Bleh, was that a real orchestra? I assume it’s just a midi file based on the tinny sound, the stuff the guy wrote about how he composed it and the fact that those entire songs load in a few seconds.
Thanks for that. The first thing I listened to was AC/DC’s* You shook Me All Night Long*. What a blast.
At that link check out Sweet Child O Mine. Still rocks with dozens of different instruments.
No, not a real orchestra. But I warned you that that wasn’t a good example of the best work - not even close. It may take a few seconds to load, but I assure you, it takes considerably longer to create, and a real musician to compose.
XTC’s Apple Venus 1 and Skylarking albums
Exactly what I was going to post.
I always liked the accompaniment to Lulu’s To Sir with love.
…ha! I was just going to mention this…“I See Red” is my favourite of the first album but I can’t find it online: here are another couple, “Message to my Girl” (my fav Split Enz song), and Stuff n’ Nonsense…
I don’t normally enjoy Coldplay, but I think Viva la Vida is a neato song with all the instrumentation and whatnot.
The version they did at the Grammy’s a few years back kinda gave me chills.
Damn, forgot that one. I agree totally.
I was raised on 70s music even though I grew up in the 90s because it was what my dad played.
I’ve always loved the orchestration in Santana’s* Every Step Of The Way* from Caravanserai. It is so integral to the music; it sounds like a separate single instrument.
Wow! I also was going to mention this, and I See Red is my favourite too. Beautiful orchestration.
I like ENZSO as well, but Crowded House’s/Neil Finn’s songs are lush enough on their own, IMHO.
Shatter - Shelleyan Orphan
Back in the 60s, almost every song seemed to have added strings or “sweetener” as it was called. A lot of rock and folk hits do and it’s mostly forgotten about, even though it made the songs sound much better than the groups ever achieved playing them live.
One of my absolute favorites is Chad & Jeremy’s A Summer Song. The orchestration doesn’t drown out the voices and the horns are fine. Best, there are two passages where the violins play a theme that is handed off to the violas which is then handed off to the cellos that’s chilling in its perfection.
I’m going to throw in one that nobody else in the universe remembers and I can’t even find a reference to it. Michael Kamen, just after leaving The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra a “rock ballet” he’d written. I thought at the time it was the best merging of rock and classical I’d ever heard. It wasn’t recorded and I don’t know if he ever did it again. That was almost 40 years ago, so I haven’t any idea how well it would hold up if I heard it today. But losing an important piece like that should never have happened.
Mine too. It’s been in my iTunes from the beginning and now it’s one of my music loving three year old granddaughter’s too…
“Automatic For The People” by R.E.M. is one of my all-time favorite albums, and I especially like the orchestral arrangements on “Drive”, “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight”, “Everybody Hurts”, and “Nightswimming”, which were done by John Paul Jones.
…well, great minds and all that! 
But it truly is a magnificent version of the song.
Lady In Satin - Billie Holliday.
Since none of them can read or write music (it beats me how you can avoid it in their business) the credit has to go to others. The names Rutger Gunnarsson and Anders Eljas come to mind (couldn’t find anything about them in English). Michael B Tretow was also very much involved in creating the ABBA sound.