How about Francis Scott Key for Jimi Hendrix’s* musical version of his most famous poem? And John Stafford Smith, who’s believed to be the composer of the original tune? 
*Also performed by Jose Feliciano and Rosanne Barr :rolleyes:
IIRC Cat Stevens takes credit for writing “Morning Has Broken” although it’s in our church’s Hymnal attributed to someone else.(If I can find it in my older version of the hymnal I will come back with the proper credits.) Also , there’s another hymn with a tune very similar to one of Paul
IIRC Cat Stevens takes credit for writing “Morning Has Broken” although it’s in our church’s Hymnal attributed to someone else.(If I can find it in my older version of the hymnal I will come back with the proper credits.) Also , there’s another hymn with a tune very similar to one of Paul Simon’s tunes. If I’m unable to find that one , maybe one of the other Episcopalians on the Board might know it.
Sorry for the (almost) double post - when I wanted to capitalize the “s” in Simon I accidently hit “control” instead of “shift”.I didn’t know hitting “control” would automatically submit my reply.In the meantime , I checked my Hymnal - this version doesn’t have “Morning Has Broken”.
IIRC, Eleanor Fairjon, a schoolteacher, wrote the lyrics to “Morning Has Broken.” The tune is based on an old Gaelic hymn. Cat Stevens is responsible for putting the lyrics and melody together.
:chortle’s at Rosanne Barr reference:
Rock and Roll has a heavy dose of blues in its ancestry, so it’s not surprising to see the British Invasion bands mining the classics. Think The Animals’ version of “House of the Rising Sun”
Still I wonder what Robert Johnson would have made of Cream’s way-amped verions of “Crossroads.” Blues purists may shudder at the thought, but my humble opinion is that he might just have dug it.
Cat Stevens never claimed authorship of this song (although numerous online cites credit him for it); it’s lyrics are usually attributed to Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965).
I’m not epsico…, epsadoo…, uh religious but I’ll tell you the story anyway…
It started as a Lutheran Hymn by Hans Leo Hassler. It was used by J.S. Bach in the Saint Matthew’s Passion. Two hundred years later Tom Glazer adapted the melody in a folk song called “Because All Men Are Brothers”. This was recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary among others.
Paul Simon used the tune in “An American Tune” (irony!), and, in the sheet music I have, neglected to give Hessler, Bach or Glazer credit.
Me too. Johnson was a bit of a punk, in the good sense. If he had been a rock star, he probably would have flared brightly and gone out like Jimi Hendrix.
I read in some piece of official Cat Stevens literature that he was fond of searching the hymn/spiritual section of music stores and libraries to see if he could turn up some interesting stuff to play around with. He came across “Morning Is Broken” at some point and the rest is history. AFAIK he never claimed to have written the music, either, but maybe I misinterpred or misremembered that.
LC
The intro to the Dire Straits song Tunnel of Love is an excerpt from the Carousel Waltz by Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Savatage heavily borrows from classical composers all the time. Most notably, their songs In the Hall of the Mountain King (guess the classical piece they borrowed from, and win a fridge :D), Mozart and Madness (based on Mozart’s 25th Symphony), and Memory (partially based on Beethoven’s 9th) come to mind.
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - Sonny Boy Williamson ~ 1937
Grateful Dead (et al) covered it (slightly different lyrics but the covers of Robert Johnson, above, were accepted).
Sweet did a song ‘Air on a tape loop’ that may have been a tribute of a sort to Brahms (as per BigGirl)
ELO cleverly opens their cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ with - hmm - what is that - the overture to Ludvig Van’s 5th?
I was suprised to hear Peter, Paul and Mary singing ‘If I had my way, I would tear this old building down’ - which I always thought was a Grateful Dead composition, but turns out to be written by Rev. Gary Davis.
The song appeared on PP&Ms first, self-titled album in 1962, about five years before the first Grateful Dead album.
OK, one more comes to mind
Nearly every word of Jefferson Airplane’s Crown of Creation is taken directly from SF author John Day-of-The-Triffids Wyndham’s novel “Re-birth.”
Example: “Soon you’ll attain the stability you strive for
in the only way that it’s granted
in a place among the fossils of our time.”
Marx and Engels wrote the backing vocals to Belle and Sebastian’s, uh, “Marx and Engels”:
Bob Marley’s song “War” quotes from a speech by Jah Rastafari himself (Haile Selassie, monarch of Ethiopia) given before the League of Nations:
Everywhere is war. Me say war.
Another Emerson, Lake and Palmer entry:
“The Barbarian” from their debut album is their rendition of Bela Bartok’s “Allegro Barbaro.”
He also wrote Snowblind Friend, Never been to Spain and others. His mother wrote Green Back Dollar made popular by The Kingston Trio