Classical Pop

Tomoko’s heart lies in classical music. It comes alive in her hands on the piano. Classical piano music also comes alive in the hands of contemporary composers, who have inspired enough to adapt their music to their own pieces.

The opening of the final movement of Italian composer 17^th century Clementi’s Sonatina in G minor, Op. 36, No. 5 echoes in Phil Collins' “A Groovy Kind of Love.”

Billy Joel credited Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata in his album An Innocent Man for the chorus of “This Night.” Joel stated that his classical training has impacted his compositions.

When Yoko Ona played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, which resulted in the basis of “Because.”

Barry Manilow thought he had created impressive chords when composing “It Could It Be Magic,” when he realized that he had been playing Chopin's Prelude in C Minor No. 20 earlier that day. Chopin's chords moved from Manilow's subconscious to his writing instrument.

Pop music Ted Mossman based the song “Till the End of Time” (lyrics by Buddy Kaye) on Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53. Singing is as a softer, reflective piece, Perry Como made it a hit tune. The song's introduction is a direct echo of Chopin's composition.

Robbie Williams' “Party like a Russian” duplicates the hard beat of Prokofiev's “Dance of the Knights.”

To the classical year, Eric Carmen's “All by Myself” immediately recalls Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, including the melancholy feeling.

Hiphop rapper Nas sampled Beethoven's Für Elise in his performance of “I Can.”

Electronic music has sampled the classics too, as exemplified by Alan Walker ad Sophie Simmons' s “Lovesick.” The tune's chorus transforms Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5. for the current audience.

AND a Broadway musical example is Rodgers and Hammerstein's tune “March of the Siamese Children,” inspired by Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.

So if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then several classical composers are indeed complimented.