# Unlikely composers of rock songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214 "2003-11-03T21:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/21 "2003-11-04T12:52:54Z")
Then, of course, there’s Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne.” The melody is really just a slowed-down version of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” (Hum the overture slowly, and you’ll see.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/22 "2003-11-04T13:04:43Z")
“In the Still of the Night” was written by Cuba Gooding Sr. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/23 "2003-11-04T13:47:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*Sam Stone writes: > > RealityChuck writes: > > \> Sausage maker Jimmy Dean was a popular singer/songwriter in > \> the 60s; his biggest hit was Big Bad John. > > That is a weird way to put things. You make it sound like Jimmy Dean was the heir to a sausage company who happened to write a few songs. Actually, he was a country singer/songwriter who got an offer to use his name for a brand of sausages (and later restaurants). He was no more a sausage maker before that time than Arthur Treacher was an expert in fish and chips or Roy Rogers knew anything particularly about roast beef. \*\* True, but more people nowadays know him as a sausage maker than as a singer. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/24 "2003-11-04T13:54:35Z")
Blackbox’s Everything’s Gonna Be All Right has Air on G String as it’s melody. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/25 "2003-11-04T14:14:22Z")
Pachabel gets another nod… _Hook_ by Blues Traveller uses Pachabel’s Canon for the rhythm and melody. AND the harmonica solo is the fast violin part. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/26 "2003-11-04T14:33:59Z")
Usram writes: \> Phil Collins - A Groovy Kind Of Love (Clementi: Sonatine in G) Is Phil Collins’s version of this song better known than the original? It was originally done by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders in 1967. It was written by Dan Finnerty. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/27 "2003-11-04T18:40:48Z")
Tony Sheridan and the Beatles had a minor hit in Britain and America in 1963-64 with _My Bonnie_, arranged from the 1881 song _My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean_ by Charles Pratt. The 1972 instrumental hit _Joy_, by Apollo 100, was based on Bach’s _Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring_. Walter Murphy’s 1976 hit _A Fifth of Beethoven_ was adapted from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/28 "2003-11-04T18:46:01Z")
Game-show host Bert Convey was part of the pop trio The Cheers in the '50s. They hit #6 with “Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots” in 1955. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/29 "2003-11-04T18:47:57Z")
Damn, got his name wrong again. Should be **Convy**. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/30 "2003-11-04T20:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*That is a weird way to put things. You make it sound like Jimmy Dean was the heir to a sausage company who happened to write a few songs. Actually, he was a country singer/songwriter who got an offer to use his name for a brand of sausages (and later restaurants). He was no more a sausage maker before that time than Arthur Treacher was an expert in fish and chips or Roy Rogers knew anything particularly about roast beef. \*\* In Jimmy Dean’s case, it’s not quite that clear-cut. He was featured in _Esquire_ a year or two ago in their “What I’ve Learned” column, where he described making sausage as a child with his uncle, who’d stick his hairy, unsanitary arms into the meat to mix it up just right. He may not have inherited the company, but sausage-making is definitely in his background, more than in the average American’s. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/31 "2003-11-05T02:17:46Z")
That tune in **Jesus Christ Superstar** that begins with the lyrics: _What shall we do about Jesus of Nazareth? What can we do with a carpenter king?_ I forgot the name but it’s the one where they decide: _This Jesus must die, must die must die, this Jesus must die, for the fate of the nation this Jesus must die_ Anyway, it’s a clear ripoff of the Bourree from Bach’s Eminor lute suite. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/32 "2003-11-05T04:43:12Z")
Eric Clapton’s immortal classic-rock hit “Layla” was based on an epic Sufi love poem, _Layla and Majnun_, by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami (1140-1202). ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/33 "2003-11-05T04:50:11Z")
Oops!:smack: Forgot The Byrds **Turn, Turn, Turn** with words from the Book of Ecclesiastes. A most unusual source for a rock song. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/34 "2003-11-05T05:28:29Z")
Oooh, I just thought of a pretty obscure one. I’m going on memory here, but I believe an ELP song, I think it’s called **The Knife** from their first album, is strongly based on a piece by Lehos Janocek called something to the effect of _Symphonetta_ or _Symphonia_\* or something like that. Of course, ELP was clearly conscious of classical music (e.g. Copland’s Hoedown, Ginastera’s Tocatta, and the aforementioned Mussorsky’s Picture’s at an Exhibition) so it shouldn’t be that surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/35 "2003-11-05T06:30:59Z")
Also remember that instrumental group “B. Bumble and the Stingers” who did **Nut Rocker** based on Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” rather speeded up. Then Emerson, Lake and Palmer redid it in the 1970s (IIRC) and bumped the tempo even faster. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/36 "2003-11-05T08:12:06Z")
Led Zeppelin’s “Friends” borrows its melody from Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War”. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/37 "2003-11-05T16:57:51Z")
Pete Seegar adapted Ecclesiastes and wrote the music for “Turn, Turn, Turn.” The Byrds were great at choosing works by others to cover. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/38 "2003-11-05T17:11:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Then, of course, there’s Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne.” The melody is really just a slowed-down version of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” (Hum the overture slowly, and you’ll see.) \*\* Speaking of the 1812 Overture, Rush did a riff on that in their “Overture” on the “2112” album. (And I guess you can credit Jesus with the lyrics “And the meek shall inherit the earth.”) ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/39 "2003-11-05T19:16:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smapti \* > \*\*Led Zeppelin’s “Friends” borrows its melody from Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War”. \*\* Yep, a piece which was also used in a King Crimson song from their album **In the Wake of the Poseiden** and covered by ELP (as Emerson, Lake, and _Powell_). (Jeez, I must be coming off as quite the ELP groupee in this thread. I mean I like them and all but… ) ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214/40 "2003-11-06T15:52:17Z")
Right now I’m listening to “Inna Godda Da Vida” by Iron Butterfly. During the organ solo in the middle it has a few passages that were taken from the Christmas carol “God Bless Ye Merry Gentleman.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unlikely-composers-of-rock-songs/211214.md?page=3)