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Pop goes the Classics

Listen to instrumental versions of music from Broadway, Hollywood and America's great collection of standards...


POP goes the classics. Popular music taken from classical music pieces.




  • "A Lover's Concerto" The Toys song is based on Bach's Minuet from the Anna Magdalena
    Notebook. [Ed. note: This Minuet in G is actually
    not by J.S. Bach, but by Christian Petzold. People have often assumed
    that it's by Bach because it was included in a book of music thought to
    have been kept by Bach's wife Anna Magdalena. Petzold (p. 367) and on Clavierbuchlein (p. 112) in the 1999 book
    The Oxford Composer Companions J.S. Bach, edited by Malcom Boyd.




  • "All By Myself" Eric Carmen is based on Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2"



  • "All This Time" by Sting based on a Cello suite from Bach



  • "And This is My Beloved" from KISMET by Wright-Forrest from Borodin Quartet No 2



  • "Annie's Song" based on Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 5"
    Second Movement



  • "Asia Minor" based on Edvard Grieg's "Piano Concerto In A Minor"



  • "The Barbarian" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer based on Bartok's piano piece Allegro Barbaro.



  • "Be Free My Soul" by LiberaFree in album FREE, based on Finlandia by Sibelius.



  • "Because" by John Lennon based on Beethoven's Piano Sonata #14, "Moonlight" [Played backwards]



  • "Bring Him Home" from the musical 'Les Miserables' based on "The Humming Chorus" from Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly'.



  • "Cans And Brahms" by Yes extracts From Brahms' 4th Symphony in E minor, Third Movement. It was arranged by keyboard player Rick Wakeman



  • "Catch a Falling Star" based on a theme from Brahm's
    "Academic Festival Overture"



  • "Chariots of Fire" is based on the second movement theme of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 "Romantic".



  • "Could It Be Magic" Barry Manilow/Donna Summer is based on Chopin's Prelude in C Minor



  • "Don't You Know" by Della Reese from Puccini aria. Words & Music by Bobby Worth, 1959, is based on "Musetta's Waltz Song" from Puccini's "



    • La Boheme".
  • "E.T." John Williams' "Flying Sequence / Finale" was
    inspired by the third movement from Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 "Romantic".



  • "Everythings Gonna Be Alright" is based on Bach's "Air" from
    the "Orchestral Suite No. 3 In D Major"



  • "Fanfare For the Common Man" by A. Copland was arranged in boogaloo style by Woody Herman and Emerson Lake and Palmer rocked a version.



  • "Fascination", though not stolen, was written by Maurice Ravel, who gave the rights to the score to his friend Dante Pilade "Fermo" Marchetti (1876-1940) who needed some financial help.



  • "A Fifth of Beethoven" is an arrangement of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony"



  • "Full Moon and Empty Arms" is based on Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2" Frank Sinatra had a recording.



  • "Goin' Home" is an arrangment based on the "Largo" movement of Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From The New World"



  • "Gymnopedie" of Satie used by Blood, Sweat and Tears and Janet Jackson's Someone to Call My Lover has a hint.



  • "Hook" by Blues Traveler melodic line is directly based on Pachelbel's "Canon in D."



  • "Hot Diggity Dog" is based on a theme from Chabrier's "Espana, Rhapsody For Orchestra"



  • "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" aka [Camp Granada by Allen Sherman] is based on Ponchielli's "Dance Of The Hours"



  • "I Believe In Father Christmas" by Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake and Palmer) came from 'Troika' of
    Prokofiev's 'Lt. Kije.'



  • "I Should Be So Lucky" Kylie Minogue inspired by Pachelbel's "Canon" [Cleo Lane also had a pop version of the work on album - Ultimate Canon Pachelbel/Various Artists Catalog #RCA-55307 See album cover below.]Pachelbel's Greatest Hit: The Ultimate Canon



  • "I Will Never Stop Loving You" on the album "Yesterday and Today"/"Fabulous Fifties...and New Delights" is based on the Cancan from
    Jaques Offenbach's opera "Orpheus In The Underworld" - this is stated in the
    liner notes to the Good Life Music Vol. 14.



  • "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is based on "Fantasie Impromptu In C Sharp Major" by Frederic Chopin



  • "It's Now or Never" is from 'O Sole Mio'



  • In an Eighteenth Century Drawing Room" by Raymond Scott Orchestra and others, is based
    on Mozart's "Piano Sonata, K. 545"



  • "Lady Lynda" by The Beach Boys based on J.S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."



  • "The Lamp is Low" is based on Maurice Ravel's "Pavanne For A Dead Princess"



  • "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley from early American songbook, 'Aura Lee'



  • "A Lover's Concerto" is based on J.S. Bach's "Minuet In G"



  • "Lullaby And Good Night" traditional, part of a symphony by Johannes Brahms, this song was first written as an instrumental symphony originally entitled, "Wiegenlied, Opus 49 Number 4."



  • "Midnight Blue" by Louise Tucker from Beethoven's 'Pathetique sonata'



  • "Midnight Sleighride" by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finnegan is from
    Prokofiev's "Lt. Kije" 'Troika'



  • "Moon Love" Hit by Glenn Miller Orchestra from Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony



  • "My Reverie" hit by Larry Clinton Orchestra, is based on Debussy's "Reverie"



  • "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole with the same theme as the first several notes of the opening of the second movement of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81. [Court Case: Eden Ahbez, who wrote “Nature Boy” didn’t have Dvorak in mind, but he was sued over it anyway. He was quoting a Yiddish song that has the same theme].



  • "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" by Eric Carmen from Rachmaninoff-Second Symphony.



  • "Night Of Fear" by The Move, a UK hit in the 60s, was based on "



    • 1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky.
  • "Penny Lane" by The Beatles a trumpet fanfare inspired by Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto #2."



  • "Piano and I" of Alicia Keys weaves a bit of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata.



  • "Rhapsody In The Rain" by Lou Christie based on Tchaikovsky's "Romeo And Juliet."



  • "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M has lyrics that are, verbatim, from scriptures -- "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto thee....." and some more as well.



  • "Roll Over Beethoven" was ELO's cover with
    their string section playing the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.



  • "Russians" by Sting inspired by Russian composer Sergei Provokiev's Romance Melody from the Lieutenant Kije Suite.



  • "Safari swings again" is originally named "The jolly peasant" and was penned and composed
    by classical-composer Robert Schumann during his lifetime 1810-1856.



  • "Song of India" is based on a theme from Rimsky-Korsakov's
    "Scheherazade"



  • "Song of Joy" is based on Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' from the finale to his 9th symphony, aka "Choral". It also inspired a Latin hit by Miguel Rios, a spanish rock singer, who arranged the song and it became "El Himno a la Alegria", "Ode to Joy" [ED: "Joy" by Apollo 100 based on Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and not the Beethoven Choral Symphony.]



  • "Song of Norway", Music by Robert Wright and George Forrest; Book by Milton Lazarus; Lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest; show based on Grieg themes.



  • "Spanish Caravan" by The Doors intro riff was taken from "Asturias," a Classical piece by Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909).



  • "Stranger in Paradise" from KISMET by Wright-Forrest from Borodin's 'Prince Igor' with melodies from from Borodin's "Polovetsian Dances" in the second act finding their way into the musical Kismet.



  • "Tank" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer used the first movement of Janacek's Sinfonietta.



  • "This Night" by Billy Joel inspired by Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata



  • "Tonight We Love" Hit by Freddy Martin Orchestra from Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.



  • "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" based on Mozart's keyboard variations on “Ah! Vous Dirai-je, Maman,” K. 265




  • "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum loosely based on J.S. Bach's
    "Orchestral Suite No. 3, Air" (commonly known as "Air On A G String) and Cantata 140 "Sleepers Awake"






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