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Pooh-Bah
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So, I have always been intrigued by songs which can switch lyrics without batting an eighthnote. That is, you can sing the lyrics from one song to the tune of the other. My favorite is the three-way of House of the Rising Sun, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and Theme to Gilligan's Island. Who discovers these???
Anyway, the other day I was informed that you can sing the words to Green Eggs and Ham to the tune of 99 Luftballoons.
Does anyone else know of other mix 'n match songs?
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Carpal Tunnel
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It Wasn't God who made Honky-tonk Angels, I am Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes and The Great Speckled Bird are all to the same tune. The first is a pretty raunchy (without being completely vulgar) sex song, the second a straight love song and the third a white Gospel number.
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Love this thread, Sparteye!
I can think of:
"Para bailar la Bamba" and "Twist 'n' Shout"
Also, most of Emily Dickenson's poems to the old Coke ad tune "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony"...
eg:
"Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me..."
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AnnaS mentions: the old Coke ad tune "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony"...
"I'd like to buy the world a Coke® and keep it company."
Gimme a Coke* and 6 billion straws.
*® required only after the first mention.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Isn't there some American national hymn sung to the tune of "God save the (insert sex of monarch here)"?
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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep and the Alphabet song all have the same tune. 
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Max,
My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
As a 1st & 2nd grader in the Mid-60's we sang this song right after the Pledge of Allegiance instead of the National Anthem because it was easier.
Now as far as I know they no longer sing anything in the schools except just before your child's sport after school. What a shame!
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Most of the song mixtures I've heard have already been mentioned. But how about the late, great Victor Borge and his ability to not only switch between "Tea for Two" and the "Moonlight Sonata", but then combine them, playing the Moonlight Sonata with one hand and Tea for Two with the other - and all without a moment's hesitation! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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But how about the late, great Victor Borge
Amen! Borge was nothing short of the funniest man on Earth!
Not quite on topic, but there are dozens of popular songs which have stolen their tunes from classical works, such as the musical "Kismet's" song, "Stranger In Paradise" from Borodin's opera "Prince Igor."
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Still trying to think of others besides hymns, of which there are several. Since CK diverted a bit, I thought I would too: my college roommate took a General Music class, and they developed mnemonics for different classical works.
For Mozart's 41st. symphony, it was, "Old Mozart's in the closet, gethimout gethimout gethimout".
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God save the female?
Admittedly, queen comes from an Old English word for female, but.
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MaxQ asked : American national hymn sung to the tune of "God save the (insert sex of monarch here)"?
Yes, indeedy.
"America"
"My country 'tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty,
of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring."
To sing it properly you have to sort of elongate the "every" and "freedom."
Every once in awhile there is a populist movement to change the National Anthem from "The Star Spangled Banner" to "America" as it is easier to sing!
Both the tunes for "God Save the .." and "The Star Spangled Banner" are English in origin.
"The Star Spangled Banner" melody being an old English drinking song, I believe!
Then, there are those in favor of "America the Beautiful" as our national anthem - with both melody and lyric American in origin, and not requiring a large vocal range to sing.
"America The Beautiful"
"O, beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountains majesty,
Above the fruited plains,
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea."
Since I'm dredging these lyrics up from memory please correct if I've made mistakes. Thanks.
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enthusiast
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i think Sparteye was referring to songs which can change lyrics,
not different songs with the same tune. it's more a poetry problem (rhythm) than a music one (tune).
so "House of the Rising Sun" and "O little town of Bethlehem" can both fit their first lines into 10 beats (and so on), hence the interchangeability.
"La bamba" and "Twist and shout" are the same tune, a pretty common thing in music that used to be a matter of respect but is now called nicking.
what was that song about a lemon tree that used the Police tune of "Wrapped around your finger"?
and what was it that Shakespeare said about there being nothing new under the sun?
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william asks: what was it that Shakespeare said about there being nothing new under the sun?
Would that have been Shakespeare Ecclesiastes?
And I remembered the words to that other song to the tune of God Save the (insert sex here).
God save our Auntie Jean,
Long may she sell ice(d) cream,
And candy balls.
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i think Sparteye was referring to songs which can change lyrics,not different songs with the same tune
Yes, dear, I know ... but MaxQ asked and as he has been so kind as to answer many of my questions, I thought it only fair ... or is that yet another tangent?
Oh, by the way, didn't Huey Newton win a law suit because someone stole the melody for "I want a new drug" (title?) then speed it up a bit and use it as background for a movie?
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Would that have been Shakespeare Ecclesiastes
must have been. sorry about that.
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Twinkle twinkle
The original words began, "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman". You will from time to time hear on classical music stations a solo piano piece by Mozart, a very clever set of variations on Ah vous dirai-je Maman.
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Mix 'n Match Hymns
Nearly every hymnbook will show, usually at the top of the page, an abbreviation of the metre of the hymn, e.g., CM, LM, SM, LMD, etc. (which stand for, respectively, common metre, long metre, short metre, long metre doubled). These are standard arrangements with a certain number of lines and a certain number of syllables per line. So if you get tired of singing The Church's One Foundation to the usual tune, known as Aurelia, you look for another tune with the same metre and it will probably fit. Many hymnals have an index with all the tunes sorted by metre to make it easier to find an alternate tune. There are, of course, some hymns which have been sung to different tunes for eons, so there may be two or more versions in a hymnbook. For instance, Jesus Lover of My Soul, a Victorian favorite, is sung to 3 different tunes.
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Rejoice the Lord is King is another one of those, in the "Catholic Book of Worship", with one arrangement considerably peppier than the other.
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I'd like to buy the world a Coke® and keep it company."
My Reader's Digest songbook, which had an arrangement of that song, mentioned that it was one of the most successful advertising campaingns in history and it did not include the name of the product in the song. Interesting, eh?
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Pooh-Bah
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To the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas," you can sing the words to Emily Dickinson's "Because I would not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me." However, my efforts to sing the words to "Are you nobody? I'm nobody too" to the tune of "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols has come to no fruition.
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This isn't exactly on point, but I once heard an acapella singing group do a medley of the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This" and "Here Comes The Rain Again". They finished by singing the choruses simultaneously in a sort of a round. They don't exactly sync up, but the effect is surreal and cool enough that now I can't hear either of those songs without mentally filling in the other one.
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Pooh-Bah
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stolen their tunes from classical works, such as the musical "Kismet's" song, "Stranger In Paradise" from Borodin's opera "Prince Igor."
In fact, Geoff, the whole of Kismet' music is stolen from Borodin, mostly from "Igor" but part of it is from one of his concertos, I believe.
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Hum Moonlight in Vermont
Now hum Autumn in New York
Tricky, wot?
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And then there's Mussorgsky's "Boris Gudunov," which name gave rise to the bad guy in the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, Boris Badunov.
(sorry, I was compelled to deviate)
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You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.
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My brother and I have often had a great time thinking of as many songs as possible which follow a certain chord progression, e.g. 1, 4, 5, 4, 1, (very common).. as in Wild Thing, Stand (REM), Walking on Sunshine (Katrina and the Waves for those who ave to know), Louie, Louie, and the list goes on. It's great for busking, because you can seamlessly go from one hit to the other.
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B-Youth - don't get me started. Flatlander - I love Annie, but she does sing in the same key often (as most pop stars). William - i think Sparteye was referring to songs which can change lyrics, not different songs with the same tune. it's more a poetry problem (rhythm) than a music one (tune). Is the glass half empty or half full? I feel the difference is litearlly meaningless... I yart myself by citing Mad Magazine as the experts in this form of lyric substitution. WOW - "The Star Spangled Banner" melody being an old English drinking song, I believe! It's all making sense now...  Jackie - Homer Simpson laments over the loss of hearing his daughter Lisa practice (based on her size) an "alto" saxophone by singing Beethoven's 5th into the mouthpiece using the words "sax-a-ma-phone, sax-a-ma-phone..." satin - I knew you weren't a "stranger" when I saw your first post...
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AnnaS, I've been cracking myself up with the Emily Dickinson/Buy the World a Coke thing for days now... that's one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time! In my wild hooting, I somehow managed to discover that you can segue to Auld Lang Syne from the Coke song. Who knew? Aenigma wants Auld Lang Syne to be Aunt Lang Synergism... Again, who knew?
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Also, most of Emily Dickenson's poems to the old Coke ad tune "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony"...
eg:
"Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me..."
After the tears of laughter generated by singing that poem to myself had dried, I wondered, has AnnaS suggested to her fellow Atlantans that they try that in their next global marketing campaign?
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hehehe... glad it made y'all laugh, Fiberbabe & Max. Now, Max, you have a great idea there... but someone who knows how to spell Dickinson will have to do the copy editing (unless y'all promise not to tell Coke® I messed up, here, of all places) 
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