>>>>>>>>Christmas songs are usually played to get people into a nice mood, but appearantly you react differently. Have you considered seeing a shrink? (Duck!)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>NB! Happy Christmas, war is over. <vbg>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It'll just be starting if you make comments like that! :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>BTW compare "Happy Christmas, war is over" with "Screwball was a racehorse" - practically the same tune.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Interesting. When Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it, it was 'Stewball'. Has it morphed into 'Screwball' over there?
>>>>>
>>>>>Oh, is it? I don't know. Bit just before my time - only ever heard it a few times on the radio and such so never caught the title properly perhaps. Not to nit-pick put it's the tune I was more concerned with ct "Merry Christmas, bosanova"
>>>>
>>>>I wasn't being facetious. I can see how it could morph over time. Anyway, there is a reason why the two songs sound so similar. Supposedly, Lennon deliberately lifted the tune from 'Stewball'. Why? I have no idea.
>>>
>>>Facetious? Toi?! :-)
>>>
>>>Interesting, when looking at a few articles about the subject, it seems I wasn't so far wrong, after all - also called "Skewball" and different versions. Maybe I never heard the PP&M version. I wasn't aware that it was so well documented , esp. the Lennon crib of the tune.
>>>
>>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skewball>>>
>>>I'm interested in well-known tunes, esp. classical pieces, being used in pop songs. Take, for instance, Sibelius's 5th Symphony: been used in various pop songs inc. Strawberry Switchblade's "Since Yesterday": a top 10 hit in the UK in the 80s, and the earlier hit "Beach Baby" by First Class.
>>>
>>>Both mentioned in the below:
>>>
>>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Switchblade>>>
>>>Then, of course, there was Manfred Mann's Earth Band and "Joybringer", coming from Holst's "Planet Suite" - Jupiter
>>>
>>>Anybody think of any more?
>>>
>>>(nice little chatter triv to start the year off!)
>>
>>Well, I go back a bit further for my music, but Bea Wain had a huge hit with 'My Reverie' based on the Debussy piece. She also had a hit with 'I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls' by M.W. Balfe - but they were pretty much just jazz pieces of the classical pieces. Both she and Connee Boswell had hits of 'Martha' based on 'Ah, So Pure' from Flotow.
>>
>>Then of course, there is a bunch of stuff by Chuck Berry who liked to reuse his own melodies with different lyrics.
>>
>>For the record (because I'm convinced you really care about this), Connee Boswell is one of my all time favourite female vocalists. When asked who her main influences were, Ella Fitzgerald said that there was only one - Connee Boswell. Shocked the hell out of the motown folks who I'm sure were expecting a very different answer.
>
>
>Have you seen "Dreamgirls"? My reaction to it as a movie was mixed but I bet it was spot on about the origins of Motown Records and the Supremes.
Afraid not. I've heard good things about it, but I have to be
really motivated to get myself to go to a movie these days. "Lord of the Rings" was the last thing that managed to get me there.
If you're interested in Motown at all, find a DVD called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". It's all about the 'Funk Brothers' - the band that really created the motown sound. A number of the motown singers said that you could virtually stick anybody out in front of that band, and they'd be a hit.
The DVD is great. There are a couple of 'entertainers' that didn't do much for me, but the music is always great, and Joan Osborne doing "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted"... absolutely mesmerizing. That alone is worth the price of admission.
