour
[sub]Modified excerpt of a song by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle, published by EMI U Catalog, Inc. (ASCAP)[/sub]
Then again, “Weird Al” Yankovic had to add words to The Ballad of Jed Clampett to get it to fit the tune of Money for Nothing…and I’ve figured out if you add a few words to it, you can also get it to fit the tune of Ode to Joy. “Come and listen to my story, it’s about a man named Jed…”
Almost as good as My Old Man’s A Dustman sung to the tune of I Don’t Know How To Love Him.