Discover the impact of classical music in your favorite hits!
"You can't reinvent the wheel," as the saying goes. And what about music? Some popular artists have understood this: covering, sampling or transforming classic tunes into songs is a solid starting point to a potential hit. The combinations are multiple: Beethoven in 70's disco by Giorgio Moroder in Lonely Lovers, Chopin sampled in That's my people by the French rap group NTM. Each decade has had its share of covers, often for the best...
The Beatles / Beethoven
We are going to be interested in the ultra famous track of the Beatles called "Because" and its inspiration taken from the Sonata for piano no.14 in C sharp minor "Moonlight" of Beethoven. Because was released on the album "Abbey Road" in 1969, the second track on the B-side and instrumented with this mythical arpeggiated line on the electric harpsichord. Immediately, this melody plunges us in the baroque period, the classical inspiration is then obvious. According to the story, Yoko Ono played this famous sonata on the piano during a Beatles' studio session. John Lennon, with his ear to the ground, asked his girlfriend to play it again, but this time in reverse. That's when the song was born.
Serge Gainsbourg / Beethoven
We are heading this time in the French repertoire, with two major cultural actors: Serge Gainsbourg and France Gall. The latter does not hide his classical inspiration in his compositions: "I like great music. Me I make small music. Of the musiquette. A minor art. So, I borrow". Even if he did not hide it, this explicit inspiration caused him criticism, accusations of plagiarism. For the song "Poupée de cire, Poupée de son" interpreted in 1965 by France Gall at the Eurovision, it is necessary to go to 00:40 of the sonata for piano no 1 to detect the borrowing.
Donna Summer / Chopin
As mentioned in the introduction, the disco period was rich in classical borrowings. Donna Summer, queen of dance hits mixed with nostalgia, enjoyed the minor harmony of the "Prelude No. 20 in C minor, Opus 28" of Frederic Chopin to interpret her hit "Could it be Magic". We can even speak of remix, because the melody remains identical between the two. The arrangement is obviously diametrically opposed. Donna Summer has modernized it by adding a dancing tempo, an instrumental ornamentation provided with disco elements and the addition of lyrics that can be sung as an anthem. The magic of the singer lies in the fact that she turned a rather dark classical work into a real dance hit that has left its mark on popular music forever.
Céline Dion / Rachmaninov
Let's go to a more recent register. Maybe you've already sung Celine Dion's hit "All by myself" at the top of your lungs? (until that absolutely impossible 8-second hold at 2:43). You should know that the harmony is inspired by the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2". But that's not all! "All by myself" is a song originally written and performed by Eric Carmen and released in 1975. Believing that the Concerto belongs to the public domain, he uses it for his title, not suspecting that this is absolutely not the case. He will have, thereafter, problems of plagiarism and copyright.
Lady Gaga / Bach
You've always wondered where that surprisingly filtered Fugue introduction in the song "Bad Romance" came from? the answer: The B minor Fugue from Book 1 of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Lady Gaga has a classical musical education, and it shows in her eccentric, electro-tinged pop. In this case, it's more of a wink, as the use of the fugue intrudes as a preamble to the song, with no real connection to the harmony that follows. "Bad Romance" really made the singer's career explode, along with other tracks like "Poker Face" and "Just Dance".
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