ROCK versions of Classical Music

[Vexed]

I love rock and I love classical music. There are many rock versions of classical music. Many different bands have done the same piece.

So, what are some of your favorites?

I have tons, but here are a few.

1. Titles to numerous to mention -- Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2. Sabre Dance ( Khachaturian ) --  Dave Edmunds

3. Hall of the Mountain King ( Grieg ) -- Electric Light Orchestra

[MaVolta]

Joybringer - Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

https://youtu.be/rtoPr76fCac

From Gustav Holst’s Jupiter, Planet Suites

MM has more but I’ll have to look them up.

[MaVolta]

Blackbird - The Beatles

Paul said he started with the first four bars of Bach’s Bouree in E Minor for lute, and then made up the rest. 

[1968Hoya46]

Night:  Jackie Wilson  (Based on an aria from the opera Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns)

[RossM846371]

Two songs evoking classic Jazz tunes by John Coltrane include 8 Miles High by the Byrds which takes its cue from India, and Light My Fire which takes its cue from Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things.   Light My Fire also borrows from Bach with that nice baroque keyboard bridge. played by Ray.    

[RossM846371]

Dio you think that there would be interest in two topics: 1 The best and worst uses of classical music in movies and 2.  The opposite of the topic.  Composers who compose adaptions of popular music, or who use it in bigger compositions.   Mozart's father leopold Mozart often used folk and popular music in his own compositions, which is often the only way we have been able to have this music as it was not usually written down at the time.   My favorite is Hector Berlioz's setting of les marseillais, the French national anthem.  This version is wholly nuts and fantastic.  

[RossM846371]

Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond is taken directly from the Andanti movement from Mozart's Piano Concerto #21.   Diamond has altered the tempo and arrangement of the beats but the melody is Mozart's.   This is the music that was so effectively used in the romantic movie Elvira Madigan.  Its used so effectively that its now often known as the Elvira madigan concerto.   

[RossM846371]

The bridge in Bridge Over Troubled Waters comes from a Bach Cantata

Tubular Bells is an inversion of a Bach piece

Whiter Shade of Pale also derived from Bach

many many others

[MaVolta]

Memory - Savatage

https://youtu.be/krMQgSPmgmE

Ode to Joy, Beethoven’s 9th

[MaVolta]

Mozart And Madness - Savatage

https://youtu.be/ob3eqK7hTVs

Quotes directly from Mozart’s Symphony No. 25

[Vexed]

"Annie's Song" by John Denver (74)- based on Peter Tchaikovsky "Symphony No. 5," second movement  

https://wwwyoutube.com/watch?v=RNOTF-znQyw 

[Vexed]

"Flight of the Bumble Bee" - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1900)

"Flight of the Bumble Bee" - Apocalyptica (2022)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtDQXIeEmY 

[MaVolta]

Another one featuring our old friend, Pachelbel’s Canon in D -

The Seven Angels - Avantasia 

https://youtu.be/kuQCeNyFr5c

It appears at the end of this 14 minute epic. 

[MaVolta]

Waiting Just For You  -  Blackmore’s Night

https://youtu.be/7oRTMouEelE

Melody is a variation on Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke. Blackmore acknowledged him with co-writing credits. 

https://youtu.be/bRrss4kBi2M

You may recognize this as it is a popular wedding piece, most notably that of Lady Diana and Prince Charles. 

[Vexed]

(1965) - "A Groovy Kind of Love" - written by Carole Bayer Sager and Toni Wine - Music is the Rondo from "Sonatina in G Major Opus 36, No. 5" by Muzio Clementi

First recording(s) in 1965 - Diane & Annita (were Ray Anthony's back up singers)  as" Groovy Kind of Love"-

in Dec. 1965 Mindbenders (Wayne Fontana had walked out so it was just Mindbenders) The Mindbenders one didn't make the charts until early 1966 so some list recorded in 1966.

Whole lot of covers for this. Pic your fav(s). Mine are the Mindbenders and Phil Collins.

[MaVolta]

I remember both of them. The Mindbenders version fit the rhythm of the era, but the Phil Collins version is both beautiful and timeless. 

[Vexed]

"All By Myself "- Eric Carmen 

Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto (second movement (adagio sostenuto)) and part of another of one his own songs.
He thought the Rachmaninoff piece was public domain. It was from 1901 (not public domain at the time) and had to make a settlement with the Rachmaninoff estate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0KdR8bKHNQ 

[Vexed]

Here is another based on Pachelbel's "Canon in D". There are probably more out there.

"Memories" - Maroon 5 -- Beautiful song about losing loved ones and the memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlPhMPnQ58k 

[MaVolta]

@Vexed  - I watch a YT channel called David Bennet Piano. He recently gave 21 examples, and said there were plenty more. I heard a new song by Hammerfall just today that uses the chord progression in the chorus with one variation at the end. I think it was Too Old to Die Young. Good song, too.

The music industry owes Pachelbel a lot of💲💲💲! 😸

[Vexed]

They sure do @MaVolta . 😸   

[Vexed]

"Hook" - Blues Traveler

The melody is Pachelbel's "Canon in D". 

A fun song about how if your music has a good hook and you are charismatic, then your can say anything in your lyrics and don't have to be meaningful to have your song be liked. He does it with the famous well known melody of Cannon in D, the way he sings (and the lyrics explain in a way). The fun video shows that it works for beauty contestants and politicians. 

Well I liked it. 😊

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdz5kCaCRFM 

[Vexed]

Blackmore's Night - "Darker Shade of Black" -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvvbEZtqu3E 

This is an original composition but like Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" - it incorporates Bach's "Air on a G String"

The mandolin, electric guitar and acoustic guitar are done by Blackmore, with Candice on tambourine and a little background vocals and Scarlet Fiddler with violin and fiddle.

[MaVolta]

And this one, a new release . . ,

Bolero (Ravel)  -  Apocalyptica 

https://youtu.be/nyneynhwHBc

Generally thought of as a romantic piece as connected to the movie “10”,,, think again! Their arrangement using cellos is brilliant and amazing. I’m a fan!  😸

[Vexed]

Ya beat me to it @MaVolta . 😊   I am a big fan too. 

[Vexed]

Apocalyptica - In the Hall of the Mountain King (Greig)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf2aIVKp1OY 

[MaVolta]

Concerto In Dm (Bach)  -  Allegaeon

https://youtu.be/_EtcIrkG8FA

[EricC28201]

Another one from ELP:

The Great Gates of Kiev - Emerson, Lake and Palmer

[MaVolta]

Swan Lake - Dark Moor 

https://youtu.be/At78w5MUvL8

Their take on the Tchaikovsky classic. 

[CaptainMura]

Again not necessarily rock but Fanfare for the common man (Copeland) Woody Herman and The Thundering Herd

[EricC28201]

The Hut of Baba Yaga (Mussorgsky) - Emerson, Lake and Palmer