Have you ever tried to sing one song while using the melody of a different song? Somehow it occurred to me that the words for “America the Beautiful” can be sung to the melody of “Auld Lang Syne.” Try it! The meter is just right for the two songs to use each other’s melodies. I also found that the beginning verses to Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” can be sung in meter to the melody of “Jackie Blue” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
Yes, things are very slow and boring at work today.
I was in here on the computer and in the living room I had the TV on and Leno was on … Was it Leno? I think it was Leno … Anyway, the musical guest sang “Amazing Grace” … to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun.”
On the album “A Twisted Christmas” they sang “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem” to “House of the Rising Sun”.
I’ve noticed that you can interchange “Deck the Halls” with “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”.
Pepper Mill knows quite a few of these (non-Christmas) ones.
A classic is the Gilligan’s Island theme sung to “Stairway to Heaven”
Well, the lyrics to “Amazing Grace” can be sung to any number of tunes, including:
Gilligan’s Island = Amazing Grace = House of the Rising Sun = The Yellow Rose Of Texas = Ghost Riders in the Sky = I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing = O Little Town of Bethlehem = Auld Lang Syne = America the Beautiful = god knows what else…
And many/most Emily Dickinson poems can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”…
I’d always heard Emily Dickinson poems/Gilligan’s Island theme/Yellow Rose of Texas.
Gilligan’s Island/Amazing Grace
Also, The ABC Song/Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star/ Baa, Baa Black Sheep.
Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” matches perfectly with Jimmy Buffet’s “Pencil Thin Mustache”.
Alphabet Song/Baa, Baa, Black Sheep/Twinkle, Twinkle
These are cheating. They’re all the same melody.
I’m not sure who did it, but a number of years ago someone came out with “Green Haze” which is basically the lyrics to “Green Acres” sung to “Purple Haze”.
Classic Stuff
Chris W
Monte Montgomery does just that in the song “Stairway to Freebird” - combining the music of Stairway to Heaven with the lyrics to Freebird.
I do believe you heard Pinkard and Bowden, country music comedy act. Funny, funny (and a bit risque) guys.
I’ve been trying to remember that guys name for some time. Caught his act as an opener for Tori Amos a few years ago, and it was rather funny.
Now as to the OP, I’m amazed no one mentioned the real classic.
The Rhyme of the Ancient Marinar sung to the theme from Gilligan’s Island
Water, Water, Everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
“How Much Is That Doggie In The Window” goes with “A Fair Is A Veritable Paradise” (sung by Paul Lynde, as the Rat, in Charlotte’s Web)
Oh, and a classic is “Humoresque” with “Swannee River”.
Oh God, I had such trouble in my Romantic Poetry class back in college.
I found out the hard way that Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” can be rapped ala Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing”. And I’m afraid that if any of you read that poem from now on, you may be disturbed by this same affliction.
So if you don’t like The Giligan’s Island theme, go Tone Loc.
Sweet jesus, it’s awful.
Colin
Britney Spears’ Oops I Did It Again and Hit Me Baby, One More Time are interchangeable. My brother and I once synced up the MP3 players on both our computers and played them over each other. It’s actually quite amusing, as if anyone needed more proof of what a talentless, unoriginal hack she is.
Frank Zappa’s song The Torture Never Stops can be sung to the melody of I Love Lucy. He sang it this way a few times in late 1980’s
Stairway to Heaven
Gilligan’s Island
Amazing Grace
House of the Rising Sun
O Little Town of Bethlehem
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Australian National Anthem
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
any Emily Dickinson poem
The Yellow Rose of Texas
As it happens, there’s a thread on rec.music.dementia about this:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&th=95eb6a7a4059aaf4
Two interesting additions to the first list: The Marine Corps song “From the halls of Montezuma” and “My Darling Clementine”!
With slight editing, “Camp Granada” (“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”) can be sung to the loud part of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Dr. Demento plays a rendition of this occasionally, credited to “Alien von Sherman”.