# Pop music using Classical-style songs. Examples, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037 "2005-04-12T23:21:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/21 "2005-04-13T04:22:02Z")
Billy Joel’s song _This Night_ is, by the way, the melody of Beethoven’s _Pathetique_ sonata… movement II, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/22 "2005-04-13T04:32:09Z")
That’s what I get for listening to a site that is simply an exques for pop-up ads. Sattua is right. > [@fans on alt.music.billy-joel](#): > > 1. Isn’t that Beethoven music in “This Night”? > > * * * > > ``` > [Thanks to numerous people for this info, including Grant > Anderson (robschool@nwu.edu) and Bradley Kelly > (bjkelly@magna.com.au).] > > Yes, the chorus to "This Night" (on the album _An Innocent > Man_) is essentially the same music as composed by Beethoven in > the "Adagio cantabile" (second movement) of his "Sonata No. 8 in > C Minor, Op. 13" AKA the sonata "Pathetique." Beethoven is > listed in the credits at the end of the album notes as "L. V. > Beethoven". > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/23 "2005-04-13T14:00:50Z")
And the Compy just peed my carpet, I mean, I just killed the thread with that last comment. ::The corner of the computer desk briefly flashes, showing an underlying gridwork to it, The No Loafing sign becomes the following text and falls off the wall:: Well, things are falling apart here in Plaid headquarters, but I said I would link to samples of songs, so here they are: [This Night, correct album, this time](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000DCHG/ref=m_art_li_10/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music) \*\*Arhat: \*\* Elvis - “It’s Now or Never” is based on “O Solo Mio” I can’t find this, legally available. [Eric Carmen](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002VSY/qid=1113398412/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9899427-2606223) \*\*Kilvert’s Pagan: \*\* [Could It Be Magic by Barry Manilow used Chopin.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001JXQ9W/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music&vi=samples#disc_1) [Best Of Emerson Lake And Palmer](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000033P8/qid=1113398670/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9899427-2606223) [Renaissance](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/34027/ref=pd_ap_sr/103-9899427-2606223) \*\*Zsofia \*\*: Procol Harum’s [Whiter Shade Of Pale / Bach’s Air on the G String](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005NQD3/qid=1113399109/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music) **Smeghead** :[Blues Traveler’s “Hook” is set to Pachelbel’s Canon.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002G79/qid%3D1113399248/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-9899427-2606223) Sorry, ddgryphon. I am not about to go through Vitamin C’s “best” of collection. :rolleyes: \*\*ArchiveGuy \*\*: “The background music for Sting’s “Russians” is Prokofiev’s Lt. Kije Suite.” So, that’s why it was the only song I liked off of [Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984-1994](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002G2R/qid=1113399408/sr=8-1/ref=__1/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music) \*\* dotchan\*\* I think the original title is “Oh Darling my Omlette”, I can’t find it, but it isn’t so expensive as a DVD, and it is fantastic. **Lamia** : [Spinal Tap’s “Heavy Duty” / Boccherini’s “String Quintet in E major”.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004WGVR/qid=1113400056/sr=8-2/ref=__2/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music) \*\*ZeroGyro \*\*:Vitamin C? bleh. [“Parliament did their own soul-ified version called “Oh Lord Why Lord” on Osmium.”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000641CD/qid=1113400255/sr=1-27/ref=sr_1_27/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance&s=music) \*\*buns3000 \*\*: “The Beach Boys used Ode to Joy (Bach) as the basis of their song Lady Linda on the abominable [M.I.U album](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004W55Q/qid=1113400355/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9899427-2606223).” P.S. Why have I done this? Because as long as I was looking through each album, I might as well post what I see. Now, I’m off to commit some sort of [shenanigans](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=311308) ::Scott then runs off the screen and into the black to the right of the computer desk, then stops.:: **Scott** : What the? Whoa! It’s cold out here! ::Scott tries to jump back into the room, but the room shifts left, causing him to still fall on blank space} **Scott** : Hey! (Sorry, folks, this may take some time to deal with.) [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail118.html](http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail118.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/24 "2005-04-13T14:08:32Z")
That Spinal Tap link actually goes to their reuinion album, **Break Like the Wind**. “Heavy Duty” can be found on the **This is Spinal Tap** soundtrack (aka **Smell the Glove** [here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004WGVQ/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/102-6035529-4757705?v=glance&s=music). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/25 "2005-04-13T14:12:10Z")
> [@Kilvert's Pagan](#): > > The group Renaissance made a living of it but none of this cracked the Top 40. Wow! Somebody else who has heard of Renaissance! Outside of a few pockets of die-hard fans in New York, Philly and Alaska, I’ve never run into one before. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/26 "2005-04-13T14:12:48Z")
> [@buns3000](#): > > The Beach Boys used Ode to Joy (Bach) as the basis of their song _Lady Linda_ on the abominable _M.I.U_ album. I think you mean “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/27 "2005-04-13T14:21:17Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > That Spinal Tap link actually goes to their reuinion album, **Break Like the Wind**. “Heavy Duty” can be found on the **This is Spinal Tap** soundtrack (aka **Smell the Glove** [here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004WGVQ/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/102-6035529-4757705?v=glance&s=music). Just a minor nit-pick, to your nitpick, but I was emphasing quantity over quality on my linking, and the song, while perhaps an inferior version, can also be found on my link. Also- ::Simutanously, [Strong Sad](http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Strong_Sad) walks in, but his head has been replaced by emoticons, which float a foot to the left of where they should be:: **Strong Sad** : Scott, what is going on? **Scott** : WAH! Uh, I dunno. You forgot to wear your neck? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/28 "2005-04-13T14:28:12Z")
Malcolm Mclaren put his punk days behind him with a version of “Madame Butterfly” incorporating the female vocals from the opera and a male rap giving the story. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/29 "2005-04-13T14:49:36Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Wow! Somebody else who has heard of Renaissance! Outside of a few pockets of die-hard fans in New York, Philly and Alaska, I’ve never run into one before. 😃 I saw 'em live three times in San Diego (once as an opening act for Gentle Giant, later as a headlining act in an amphitheater setting, and in their declining years [_Camera Camera_ tour] in a club.) ---
**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:** [April 13, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/30 "2005-04-13T15:05:59Z")
Along the same lines as Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann’s “Ill Wind” takes its melody from a Mozart horn concerto. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/31 "2005-04-13T15:55:06Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > Just a minor nit-pick, to your nitpick, but I was emphasing quantity over quality on my linking, and the song, while perhaps an inferior version, can also be found on my link. I don’t want to get sent back to Bitch School or anything, but there is no version of “Heavy Duty” (inferior or otherwise) on Spinal Tap’s **Break Like the Wind**. The song does _not_ appear on the Amazon page for that album, you have to go to the entry for the **This is Spinal Tap** soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/32 "2005-04-13T15:59:52Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > I saw 'em live three times in San Diego (once as an opening act for Gentle Giant, later as a headlining act in an amphitheater setting, and in their declining years [_Camera Camera_ tour] in a club.) If that club was a little place in Reseda, we were both there! I was the dude at the foot of the stage playing with Annie’s toes! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/33 "2005-04-13T16:20:09Z")
No, see, I am looking at it again, for the 3rd time, and it clearly says[—… I—… I can’t b—… Chi-g-d-b … He—g …](http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Everybody_to_the_Limit) ::cut back to the basement. Homestar is laying on the couch spitting Teddy Grahams all over again, with The Cheat standing nearby. After a few seconds, The Cheat’s head inexplicably [explodes](http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/The_Cheat%27s_Head_Exploding) His face is merely covered with soot, and he is not actually hurt. The camera then goes back to Scott’s computer room.:: So, I guess I was wrong, and— ::Suddenly, some hospital orderlies come into the room, immobilize Scott, and leave the room. After a second, an orderly pokes his head into the room. “Sorry, Lamia, the School of Bitching is going to have his hands full with this one. We can not take your application now. Oh, and a techno version of “O Fortuna”, by a group called Apotheosis (Luc Rigaux & Patrick Samoy) is a [very rare CD](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008EUHN/103-9899427-2606223?v=glance), due to the fact it was found to be a violation of something or another, in a very ass-backwards court ruling. (It “degraded” the original, they say.) Today, many techno songs integrate parts of it, to fantastic effect.:: ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/34 "2005-04-13T16:28:09Z")
There’s been a few threads like this in the past, but none in a long while. In every one, someone comes in and mentions that the tune of Dan Fogelberg’s [“Same Old Lang Syne”](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4791FDB4AA87120C09D2A43CBBB61F60CD24CF4AE0721425AD3FB3247801160EE53F18692FDFE6AB57AB0FD2EA45F43D2C8E455FCD6663C2DED93&sql=10:3s320rnac48c) is a slowed-down rendition of “The 1812 Overture”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/35 "2005-04-13T16:44:58Z")
Unfiltered contributions [from this board](http://www.songfacts.com/ubbthreads/printthread.php?Cat=&Board=questions&main=26842&type=thread) - With alot of duplicated titles already listed here on the SDMB: All By Myself (Eric Carmen, Celine Dion) --\> Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 Annie’s Song (John Denver) --\> Tchaikowski’s First Symphony This Night (Billy Joel) --\>Beethoven “Pathetique” Sonata The Toys “Lover’s Concerto” - Johann Sebastian Bach Rockaria by ELO. Rollover Beethoven by ELO. Queensyrche uses Brahm’s Lullaby at the end of “Silent Lucidity.” “Am I Evil” by Diamond Head and later covered by Metallica which definitely borrows from “Mars the Bringer of War” by Holst. The music for Sting’s “Russians” is based on a piece by Sergei Prokofiev. Janet Hackson also borrowed Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie” for one of her songs. Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale is said to be Bach’s “Air On The G String” (or Sleeper’s Awake) filtered through Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman” The song “Groovy Kind Of Love” Sounds a lot like Clementi’s “Sonata Rondo” Don’t forget the guy in Spinal Tap whose music is a cross between Bach and Mozart, Mach music. Dire Straits uses the Carasel Waltz as the intro to Tunnel of Love. Nutrocker by B.Bumble and The Stingers in 1962, based on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Also recorded by Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1972. Lot’s of other things by Emerson, Lake & Palmer such as Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, Sibelius" “Karelia Suite”, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique Symphony (#6)”. {_As well as Fanfare for the Common Man & Hoedown_} Both Elvis Costello (“Accidents Will Happen”) and Blues Traveler (“Hook”) use the infamous “Canon in D Major” chord progression written by Johann Pachelbel. And of course there’s “A Fifth of Beethoven” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, (based on Beethoven’s 5th symphony). And then, extended from that is Thicke’s “When I Get You Alone”, which is based on “A Fifth Of Beethoven”, which in turn is based on Beethoven’s 5th. Also, Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic” starts with a snippet of Chopin’s Prelude in C Minor. Bands like “Electra” and “Stern Meissen” adapted (is this the right word?) works from Mozart, Rachmaninov, Bach, Borodin etc. I guess that the blueprint for this was a Dutch band called “Ekseption”. “Ball and Chain” by Janis Joplin with Bigbrother & the Holdin Co perform some Bach at the beginning of “Ball and Chain” on “Cheap Thrills” The Trans-Siberian Orchestra The Beatles’ Because was written when John was listening to Yoko play Beethoven’s Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia (Moonlight Sonata)on the piano. He asked her to go back and forth with the chord progression and he used it to write Because for Abbey Road. Cabaret Voltaire sampled something by Chopin for “Do The Mussolini (Headkick),” but I don’t know what that song is “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys has a great piano open that I believe is Chopin. Lady Lynda by The Beach Boys has a borrowed intro. The Shirelles took Beethoven´s Moonlight Sonata for their song “Past, present and future” (Or was it the Shangrillas? Help me!) ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/36 "2005-04-13T16:45:52Z")
Being an moldie oldie myself, I remember the Lou Christie song, _ **Rhapsody in the Rain** _ used Rachmaninoff also. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/37 "2005-04-13T20:55:12Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > A couple of oldies: > > “Stranger in Paradise” (Polovetzian Dances from Borodin’s “Prince Igor”) > > “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” (Dance of the Hours from Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda”) The melody of every song in _Kismet_ was adapted from the works of Borodin, though only _Stranger In Paradise_ ever became a standard. For the sake of completeness, however, here are the songs whose origins I can pinpoint: - _Sand of Time:_ from the tone poem _In the Steppes of Central Asia_. - _Fate:_ from the 1st movement of _Symphony No 2. in B minor_. - _Not Since Nineveh:_ from the _Prologue_ and the _Polovtsian Dance No 2_, both from the opera _Prince Igor_. - _Baubles, Bangles and Beads:_ from the 2nd movement of _String Quartet No. 2 in D_. - _Gesticulate:_ taken from an aria in Act II of _Prince Igor_ and from the 4th movement of _Symphony No. 1 in E flat major_. - _Night of My Nights:_ from the _Serenade_ from _Petite Suite_. - _The Olive Tree:_ from the Overture to _Prince Igor_. - _And This Is My Beloved:_ from the 3rd movement of _String Quartet No. 2 in D_. Granted that these wouldn’t qualify as pop music now, but one could make the argument that they did back when _Kismet_ hit the Broadway stage. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037/38 "2005-04-13T21:31:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If that club was a little place in Reseda, we were both there! I was the dude at the foot of the stage playing with Annie’s toes! 😃 So _that’s_ why she hits those high notes. (Nope, 'twas the Bacchanal in San Diego.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-music-using-classical-style-songs-examples-please/299037.md?page=1)