It’s much more common for rock groups to try their hand at classical pieces. ELP, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Spinal Tap, Van Halen, Deep Purple, Rainbow, the list goes on and on. Some of you might even recall another On Music post in which I showed how Sting re-arranged a Prokofiev tune in his song “Russians.”
Turns out, though, it’s a two-way street. Here are five excerpts of recordings I like (for reasons both serious and comical) of rock tunes covered by classical musicians.
1. “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix
This recording was made by the world-famous Kronos string quartet, who made a name for themselves by playing unusual, colorful versions of old tunes by stodgy old composers, premiering thorny music by new composers, and playing arrangements of rock songs like this one by Hendrix:
2. “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC
Have you heard of the “String Tribute” albums? There’s a whole humorous series of them with various musicians playing everything from Coldplay to, yup, AC/DC. This recording comes from a CD called Back In Baroque: The String Tribute to AC/DC. Funniest thing about this? They expect us to take it seriously. Er, okay.
3. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones
For reasons I’ve never understood, every long-standing rock outfit that takes itself seriously has, it seems, at one point or another, collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). This excerpt comes from an interesting album called Symphonic Music of the Rolling Stones.
4. “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues
It’s another recording by the LSO, folks. This was an obvious choice for them seeing as the original recording featured the London Festival Orchestra playing many of the backing tracks of the song penned by 19-year-old Justin Hayward after a friend of his gave him some satin bed sheets.
5. “Fortress Around Your Heart” by Sting
Yet another LSO recording! This one comes from an album called Fortress: The London Symphony Orchestra Performs the Music of Sting. Trust me when I tell you this is the best cut on the album. The version of “Synchronicity II,” for instance, sounds like a Sondheim musical gone terribly wrong.
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And then of course there is Apocalyptica, who, using four cellos, did an entire album of Metallica!
Appropriately names “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos”
posted by Liz on 12-28-2007 at 4:32 am
That Hendrix song is not Foxey Lady. It’s Purple Haze.
posted by Barb on 12-28-2007 at 8:21 am
Thanks Barb! They’ve also got a wonderful version of Foxey Lady, and that’s what was on my brain as I typed this up. Thanks for a) embarrassing me but b) saving me from further embarrassment by catching it early!
posted by David on 12-28-2007 at 8:59 am
If you like rock songs played by classical musicians, then I recommend you check out The Section Quartet.
http://www.thesection.net
posted by Jason! on 12-28-2007 at 10:53 am
i am a huge fan of classical instruments and it has been my pleasure to hear great songs of classic rock and modern played on them.
those who are interested should check out vitamin records for the string quartet tributes. nearly every great classic and modern rock group can be found in string versions of their albums.
posted by john on 12-28-2007 at 4:03 pm
This reminds me of something I heard about recently from a friend who just had a baby: rockabyebabymusic.com – classic and modern rock as lullabies! Led Zeppelin sounded quite good!
posted by Meri on 12-28-2007 at 7:50 pm
Reminds me of an earlier example of these… in 1982, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded a selection of Queen songs done in a classical style. Not great, but okay. I remember it, though, because when I saw the film “Revenge of the Nerds” in the theater, they play the song at the climax of the movie. (Actually, it fades from the Queen version into the RPO version.) For whatever reason, they didn’t include the song on the soundtrack, though.
posted by Sandy on 12-29-2007 at 7:39 pm
I saw Apocalyptica in San Francisco a few years ago; what a great performance! I also like the album that Metallica performed with the SF Orchestra.
posted by Renee on 12-29-2007 at 8:17 pm
Anotomica and metamoprhica have a few albums. Its only a quartet, but absolutely hilarious.
posted by josh on 12-30-2007 at 7:40 pm
I’ll bet that Sting song sounds AMAZING… that’s a chilling song by itself, but I’ll have to listen to it when I get home to see how the orchestra improves on it.
On a side note, I’ve always been partial to those “Pickin’ On (insert rock band here)” albums: bluegrass covers of rock songs. Sometimes it’s great (some Grateful Dead tunes make surprisingly good bluegrass songs, and not even the obvious ones), sometimes it’s AWFUL. I think I saw a “Pickin on the Eagles” disc out there once. Ugh.
posted by Molly W. on 1-2-2008 at 12:10 pm
I’m in an orchestra and we want to try a rock piece. What should we play?
posted by Peter on 1-13-2008 at 9:04 am
I’ve heard sex pistols songs as classical pieces, like god save the queen, pretty cool
posted by Liz on 4-28-2008 at 12:13 am