# What Songs Can Be Sung To Other Tunes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822 "2004-09-30T12:11:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/61 "2004-10-04T02:12:52Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > I knew it was also a hymn, but not the Haydn connection: any link with the original to Bach, given that A Whiter Shade Of Pale pretty much plagiarised him? Odd Sunday morning-went to church with my Dad years ago, and the Haydn hymn was sung. It was noodling around in my head that _I’d heard that somewhere else, with different words_ but Dad couldn’t place it. I followed him back home on a hunch and rooted through his LP collection until finding a disc he’d bought during WWII-entitled _Music of the Third Reich_ or something to that effect. It was a collection of stuff including the Horst Wessel song, a.k.a. _Die Fahne Hoch_ which melody was known as a “Well-known soldiers song” but sounds extremely close to the melody of “How Great Thou Art”. I never realized the Procol Harum/Bach connection-but thinking of the opening to AWSOP and contrasting that with a Bach/E. Power Biggs organ CD of mine, the styling is there, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/62 "2004-10-04T09:50:02Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > Odd Sunday morning-went to church with my Dad years ago, and the Haydn hymn was sung. It was noodling around in my head that _I’d heard that somewhere else, with different words_ but Dad couldn’t place it. I followed him back home on a hunch and rooted through his LP collection until finding a disc he’d bought during WWII-entitled _Music of the Third Reich_ or something to that effect. It was a collection of stuff including the Horst Wessel song, a.k.a. _Die Fahne Hoch_ which melody was known as a “Well-known soldiers song” but sounds extremely close to the melody of “How Great Thou Art”. > > I never realized the Procol Harum/Bach connection-but thinking of the opening to AWSOP and contrasting that with a Bach/E. Power Biggs organ CD of mine, the styling is there, for sure. J S Bach, Air On A G String. Seriously, if he were alive he could sue. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/63 "2004-10-04T17:39:51Z")
A friend in Sydney has just informed me that Australia’s national anthem can also be sung to the _Gilligan’s Island_ theme (indeed, since I don’t know the tune to Australia’s national anthem, I can _only_ sing it that way): Australians all let us rejoice, For we are young and free; We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil; Our home is girt by sea (_Our home is girt by sea_) Our land abounds in nature’s gifts Of beauty rich and rare; In history’s page, let every stage Advance Australia Fair. (_Advance Australia Fair_) ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/64 "2004-10-04T17:55:00Z")
> [@wheelie](#): > > The theme from Green Acres to the tune of Purple Haze, or > Gilligan’s Island to Stairway To Heaven (heard that on Dr. Demento once). Whoa, there was band here in the '80s that would do the Green Acres/Purple Haze song live - Dr somebody-or-other and the PhDs. This makes me think they either recorded it, or lied when they said they made it up. And Fleming and John do “Winter Wonderland” to Zepp’s “Misty Mountain Hop” around Cristmas time. The last line is: “I really want snow snow snow” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/65 "2004-10-04T18:29:56Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > J S Bach, Air On A G String. Seriously, if he were alive he could sue. Of course, that’s kinda the point. He’s long-dead, so his stuff is public domain, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/66 "2004-10-04T18:46:57Z")
For those of you bored in church and with a poetic bent, you can put almost any set of lyrics to a hymn. Figure out the number of syllables in each line of a poem, concatenate them with periods, and then skim the hymnal. Most hymns have a notation at the bottom of the page which identifies their meter, and therefore their suitablity for adaptation. For example: _Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see._ The hymn would be annotated 8.6.8.6, and would fit with any number of poems or modern songs. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Natural](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@Mr\_Natural](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Natural)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/67 "2004-10-04T21:10:20Z")
He’s so Fine (Chiffons) / My Sweet Lord ( G Harrison) ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/68 "2004-10-05T00:25:28Z")
> [@Mr Natural](#): > > He’s so Fine (Chiffons) / My Sweet Lord ( G Harrison) Hasn’t a court already (aka decades ago) decided they were the same song? ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/69 "2004-10-05T01:09:51Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > We talked about this in another thread a few weeks ago. I think I mentioned then that I like to sing _Stairway to Heaven_ to the tune of Gordon Lightfoot’s _Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_. > > _There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold, > And she’s buyin’ the stairway ta heaven. > When she gets there she knows if the stores are all closed, > With a word she can get what she came for._ > > Works really well if you maintain the upper midwest pronunciation of Gordon Lightfoot. Guess it depends how you define “upper midwest pronunciation”. Myself, I woudn’t have called it “upper midwest” being as he’s from southern Ontario and all (originally from Orillia, an hour north of Toronto, and then Toronto itself), but then I suppose I’ve got the mid-western Canadian perspective on it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hammerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hammerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammerbach)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/70 "2004-10-05T05:13:26Z")
Longfellow’s _Excelsior_ works really well to the tune from Underdog: The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village passed A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, A banner with the strange device, Excelsior! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822/71 "2004-10-05T05:27:21Z")
I discovered over the weekend that “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Ode to Joy” scan to each other. At least, the Japanese versions do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-can-be-sung-to-other-tunes/266822.md?page=3)