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Classical music that made the Top 40 singles chart |
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#1 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Classical music that made the Top 40 singles chart
Although there have been quite a few album hits, I can't think of many classical singles chart hits.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of Bolero, Nessun Dorma, Chariots of Fire (if that counts?) and things like the Star Wars theme. What other ones have there been? I'm particularly interested in stuff that made the lower reaches of the charts, and especially anything in the last decade or so when I've been less in touch with chart music. (anyone who suggests 'You raise me up' or 'Walking in the air' will be shot!!) |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jul 2001
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Fanfare for the Common Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1977)
2001 (Also Sprach Zarathrustra) - Deodata (1973) Barber's Adagio for Strings - William Orbit (1999) Toccata - Sky (1980) Those would be proper classical pieces but there's also a lot of songs influenced by classical tracks. Roll Over Beethoven - ELO (1973) Joybringer - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1973) Could it be magic - Take That (1992) |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Dave Edmunds (Love Sculpture) - Sabre Dance, (orig Khachaturian) made it into the top 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLQPBbZp3Q |
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#4 |
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Andrea Bocelli's "Con Te Partiro" didn't trouble the top 40 when originally released in the UK. But when he recorded it again with Sarah Brightman as "Time to say Goodbye" it was a top 10 hit.
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#5 |
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I think it used to be far more common in the past than now sadly.
Vanessa Mae - Tocatta and Fugue made no.16 in 1995 Lesley Garrett/Amanda Thompson - Ave Maria made no. 16 in 1993 Kiri Te Kanawa made no. 4 in 1991 with World in Union which uses the tune from on Holst's The Planets |
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#6 |
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Let's not forget the very wonderful 'Swan Lake' by The Cats - #48 in 1969.
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#7 |
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Tara's Theme from the BBC Olympics coverage in '96 probably qualifies, even though its a bit of a remix.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckL7lGXfB6E |
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#8 |
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Quote:
Fanfare for the Common Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1977)
2001 (Also Sprach Zarathrustra) - Deodata (1973) Barber's Adagio for Strings - William Orbit (1999) Toccata - Sky (1980) Those would be proper classical pieces but there's also a lot of songs influenced by classical tracks. Roll Over Beethoven - ELO (1973) Joybringer - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1973) Could it be magic - Take That (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOXYlPpRLmM plus from 1970 song of joy - miguel rios #16 (beethovens 8th symphony finale)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEAkqwQLwYs |
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#9 |
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#10 |
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#11 |
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Greg Lake "I believe in Father Christmas" uses Prokofiev "Troika" as its theme
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#12 |
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Quote:
Fanfare for the Common Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1977)
America - Leonard Bernstein Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major - J.S. Bach Both hits for The Nice. To my horror, both turn out to be really good. |
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#13 |
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A track called 'i giorni' by Ludovico Einaudi entered the Top 40 a couple of years ago, after Greg James from Radio 1 campaigned to get it there
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#14 |
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Quote:
Fanfare for the Common Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1977)
2001 (Also Sprach Zarathrustra) - Deodata (1973) Barber's Adagio for Strings - William Orbit (1999) Toccata - Sky (1980) Those would be proper classical pieces but there's also a lot of songs influenced by classical tracks. Roll Over Beethoven - ELO (1973) Joybringer - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1973) Could it be magic - Take That (1992) |
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#15 |
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Quote:
..you missed - waldo de los rios - mozart 40 (symphony no 40 in g minor k550 1st movement allegro moldo) # 5 in 1971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOXYlPpRLmM plus from 1970 song of joy - miguel rios #16 (beethovens 8th symphony finale)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEAkqwQLwYs There's a lot more on that list than I expected actually. |
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#16 |
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Quote:
Greg Lake "I believe in Father Christmas" uses Prokofiev "Troika" as its theme
but I'll just go and stand on the pedants step for an hour
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#17 |
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Join Date: May 2003
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Pachelbel's canon has be (ab)used many times as that link mushymanrob posted indicates.
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#18 |
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Scott Fitzgerald & Yvonne Keeley - If I Had Words. 1978 Pop reggae hit with tune taken from Saint Saen's Symphony 3.
Eric Carmen - All By Myself. Big hit from 1975 with tune taken from Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto 2. Tony Bennett - Stranger In Paradise. Best known version of song with tune taken from Borodin'a Polovtsian Dances. B Bumble And The Stingers - Nut Rocker, Piano rock and roll take on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. |
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#19 |
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The latest Pet Shop Boys single "Love is a Bourgeois Construct"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adLckIEZg2E is based on a track from Michael Nyman's score for The Draughtsman's Contract http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUMw5WZWYLo which itself was an adaptation of a theme from Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjicZ-JxPfQ |
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#20 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Quote:
A track called 'i giorni' by Ludovico Einaudi entered the Top 40 a couple of years ago, after Greg James from Radio 1 campaigned to get it there
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#21 |
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Go back to the seventies and "Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was the theme to Van Der Valk and was a double-A side with Distant Hills (the Crown Court theme).
Also don't forget Hooked On Classics by the Royal Philharmonic, and indeed Classical Muddly by the Portsmouth Sinfonia, which was a spoof with all the pieces played off-key and/or out of tune. |
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#22 |
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Quote:
Go back to the seventies and "Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was the theme to Van Der Valk and was a double-A side with Distant Hills (the Crown Court theme).
Crown Court Theme Sinfonietta Knife-Edge by ELP |
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#23 |
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Quote:
Go back to the seventies and "Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was the theme to Van Der Valk
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#24 |
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Quote:
The opening theme to Crown Court was a classical piece, the fourth movement of Janacek's Sinfonietta. The first movement of the same piece was yet another classical composition borrowed by Keith Emerson, in this case for the ELP song Knife-Edge.
Crown Court Theme Sinfonietta Knife-Edge by ELP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WMrQe87gRk Another ITV show Reilly, Ace of Spies, nicked its theme from Shostakovich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8T2wHiQ5DQ Over on the Beeb, The Onedin Line made Khachaturian's Spartacus famous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uopc8TdoUg and The Sky at Night did the same for Sibelius' At the Castle Gate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzSikZKqAFw |
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#25 |
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Elvis. "its now or never " was "o sole mio."
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