Orchestral Versions of Classic Rock Songs

bingoparaphernalia:

YouTube links:

• Royal Philharmonic – Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen)
• London Symphony – Gloria (Laura Branigan, Umberto Tozzi)
• London Symphony – The Final Countdown (Europe)
• London Philharmonic – Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
• London Philharmonic – Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
• London Symphony – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Beatles)
• Royal Philharmonic – Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)

(Previously, and better than all of the others and everything else in the world: the London Philharmonic plays Led Zep’s Kashmir.)

Some of my personal favorites are (though not all classic rock):

• London Symphony – Eye of the Tiger
• Eminence Symphony – Super Mario Brothers
• London Symphony – Thriller (Michael Jackson)

A whole different breed of a mashup between rock and a symphony orchestra are Ben Fold’s orchestral tours of the last few years. He first played with the Western Australian Symphony, toured Australia, opened the Boston Pops 2007 season (a fight even broke out at Symphony Hall in Boston) and toured the USA.  Folds, however, commissioned Australian arrangers and orchestrators to fill out his music that he then performed live with “75 new friends” onstage.

Some of the most successful arrangements to come out the other end:

• Ben Folds and WASO – Zak and Sara
• Ben Folds and WASO – Lullabye
• Ben Folds and the Boston Pops – Gracie