SMARTER FOR 10
NAME THAT TUNE. MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT HIT SONGS WITH A CLASSICAL TWIST
1 IS IT A CLASSIC?
RADIO station Classic FM is celebrating 25 years on the air with a list of the top 25 hits that sample classical music. Madonna’s 1992 track In This Life is among those featured. It includes a snatch of American composer George Gershwin’s Prelude No 2 in C sharp minor.
2 WHO WAS TANGLED UP IN BLUE?
FORMER One Direction singer Zayn Malik’s solo effort Blue samples Prelude No 1 in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. Take That went classical even earlier taking a part of Giuseppe Verdi’s Tuba mirum from the Requiem Mass for their 1995 hit Never Forget.
3 WHO WAS BACH IN FAVOUR?
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH’S music for Toccata and Fugue in D minor can also be heard on 2 Unlimited’s 1994 hit The Real Thing while a few years later Sweetbox drew on Bach’s Air on the G String for their 1998 track Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.
4 WHO ADDED FAURÉ TO THE MIX?
POP favourites S Club 7 went classical in 2000 with their song Natural, which included parts of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane in F sharp minor. British Girl band Little Mix opted for the same music composition for their 2013 hit Little Me.
5 WHO DID RAPPER BORROW ORFF?
AMERICAN rapper Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy, P Diddy and just plain Diddy, sampled Carl Orff ’s famous O Fortuna from Camina Burana, for his 1999 song Hate Me Now. He had earlier included Samuel Barber’s Angus Dei in his 1997 track I’ll Be Missing You.
6 WHO DID ALICIA SAMPLE FOR A MUSICAL MASH UP?
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S music has popped up on many pop songs over the years. Alicia Keys 2012 hit Piano Mash Up draws on his Piano Sonata No 14 in C sharp minor “Moonlight”.
7 WHICH RAPPER TAKES PRIDE IN HIS CLASSICAL INFLUENCES?
IN 2006, Upper Clapton Dance by Professor Green featuring C.O.R.E and Chynaman sampled Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No 5 in F sharp minor. The British rapper says: “The world of rap has huge respect for classical music. I, along with lots of contemporary artists, recognise the value and the importance classical music has on our music making.”
8 WHO SPRINKLED FAIRY DUST ON ONE OF HIS HIS RAP HITS?
FELLOW rapper Dizzee Rascal used Russian composter Pyotr Iliych Tchaikovsky’s Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker ballet for his 2011 track Nutcrackerz.
9 ARE YOU GAGA ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC?
VITTORIO MONTI’S Csárdás can be heard on Lady Gaga’s 2009 song Alejandro, while back in 1996 Celine Dion’s version of Eric Carmen’s All By Myself includes part of the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor.
10 ARE YOU A MUSIC LOVER?
UB40’s 1993 release I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You was a cover of Elvis Presley’s hit. Written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss, it also drew on Jean-Paul-Égide Martini’s Plaisir d’Amour.