31 Songs That Are Based On Classical Music

this video is sponsored by primephonic the best app for streaming and learning about classical music the majority of classical music is in the public domain if a piece of music is in the public domain that means that enough time has now passed since it was published that it's no longer protected by copyright and therefore anyone can use it however they please to write their own original song so today we're going to look at several examples of songs that were based on classical pieces of music billy joel has often cited classical music as a big influence on him particularly the works of beethoven my favorite composer musician of all time is ludwig von beethoven and nowhere is this influence more clear than billy joel's 1984 song this night the chorus of this night is based on the second movement of beethoven's fatigue sonata we can hear that joel has effectively just set words to the beethoven melody although he has also increased the tempo of the piece and swung the rhythm [Music] [Applause] [Music] this night can last forever [Music] a particularly influential piece of classical music is barked bureau in e minor i've discussed before that a segment of bark's puree was the starting point for paul mccartney's blackbird [Music] i i later took that the idea that uh you've got the bass line on the top line the melody and turned it uh into blackbird [Music] but bureau also served as the inspiration for another classic song led zeppelin's stairway to heaven as jimmy page mentions in this clip the acoustic guitar intro of stairway was an attempt to imitate bark's bureau quite a fragile exposed acoustic guitar playing in sort of style of a poor man's bouree that sort of aspect when we compare the two pieces we can see that they're both built from two distinct voices an upper voice exploring the minor scale and a steadier bass voice below [Applause] in this case it seems that page really only used puree as a kicking off point for stairway as beyond these similarities in style the two melodies are distinctly different a far more direct adaption of puree is jeff rotol's bureau which is effectively a jazzy prog reimagining of the original bark piece [Music] another led zeppelin track based on the classical piece is friends the strings line during the verse of friends is based on gustav host's mars [Music] [Music] mars also inspired another rock band black sabbath as bassist giza butler explains in this clip the riff from black sabbath's self-titled song black sabbath was inspired by mars distinct tritone melody i was a medium-sized fan of holt the planet suite particularly mars in those days and one of the days i was in the uh we were rehearsing and i was going trying to play mars and then the next day tony went in i meant and that's the black sabbath came about [Applause] hosts mars hasn't only inspired rock songs though john williams infamously lifted from mars for parts of his iconic star wars score this is perhaps most clear at this moment where williams has used the exact same dramatic chord as host all williams has done to alter the chord is change the bass note from c to g and slightly modify the rhythm [Music] some people have pointed out similarities between the white stripes seven nation army and bruckner's fifth symphony if i move them both into the same key it's clear that the two melodies are intervalically identical [Music] however the two melodies are played with distinctly different rhythms now it's hard to say whether jack white actually lifted the melody of seven nation army from brooklyn's fifth symphony or whether this is a coincidence although it is true that jack white was a fan of classical music when growing up so it is possible that consciously or not he was inspired by brooklyn's fifth returning to the ever influential bark the keyboard intro to the doors light my fire was also inspired by bach keyboard player ray mantrak based the intro on the many bark inventions that he'd learnt as a student [Music] inventions like this piece invention number eight are short pieces generally used as practice exercises it was a it was a a box circle of fifths as it's called um i knew i was going to end up on an a minor but we had to get to that a minor so i went from a g d [Music] and it just came out of uh you know 15 20 years of musical practice paul mccartney has often cited bark as an influence for example when mccartney was watching a performance of bark's second brandenburg concerto on tv he noticed the distinctive sound of the piccolo trumpet and decided it would be a great fit for his new song penny elaine i actually saw the player david mason on a telly i saw him playing brandenburg concerto i think or something like that and for that piece you use this thing called piccolo trumpet because there's some very high trumpet notes so i said to george martin who knew about my reference for all that what was that funny little trumpet he would have been playing in the brandon but that's a great sound just sounded fantastic said maybe it's just what we need for the penny lane solar [Laughter] [Music] one of bark's most influential pieces is his takata and fugue in d minor mike oldfield claims that his classic tubular bells is an upside down version of bark staccato no but everybody knows that turn don't they everybody knows that too can you where did that turn come from oh well it's box to cart it's the upside down version of that see there you go we never knew that now despite what oldfield says here chewbalabaos isn't actually takata played note for note upside down but particularly if we move them both into the same key we can see how oldfield used to takata as a starting point for tubular bells both melodies are a continuous stream of eighth notes in the minor key punctuated repeatedly by the fifth degree of the scale a key difference between the two though is that old field skips a beat on every other repetition resulting in the spa of 7 4. tubular bows is far from the only piece though to be based on barks decatur and fugue as i discussed in the previous video muse's plug-in baby is seemingly also inspired by jakarta [Music] as is rick wakeman's track jane seymour wakeman not only makes a clear nod to park staccato at the start of the song but he then goes on to play an organ melody very similar to that of takata [Music] takata's influence isn't only limited to prog rock though eminem used a piano version of takata in his track brainless cause i feel like a little despicable i'm sick of just getting pushed it's ridiculous and dutch dance act too unlimited also use dakarta as the inspiration for their 1994 hit the real thing although this time rather than the organ line pedaling the fifth degree it pedals the root note instead sting's 1985 song russians is very fittingly inspired by russian composer sergey prokokiyev sting's melody begins by following the same intervals as prokokiyev's romance theme although sting has altered the rhythm with which the notes are played and later in the song we then get an unaltered rendition of prakakeev's romance theme just over 30 years later robbie williams and guy chambers followed in sting's footsteps when they incorporated procockyev's dance of the nights into their russian-themed song party like a russian [Music] in just one moment we'll look at how somewhere from west side story was based on two different classical pieces of music but just before we do that i want to talk to you about today's sponsor which is prime phonic prime phonic is a streaming service dedicated to classical music apps like spotify are built for pop music and therefore organize the music by album and artist but that doesn't really work for classical music where the focus is on the composer so discovering classical music on spotify can be very difficult prime phonic is built for classical music and does a great job of curating over 400 years of music into an easy to use interface prime phonic also features composer biographies and podcasts making it a great resource for learning more about classical music follow the link in the description and use promo code davidpiano to get two months free of prime phonic on top of the usual two-week free trial leonard bernstein somewhere from the iconic west side story is seemingly based not on just one classical melody but on two the opening motif of somewhere seems to be lifted from the second movement of beethoven's emperor concerto if we move both pieces into the same key we can see that their melodies are near identical with the only difference being the last notes now the second half of somewhere's melody seems to instead be lifted from tchaikovsky's swan lake when moved into the same key it's clear that they both start with the same climb up the major scale from the seventh degree up to the fifth the only difference is the rhythm another song inspired by tchaikovsky is john denver's annie's song allegedly denver unknowingly wrote annie's song to the tune of tchaikovsky's fifth symphony and when he showed the new song to his producer milt oaken oaken pointed out the similarities the first time i heard annie's song i told john it had the same melody as tchaikovsky's fifth symphony second movement john walked over to the piano sat for an hour and came back and the only thing remaining from tchaikovsky was the first five notes as mentioned in the quote we can see that the finished version of annie's song borrows the opening five note motif from tchaikovsky but then heads off in a different [Music] direction [Music] beethoven's famous moonlight sonata is one of the most widely recognized and adored pieces of classical music so it's no wonder it served as the inspiration for many songs i've talked before about how john lennon used moonlight sonata as the starting point for the beatles because [Music] [Applause] but moonlight sonata was more recently used by lucas graham as the foundation of their song better than yourself better than yourself directly lifts beethoven's distinctive chord progression and arpeggio figure i really don't have time but promised that i'd come and see [Music] interestingly though lucas graham have adjusted moonlight's arpeggio so it now consists of four notes instead of three [Music] another song based on moonlight sonata is neon gravestones by 21 pilots particularly if we move both into the same key we can see they both begin with a similar minor chord arpeggio [Music] this is where the similarities end though really as the two pieces have distinctly different chord progressions could it be magic written by barry manilow is directly based on chopin's prelude in c minor number 20. [Music] in this clip manilow explains how he accidentally wound up writing the tune to chopin's distinctive chord progression and melody actually i wrote it after a glass of wine right and i thought i had come up with like the coolest batch of cords in my composing experience and then i realized that before i had that glass of wine i had been playing my chopin preludes and there was the prelude in the c minor going through my head and then i wrote the song around the chopin prelude and c minor and then i wrote [Music] those those are the chord changes that make your knees weak don't aren't they much like most prog rock bands mews make no effort to hide their classical music influence for example one section of their 2015 track the globalist is directly based on elgar's nimrod theme fragments of the elgar melody form the basis of muse's melody [Music] fury's famous pavan has been used as the foundation for various pop songs it was first repurposed by french singer norma ray on her 1999 song tus lemour d'imour a year later norma rae's song was adapted into s club 7's natural [Music] and then in 2013 pavan was used again this time in little mix's song little me little me starts with a brief lo-fi rendition of pavan the chorus of the song then fits a new melody to pavan's chord progression [Music] the melody of a groovy kind of love made most famous by phil collins is based on museo clemente's sonatina number five [Music] tony wine and carol bayer sega who wrote groovy kind of love took the clementi melody and massively slowed it down to the point that it starts to sound like a completely different tune if i speed up phil collins version of groovy kind of love the likeness to sonotina number five becomes more apparent [Music] another songwriter to be inspired by classical music is elton john elton has discussed on many occasions that his time at the royal academy of music was a great influence on his songwriting because i went to the academy it gave me um i played a lot of classical music bark uh mozart chopin beethoven all the wonderful composers and so i used a lot of on the elton john album there was a lot of classically influenced songs for example [Music] so it's kind of a elizabethan kind of madrigal type things and then for example there's a song called the grey's discovery [Music] the last example we'll look at today is in my opinion the most dubious many have claimed that sia's breathe me is similar to philip glass's metamorphosis 1. also if i move both pieces into the same key you can see they also share a mildly similar chord progression however beyond this the two have little else in common and even these similarities are fairly generic features to be honest i think that any similarities between the two pieces are only really noticeable due to both being played on solo piano an interesting factor with this example though is that sia may not actually be very keen to admit any influence by philip glass because unlike the other examples we've looked at today philip glass's metamorphosis 1 is not in the public domain as it was written only 30 years ago of course like i mentioned at the start of the video most classical music is old enough that it's either no longer protected by copyright or was never protected by copyright in the first place but the works of philip glass are still protected by copyright so if it was found that cia had plagiarized metamorphosis 1 when she wrote breathe me then philip glass would be within his rights to sue sia if you'd like to learn more about the public domain or just hear even more examples of pop songs based on classical music then do check out my 14 songs that rip off classical music video i've linked it in the description now i've actually made a playlist on prime phonic of all of the classical pieces that we've looked at in today's video so if you wanted to listen to that and learn more about classical music then do use the link below to get your free trial of prime phonic thanks very much and as always a massive thanks goes to everyone who supports me on patreon including the names you see on screen right now and abigail allen andrei science diagram andrew andrew brown austin barrett austin russell bob mckinstry britney parker cameron oliver chris cabell christopher ryan david rivers donald howard dr darren wicks elena scorchenko as ben hansen eugene leroy eyes fd hodor gillamo latona hamesh brocklebank james ko j.a cookensberger joe watson john dye jonas soderstrom justin vigger lavenderman rose mark height mark ziegenhagen melody composer squared michael vivian nancy gillard nathan lawrence paul miller paul paisle peter dunphy pioche milovsky roger clay sam lin scott finley sean kennedy steve daly stephen lazzaro tim beaker tricia adams tim payne toot victor levy vidad flowers vladimir kodakov and [Music] volte

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 569,440

Rating: 4.944931 out of 5

Keywords: classical music, pop music, rip off, inspired, sample, use, music theory, examples, bach, mozart, beethoven, holst, baroque, analysis, compared, comparison, list, bruckner, symphony, sonata, concerto

Id: qA-tkCRwNVM

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/brocket66]

The similarities between 'Seven Nation Army' and Bruckner's Fifth really surprised me. The old guy must be kicking himself that he had a tune that, with some tiny tweaks, would have been chanted at football matches throughout the world!

Instead, his best-known melody is what Nazi radio played to mourn Hitler's suicide. Big Bruck deserves so much better than that.

[u/Maxpowr9]

Reminds me a bit of the Pachelbel Rant but much more fleshed out.

And I am sure anyone musically inclined is well aware of the "pop chords".

[u/weathergirl1111]

Thanks for posting this. Such good info. Eric Carmen’s All by Myself also sounds like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18. II: Adagio sustenuto.

[u/supradave]

Not to be a downer, but a lot of that is just a measure or two and then goes off elsewhere. While I believe that they may have influenced, a couple of measures is probably coincidental.

[u/severussnape333]

The Billy Joel one is crazy

[u/RPofkins]

bueray

[u/yasire]

This is a fun favorite of mine: For Albert by Sara Jackson-Holman

[u/Win-IT-Ranes]

This is a great share

[u/CeeStinah]

I was wondering if Better Than Yourself by Lukas Graham would feature in this! I'm glad it did 😁