POP SONGS FROM CLASSICAL MUSIC

 

Writing the previous blog and tweaking lyrics of Doris Day’s seductive “This Is Beautiful Music To Love By’, my thoughts went to some popular songs which have been inspired by and adapted from age-old classical pieces. Many such songs have been huge hits for all-time great and top singers of their time.

‘King’ Elvis Presley has a number of them. His 1960 release “It’s Now Or Never” is an adaptation of the evergreen Neapolitan classic “O Sole Mio” sung by scores of great tenors including my favourite, Luciano Pavarotti. Elvis' version was not the first one; in 1949, Tony Martin had recorded “There’s No Tomorrow” using the melody of “O Sole Mio”.

Elvis followed up with “Surrender” adapted from another Neapolitan great, “Torna A Surriento”. And while on Elvis, we can include “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” which is from a French love song of 1784 vintage. Most of us will also recall its swinging reggae rendition by UB40 thirty years down the line which perhaps even bettered Elvis’ version in popularity.

Way back in 1945, Frank Sinatra sang “Full Moon And Empty Arms” based on Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Many versions followed, prominent being the ones by Eddie Fisher and Caterina Valente, and Bob Dylan as recently as 2015. The Concerto has been very popular with movie music composers and has been used extensively in David Lean’s “Brief Encounter” (1945), “Rhapsody” (1954) with Elizabeth Taylor in the lead role, and “Seven Year Itch” (1955) starring Marilyn Monroe”. I remember seeing “Rhapsody” as a cadet in the NDA in the mid-‘50s and being captivated by the musical theme even before I learnt to appreciate classical music.

The slow second movement of this concerto of Rachmaninov’s has also inspired “All By Myself” by Celine Dion who we all know for her “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic”.

Another Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s No. 1, led to the romantic “Tonight We Love” composed by a famous band leader of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Freddy Martin, and sung among others, by Caterina Valente and Tony Martin. 

Two contrasting numbers of mid-‘50s bring back sweet memories to me of our house on 3 Hospital Road in Jaipur and my top floor room where Radio Ceylon was the top source of music on our Philips radio. The first is the sentimental “Stranger In Paradise” from the musical “Kismet”. The song is an adaptation of Alexander Borodin’s “Gliding Dance of the Maidens” from his opera “Prince Igor”. Tony Bennett sang it in the 1953 movie and then performed it with Andrea Bocelli in 2011, 58 years later! 

The other number is the fast-paced, foot tapping “Hot Diggity” by Perry Como based on Chabrier’s “Espana”. It has funny and nonsensical lyrics like:

“Oh, hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom, what you do to me….when you’re holding me tight….

Never dreamed anybody could kiss thattaway

Bring me bliss thattaway, what a kiss thattaway…

Never knew that my heart could go ‘zing’ thattaway

Ting-a-ling thattaway, make me sing thattaway….

Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to me

From the moment you’re mine

Hot dog!”

Sure to chase anyone’s blues away!

Paul McCartney and John Lennon did their bit of adaptation for The Beatles with “Because”, a take from the First Movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Further, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Bourree in E Minor” led them to compose “Blackbird”. Paul said he went for the title on hearing the call of the bird while in Rishikesh. 

On hearing the opening chords on the Hammond Organ of the mesmerizing “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol Harum, one might think of Bach and would be right; the song is based on Bach’s “Air on the G String.” The title has an interesting story; songwriter Keith Reid overheard someone at a party saying to a woman, “You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale.” And so a song was born.

Bach seems to have been a big inspiration to pop music composers and singers. Still, it came to me as a surprise to learn that Simon and Garfunkel’s superb “Bridge Over Troubled Water” owed its origin to Bach’s hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”!

To this day, pop music writers keep turning to classical music for inspiration. Billy Joel’s “This Night” came from the Second Movement of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata, Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” from Vittorio Monti’s “Csardas”, Phil Collins’ “A Groovy Kind of Love” from Clementi’s “Sonata in G Minor”, Beyonce’s “Ave Maria” from Schubert’s famous hymn of the same title but with different lyrics, John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” from the Second Movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.... The list is endless and continues to expand.

Finally, can you believe that a classical piece can be converted into ‘rap’? Well, that is just what the rapper NAS did, adapting his “I Can” from one of Beethoven’s most popular pieces, “Fur Elise”. His song is intended to be an inspirational one for children written by NAS at the request of his mother and the video I have seen is sweet. Intentions might have been noble; however, I think it was just as well that Beethoven was deaf as hearing the musical twist given to his piece might have made him turn in his grave.