# Pop/rock songs lifting from classical music. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2012, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973 "2012-01-28T09:28:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/21 "2012-01-28T19:42:26Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > See if Bach’s [\*Arisoso \*(from BWV 156)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UafrBN4zeFk&feature=related) reminds you of anything. I know the Arioso well, working a lot of weddings, but I can’t place what Beatles song that is supposed to remind me of. However, I also would not have made the connection between the Bouree and Blackbird. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/22 "2012-01-28T20:52:50Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > It’s well known that the Beatles song \*Blackbird \*owes a lot to Bach’s _Bourrée in E minor_ [(Wiki)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_%28song%29) (you especially notice it when you play them both on the guitar). However, that isn’t the only Bach piece that Paul McCartney took a cue from. See if Bach’s [\*Arisoso \*(from BWV 156)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UafrBN4zeFk&feature=related) reminds you of anything. They remind me of Cavatina and other well-known classical guitar hits. Beatles songs, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/23 "2012-01-28T21:39:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I know the Arioso well, working a lot of weddings, but I can’t place what Beatles song that is supposed to remind me of. However, I also would not have made the connection between the Bouree and Blackbird. Hint: Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a Bach song, and make it better\* remember, to let it into your heart, 'cause it’s all Bach… \*Or worse, depending on whether you’re a bigger fan of the Beatles or Bach. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/24 "2012-01-28T21:49:08Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Hint: > > Hey Jude, > don’t make it bad, > take a Bach song, > and make it better\* > remember, to let it into your heart, > 'cause it’s all Bach… > \*Or worse, depending on whether you’re a bigger fan of the Beatles or Bach. Now that you point it out, I see the resemblance. [This link has a clarinetist and pianist](http://www.davidshifrin.com/web/video_details.aspx?ItemId=581339) play both of them back to back in a similar arrangement to highlight the similarities. Beatles tune starts at 4:20. It’s not a connection I would have made, but it’s clear to me how others would find them similar. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/25 "2012-01-28T22:21:36Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Blood, Sweat and Tears started out their second album with a song based upon “Tres Gymnopedies” by Edgar Varese. I think that should be Erik Satie. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/26 "2012-01-28T22:30:39Z")
Lou Christie’s [Rhapsody in the Rain](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnFU-bMDICE), from Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet.” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/27 "2012-01-28T22:31:52Z")
The James Gang’s “[The Bomber](http://youtu.be/u1yiCyCvW4g?t=3m21s)” has “Bolero” in the middle of it. (video links right to “Bolero” section) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/28 "2012-01-28T23:01:11Z")
Rob Dougan’s [Clubbed to Death](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS4zYWxzNA) lifted bits from Elgar’s [Variations on an Original Theme Op. 36 - Enigma](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5y4Hwwb8as). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/29 "2012-01-28T23:10:33Z")
If you mention Bourée, then the mention has to go first to Jethro Tull’s [Bourée](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2RNe2jwHE0) from the Stand Up album. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/30 "2012-01-28T23:48:15Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > It’s well known that the Beatles song \*Blackbird \*owes a lot to Bach’s _Bourrée in E minor_ [(Wiki)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_%28song%29) (you especially notice it when you play them both on the guitar). However, that isn’t the only Bach piece that Paul McCartney took a cue from. See if Bach’s [\*Arisoso \*(from BWV 156)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UafrBN4zeFk&feature=related) reminds you of anything. From the notes of Walter Everett’s excellent books “The Beatles as Musicians”: _"McCartney ascribes the song’s origins to the treble/bass counterpoint of ‘a well-known piece by Bach,’ which may be a reference to the G-major outer-voice parallel tenths in the best know minuet from the Anna Magdalena collection. (the same counterpoint also appears in the same key in the Allemande of Bach G-major French Suites.)’_ For Hey Jude, Everett speculates: _“…whether he would have known a certain liturgical work by John Ireland from his choirboy days. Ireland’s “Te Deum laudamus” (1907) begins with, and returns to, [gives example] … which is untransposed in Hey Jude…”_ link to Ireland’s work: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY16QQXdcWA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY16QQXdcWA) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/31 "2012-01-29T00:05:55Z")
It’s not specifically from a classical composer, but Todd Rundgren’s _Don’t You Ever Listen_ from his album _Something/Anything_ is actually a [12-tone composition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique). I had no idea until he was a guest professor at Indiana University. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/32 "2012-01-29T00:28:10Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Eric Carmen, “All by Myself” - lifted from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. I hadn’t realized how many pop songs were lifted from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. I was going to mention Sinatra’s [Full Moon and Empty Arms](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwnJzm-kubE). Apparently two of his other songs are also based on it. Wiki says; > [@](#): > > The Moderato provides the basis for Frank Sinatra’s “I Think of You”[citation needed] and “Ever and Forever”.[6] Muse’s “Space Dementia” and “Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)” contain references to this movement.[citation needed] > The Adagio sostenuto theme appears in Eric Carmen’s 1975 ballad “All by Myself”. Carmen first composed the song’s interlude, then took the verse from Rachmaninoff and the chorus from his own “Let’s Pretend”. Carmen explained that Rachmaninoff was his “favorite music”.[7] This movement also provides the basis for Amici Forever’s “Nostalgia” from the album Defined[citation needed]. The opening chords of Adagio sostenuto also appears in the orchestrated version of Aria di Mezzo Carattere from Final Fantasy VI. > The second theme of Allegro scherzando provides the basis for Frank Sinatra’s 1945 “Full Moon and Empty Arms”[6] and The Gospellers’s “Sky High,” which was also the opening theme for the anime Nodame Cantabile’s Paris arc.[citation needed] The same theme is quoted by Muse’s “Butterflies and Hurricanes”. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/33 "2012-01-29T00:28:42Z")
[Because](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlLPJG9Cvg)by the Beatles, which is basically Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Vivaldi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/977dab/32.png) [@Vivaldi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vivaldi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/34 "2012-01-29T02:08:57Z")
Eric Carmen, “All by Myself” - lifted from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor.[klasik müzik dinle](http://www.muziksarki.com/klasik-muzik-dinle.html) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/35 "2012-01-29T05:11:11Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Tomita And Wendy (Walter) Carlos. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/36 "2012-01-29T08:35:49Z")
Grieg’s “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” gets [The Who treatment](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRsccsEKkbk), with Keith Moon on spooky noises. May contain traces of amphetamines. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/37 "2012-01-29T10:22:05Z")
The borrowing of classical music is nothing new. The popular music composers a century ago were doing the same thing. A few examples: - Russian Rag by George Cobb (1918) uses part of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor - Hungarian Rag by Julius Lenzberg (1913) is based on Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2 - Operatic Rag also by Julius Lenzberg (1914) uses pieces of several different operas - That Mesmerizing Mendelssohn Tune by Irving Berlin (1909) uses a piece by Mendelssohn (obviously) If anyone is curious what these pieces sound like, they can all be found on [youtube.com](http://youtube.com). ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/38 "2012-01-29T12:51:06Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Hint: > > Hey Jude, > don’t make it bad, > take a Bach song, > and make it better\* > remember, to let it into your heart, > 'cause it’s all Bach… > \*Or worse, depending on whether you’re a bigger fan of the Beatles or Bach. Vaguely similar, but I doubt Bach will sue. Actually it’s pretty clearly a ripoff of his Air on a G string. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/39 "2012-01-29T12:56:56Z")
> [@X.L.Lent](#): > > The borrowing of classical music is nothing new. The popular music composers > a century ago were doing the same thing. If you ever see “The Outlaw,” the movie that Howard Hughes made to make Jane Russell famous, you’ll hear passages from Tchaikovsky’s 6th stolen note for note. And some of the music from the original Star Wars movie is very reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s 4th. I forget who it was, but there’s a story that some composer who won an Oscar for his score said in his acceptance speech something along the lines of, “I’d like to thank Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff …” ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973/40 "2012-01-29T12:59:48Z")
Emerson Lake and Palmer did _Mussorsky’s Pictures an an Exhibition_. Not a song, but an entire album. > **[Pictures at an Exhibition (disambiguation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_at_an_Exhibition_(album))** > > Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten piano pieces composed by Modest Mussorgsky. > Pictures at an Exhibition may also refer to: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-rock-songs-lifting-from-classical-music/610973.md?page=3)