TRIVIA: Examples of music of one genre adapted in the style of another

[AY1975]

Can you think of any examples of music from one genre that has been adapted in the style of another?

This can include jazzed up versions of classical pieces in the style of a pop or rock hit, or, conversely, orchestrated versions of pop and rock hits.

Saturday Night Fever contained two jazzed up versions of well known classical pieces: A Night on the Disco Mountain based on Mussorgsky's A Night on the Bare Mountain, and the Fifth of Beethoven based on Beethoven's 5th symphony.

In terms of the second of those categories, I've heard orchestrated versions of Beatles, ABBA and David Bowie songs, for example.

 

[Magdalia]

To get you started, part of Prokoviev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, originally a film score, was used for Greg Lake's pop hit "I believe in Father Christmas".

 

[THC]

The Stranglers covered this song by Burt Bacharach (RIP) and was the first example I thought of when reading the OP.

THC

 

[simonw]

To get you started, part of Prokoviev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, originally a film score, was used for Greg Lake's pop hit "I believe in Father Christmas".

Greg Lake as part of ELP used a lot of classical work Pictures at an Exhibition being a prime example.

 

[DustyBin]

There’s lots of EDM adapted from other genres, classical music being the most common (probably).

Try “Time” by Paul Webster (especially the Sean Tyas remix) which is adapted from Yiruma’s “River Flows In You”.

 

[SteveM70]

Pop review: David Gedge and the BBC Big Band, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds: As Gedge's northern accent mixes with walls of trumpets, he is really singing for the first time in his career

www.theguardian.com

This was a one-off concert of the BBC big band playing jazz rearrangements of the songs of David Gedge (ie the Wedding Present - jangly indie at a generally frenetic pace, and Cinerama - a bit poppier), with Gedge crooning.

It was deeply strange and to be frank not great. The two star review is a bit generous

 

[Ashley Hill]

Remember this?

 

[Gloster]

Since Yesterday by Strawberry Switchblade used bits from Sibelius No. 5.

 

[dgl]

Scooter did an orchestral version of the Depeche Mode hit Stripped alongside a normal synth version.

 

[THC]

There’s lots of EDM adapted from other genres, classical music being the most common (probably).

Try “Time” by Paul Webster (especially the Sean Tyas remix) which is adapted from Yiruma’s “River Flows In You”.

Paul Webster is a classically-trained pianist as well as a trance DJ/producer, so the link makes a lot of sense. A really nice man too - we have good friends in common and I've had a fair few chats with him in recent years.

THC

 

[DustyBin]

Paul Webster is a classically-trained pianist as well as a trance DJ/producer, so the link makes a lot of sense. A really nice man too - we have good friends in common and I've had a fair few chats with him in recent years.

THC

You learn something new every day... Rather cool that you know him!

 

[HSTEd]

Johnny Cash did a cover of a Heavy Metal single called "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails.

It has, in many ways, surpassed the original in popularity.

 

[W-on-Sea]

When Tate Modern opened in London, the Williams Fairey Brass Band performed, playing a collection of acid house classics reimagined as though they had been written for a traditional brass band. (There is also an album, "Acid Brass"). It worked really well.

 

[dgl]

The Wurzles have done many covers of songs which have been converted into Scrumpy and Western.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The one that stands out for me is the way Bach's Air on a G String was cleverly incorporated as the backing track into Everything's Gonna Be Alright. (That's Sweetbox's 1997 hit, not the Bob Marley song)

This is probably worth a mention too. Western 80's pop combined with - to be honest, I'm not sure exactly, but something Indian or Middle Eastern... Ofra Hazar's 1988 hit, Im Nin'Alu:

And this thread surely has to include a mention of Paul Simon's Graceland album, which combined 80s Western pop with African music, working with South African artists.

 

[Basil Jet]

I grew up listening to Carpenters version of Ticket To Ride... it was years before I realised that it was a Beatles song.

 

[DelW]

Waldo de los Rios reached the pop charts in the 1970s with Mozart 40, based (naturally) on Mozart's 40th symphony.

Walter later Wendy Carlos was noted for a number of electronic versions of classical music pieces, starting with "Switched on Bach" in 1968, as well as being an early example of someone coming out publicly as trans-gender.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

1970s Folk revival with Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span converted traditional folk to Folk Rock. Love them both

 

[Ashley Hill]

There was the excellent single by Monsoon called Ever So Lonely which was Indian influenced.
Then there’s this French Moog classic with a Caribbean variation.

 

[Bevan Price]

I grew up listening to Carpenters version of Ticket To Ride... it was years before I realised that it was a Beatles song.

And their "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" was a rather close copy of the original by Klaatu.

 

[Lloyds siding]

We could be here for years with this theme:

I'm going to throw in 'Guns of Navarone' by the reggae band The Skatalites

also Scottish folk tune 'My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean' got a rock and roll treatement from Tony Sheridan and his backing band 'The Beatles' (Credited as The Beat Brothers).

 

[Ashley Hill]

4Hero covered Minnie Ripertons Les Fleur. They bought a cool,almost smooth jazz feel to the track.

 

[High Dyke]

There has been many different reimagined songs over the years. Some crossovers from other genres. I've recently been listening to a lot of Vintage Reggae Café.

 

[Benters]

Swedish pop group The Cardigans recorded laid back versions of two Black Sabbath classics viz ' Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ' and ' Iron Man'.
I've also heard an instrumental album of Sabbath classics by a Lithuanian string quartet, which sounded really cool.
Let's not forget Jazz Sabbath, either, an American group reinterpreting Sabbath classics in a jazz style.

 

[Lloyds siding]

I do like The Heimatdamisch version of 'Sweet Child o' Mine!'

 

[PeterC]

1970s Folk revival with Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span converted traditional folk to Folk Rock. Love them both

And a whole string of composers doing classical arrangements of folk tunes.

 

[Gloster]

And a whole string of composers doing classical arrangements of folk tunes.

Like Richard Strauss, who heard what he thought was a traditional Neapolitan tune and included it in his tone poem Aus Italien. Unfortunately for him the tune was Funiculi, Funicula, composed by Luigi Denza less than ten years before to celebrate the first funicular railway up Vesuvius. Strauss ended up paying royalties.

 

[Magdalia]

Another angle on this is songs with English lyrics sung to tunes from other countries, often with the English lyrics not bearing much resemblance to the foreign original.

Mary Hopkin's Those Were the Days (1968) is sung to the tune of a Russian song composed in the 1920s. Some of my East European neighbours will sing along in their own language.

Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun (1974) is originally Jacques Brel's Le Moribond from the early 1960s, with much darker French lyrics (Jacques Brel was Belgian).

In the days when Eurovision entries had to be sung in each country's own language, it was common for the winning song to get an English version if it wasn't in English already.

 

[dgl]

One from Kate Ryan,

and some more from Scooter,

Rebel Yell, originally by Billy Idol

I was made for lovin' you, originally by Kiss

Black Betty, originally by Ram Jam

And Jean Michel Jarre and Patrick Rondat - Vivaldi Tribute

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun (1974) is originally Jacques Brel's Le Moribond from the early 1960s, with much darker French lyrics (Jacques Brel was Belgian).

Jacques did a very RAW dark “In the port of Amsterdam”. Years later, David Bowie of all people did a tamer version!