DS Forums

 
 

Classical music that made the Top 40 singles chart


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 29-10-2013, 20:09
BMR
Guest
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,240

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!!)
BMR is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 29-10-2013, 20:42
mgvsmith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,287
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)
mgvsmith is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2013, 20:45
Electra
Guest
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 53,841
Dave Edmunds (Love Sculpture) - Sabre Dance, (orig Khachaturian) made it into the top 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLQPBbZp3Q
Electra is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2013, 20:54
JohnnyGrumpus
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: West Country
Posts: 4,333
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.
JohnnyGrumpus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2013, 22:12
Zeb Atlas
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,173
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
Zeb Atlas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2013, 22:29
DavetheSensible
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Username Silliness thread
Posts: 9,916
Let's not forget the very wonderful 'Swan Lake' by The Cats - #48 in 1969.
DavetheSensible is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2013, 23:10
TomGrant
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: London
Posts: 4,093
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
TomGrant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 07:01
mushymanrob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: derby
Posts: 14,765
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)
..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
mushymanrob is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 07:06
mushymanrob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: derby
Posts: 14,765
sorry to kill the thread but..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3A...lassical_music
mushymanrob is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 11:56
DavetheSensible
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Username Silliness thread
Posts: 9,916
... and here's another with some neat info added
http://www.allegro.philharmonic.me.uk/
DavetheSensible is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 12:04
fickrick
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,106
Greg Lake "I believe in Father Christmas" uses Prokofiev "Troika" as its theme
fickrick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 12:38
Inkblot
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: West London
Posts: 24,324
Fanfare for the Common Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1977)
Keith Emerson had form for murdering the classics...

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.
Inkblot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 14:02
scratchy23
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 3,517
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
scratchy23 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 16:33
warszawa
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 4,373
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)
More Barry Manilow than Take That.
warszawa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 16:48
mgvsmith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,287
..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
I only picked the ones I could remember.
There's a lot more on that list than I expected actually.
mgvsmith is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 17:15
DavetheSensible
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Username Silliness thread
Posts: 9,916
Greg Lake "I believe in Father Christmas" uses Prokofiev "Troika" as its theme
Technically it's the Trioka Movement from the Suite for Orchestra 'Lieutenant Kije' opus 60.
but I'll just go and stand on the pedants step for an hour
DavetheSensible is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 17:30
CLL Dodge
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: The Green Hills of Earth
Posts: 80,454
Pachelbel's canon has be (ab)used many times as that link mushymanrob posted indicates.
CLL Dodge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 17:58
FrankBT
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: N London
Posts: 1,717
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.
FrankBT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2013, 18:26
CLL Dodge
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: The Green Hills of Earth
Posts: 80,454
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
CLL Dodge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-10-2013, 08:11
BMR
Guest
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,240
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
Thanks that is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of.
BMR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-10-2013, 11:56
PhilH36
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: London
Posts: 15,791
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.
PhilH36 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-10-2013, 16:12
Inkblot
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: West London
Posts: 24,324
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).
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
Inkblot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-10-2013, 21:26
BMR
Guest
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,240
Go back to the seventies and "Eye Level" by the Simon Park Orchestra. It was the theme to Van Der Valk
Yeah, I knew about that but wasn't sure if that counts. If you are going to count that, then why not the Floral Dance by the Brighouse and Rastrick band?
BMR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-10-2013, 23:30
CLL Dodge
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: The Green Hills of Earth
Posts: 80,454
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
If we are talking ITV courtroom dramas the early 70's series Justice used William Walton's Crown Imperial March as its theme. Not sure if it was ever released as a single.

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
CLL Dodge is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-11-2013, 23:18
gemma-the-husky
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 17,858
Elvis. "its now or never " was "o sole mio."
gemma-the-husky is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 14:41.