List of popular songs based on classical music

This is a list of examples of popular songs that are arrangements of, or otherwise make use of, works of classical music. Instrumental pieces are tagged with an uppercase "[I]", or a lowercase "[i]" for quasi-instrumental including non-lyrics voice samples.

The practice of adapting classical compositions is associated with various popular genres, including Tin Pan Alley, progressive rock, and heavy metal.

Note: songs are listed in chronological order within each section, then alphabetically - please bear this in mind when editing.

Contents

1910s

(1913) "Hungarian Rag" by Julius Lenzberg - based on the Second Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt.
(1918) "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" by Joseph McCarthy and Harry Carroll - based on the Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor by Frederic Chopin.
(1919) "The Marine Hymn" by L. Z. Philips - based on an air from Jacques Offenbach's Genevieve de Brabant
(1919) "Peter Gink" by George L. Cobb - based on the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.

1920s

(1922) "Goin' Home" popularized by Paul Robeson - based on the "Largo" from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"

1930s

(1930) "In an Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room" by Raymond Scott - based on Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 545
(1937) "Song of India", arr. Tommy Dorsey - based on a theme from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade
(1938) "My Reverie" by Larry Clinton - based on Debussy's Reverie
(1939) "The Lamp is Low" - Peter DeRose and Bert Shefter - based on Maurice Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess

1940s

(1945) "Full Moon and Empty Arms", by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman - based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.
(1946) "Summer Moon" by Klenner, sung by Lauritz Melchior - based on Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird (Berceuse)

1950s

(1952) "The Bigger The Figure", by Louis Prima - based on Rossini's Largo al factotum
(1953) "Stranger in Paradise" by George Forrest and Robert Wright, in the Broadway musical Kismet - based on a theme from Alexander Borodin's Polovetsian Dances
(1956) "Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)" by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning - based on a theme from Chabrier España, Rhapsody for Orchestra
(1958) "Catch a Falling Star" by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance - based on a theme from Brahms' Academic Festival Overture
(1959) "Once Upon a Dream" by ????? in the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty - based upon a waltz in Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty.

1960s

(1960) "Asia Minor" by James Wisner - based on Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor
(1962) "Nut Rocker" by B. Bumble and the Stingers - based on Tchaikovsky's "March of the Wooden Soldiers" from the Nutcracker Suite
(1963) "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter From Camp)" by Allan Sherman - based on Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" from La Gioconda
(1964) "Rap City" by The Ventures - based on Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor
(1965) "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys - based on J.S. Bach's Minuet in G from the Anna Magdalena Notebook.
(1966) "Past, Present and Future" by The Shangri-Las - based on Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano sonata No. 14, "Moonlight"
(1967) "Imitation Situation" by Fever Tree (San Francisco Girls) - used opening passage of J.S. Bach's Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_Minor
(1967) "A 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".
(1968) "Because" by John Lennon - inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano sonata No. 14, "Moonlight"
(1968) "Hall of the Mountain King" by The Who - inspired by Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite
(1968) "Prelude B - I'm so Glad" by Deep Purple in Shades of Deep Purple - nicely lifted from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade: The Sea and Sinbad's Ship,
(1968) "Variations On A Theme By Erik Satie" by Blood Sweat & Tears - based on Trois Gymnopedies by Eric Satie
(1969) "Albinoni's Adigio in G Minor" by The Doors in Boxed Set Disk 1 Without A Safety Net - based on Tomaso Albinoni's Adagio
(1969) "Jane B" by Serge Gainsbourg for Jane Birkin - based on Frederic Chopin's "Prelude No. 4"
(1969) "Sabre Dance" by Love Sculpture - based on Aram Khatchaturian's "Gayane"

1970s

(1970) "Knife Edge" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Sinfonietta, first movement by Leos Janacek
(1970) "A Song of Joy" by Waldo De Los Rios for Miguel Rios - based on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
(1971) "Baby Alone In Babylone" by Serge Gainsbourg for Jane Birkin - based on the 3rd movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 3
(1972) "Abaddon's Bolero" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Bolero by Maurice Ravel
(1972) "Also Sprach Zarathustra" [I] by Deodato - a funk arrangement of Richard Strauss' composition of the same name
(1972) "Cans and Brahms" by Yes - based on Johannes Brahms Symphony 4, third movement
(1972) "Hoedown" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Rodeo by Aaron Copland
(1972) "Horizons" by Steve Hackett from Genesis in Foxtrot - (loosely) based on Suite For Cello, by J.S. Bach
(1972) "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - entire album based on the work by Modest Mussorgsky
(1973) "Joybringer" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band - based on "Jupiter - bringer of jollity" from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite
(1973) "Toccata" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Ginastera's First piano concerto, fourth movement
(1974) "Annie's Song" by John Denver - based on Peter Tchaikovsky "Symphony No. 5," second movement
(1975) "Could It Be Magic" by Barry Manilow - quotes extensively from Chopin's Prelude in C minor
(1975) "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Aaron Copland's work of the same name.
(1975) "I Believe in Father Christmas" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer - based on Lieutenant Kije Suite, Opus 60, by Sergei Prokofiev (released as a single under the name of Greg Lake alone).
(1976) "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen - based on Sergei Rachmaninoff piano concerto No. 2
(1976) "A Fifth of Beethoven" [I] by Walter Murphy - disco version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, featured in Saturday Night Fever
(1976) "Ma Lou Marilou" by Serge Gainsbourg - based on the 1st movement of Beethoven's

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor "Appassionata" (opus 57)

(1976) "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" by Eric Carmen - based on Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony
(1977) "If I Had Words" by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley - based on Camille Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony")
(1978) "Lady Linda" by The Beach Boys - based on J.S. Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

1980s

(1980) "Swan Lake" by Madness - based on Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake"
(1980) "Toccata" by Sky - based on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
(1981) "Difficult to Cure" by Rainbow - based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (last movement of the ninth symphony).
(1983) "This Night" by Billy Joel - adapted from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata
(1984) "Icarus Dream Suite" by Yngwie J. Malmsteen - based on Tomaso Albinoni's, Adagio.
(1984) "Madame Butterfly" by Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team - based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly.
(1984) "Rite of Spring" by Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - based on Igor Stravinsky's work of the same name
(1985) "Lemon Incest" by Serge Gainsbourg for Charlotte Gainsbourg - based on Frederic Chopin's "Etude No. 3 in E (Tristesse)" (in opus 10)
(1986) "Russians" by Sting - based on "Romance" theme from Lieutenant Kije Suite, Opus 60, by Sergei Prokofiev
(1987) "Lost Song" by Serge Gainsbourg for Jane Birkin - melody after part of Edvard Grieg's "Solveig's song" (in Peer Gynt, Suite No. 2, opus 55)
(1989) "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel is based on the hymn Jerusalem by Charles Hubert Parry.
(1989) "Leningrad" by Billy Joel - quotes at length the song Waldesnacht, du wunderkühle by Johannes Brahms

1990s

(1990) "Mea Culpa" by Enigma - based on the Gregorian chant "Kyrie Eleison" (with which, oddly, Mr. Mister's "Kyrie" had little to do)
(1990) "Operaa House!" by Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team - based on the "Flower Duet" from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé
(1994) "Basket Case" by Green Day - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(1995) "Clubbed to Death" [I] by Rob Dougan in Furious Angels - parts inspired by Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations
(1996) "Clubbed to Death 2" [I] by Rob Dougan in Furious Angels - parts quoting Frederic Chopin's "Prelude No. 4 in E minor" (in Preludes, opus 28)
(1997) "Tubthumper" by Chumbawamba - quotes Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary.
(1998) "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" by Sweetbox - based on Johann Sebastian Bach, Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D-Major
(1999) "Arpeggios From Hell" reworked/renamed "Molto Arpeggiosa" by Yngwie J. Malmsteen - based on Beethoven's Piano sonata No. 14, "Moonlight", 3rd movement
(1999) "Love of my Life" from Supernatural by Santana and Dave Matthews - based on the third movement from Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 3

2000s

(2000) "Graduation (Friends Forever)" by Vitamin C - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(2000) "Hall of the Mountain King" [I] by Apocalyptica - cello/metal cover of Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt (Suite No.1, opus 46)
(2000) "Love U Crazay" by En Vogue from Masterpiece Theatre - set to Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Nutcracker
(2000) "Those Dogs" by En Vogue from Masterpiece Theatre - set to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
(2001) "Piano & I" by Alicia Keys - based on Beethoven's Piano sonata No. 14, "Moonlight", 1st movement
(2001) "Someone to Call My Lover" by Janet Jackson - uses Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 (as well as America's "Ventura Highway").
(2001) "Yatta" by Happa-tai - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(2002) "I Can" by Nas - contains a sample of the classical piece Fur Elise by Beethoven.
(2003) "When I Get You Alone" by Thicke - based on a sample from Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven" (q.v.) - itself based on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
(2004) "Paris" by Delerium - based on Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major
(2005) "They" by Jem - largely based on Prelude 12 from J. S. Bach's The Well-tempered Clavier (Book 2)

External link

The Marines' Hymn (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100010540/default.html) 1919 manuscript

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Categories: Lists of songs