The next clip you proudly peach along with the U.S. national hymn at a sporting result , take a minute to consider that it was once asong about drinking and sex . " The Star - Spangled Banner " is an example of acontrafactum — when new words are added to an old tune . Some of the most well - known songs in history , like these eight , were once immensely different than what we ’ve come to know today .
1. “TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR” // “THE ALPHABET SONG” // “BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP”
Which birdsong was the original ? None of them . The tune is base on an old Gallic family line song call " Ah , vous dirai - je , Maman ” ( “ Ah , Mother , If I Could Tell You ” ) . It was already popular when a new MozartcomposedTwelve Variations on " Ah ! vous dirai - je , maman ” in the 1780s .
The three popular child ’s songs are introductory version of the melodic phrase . As for which of them came first , “ Twinkle Twinkle ” was in the beginning a poempublishedin 1806 , but does n’t come out to have been set to “ Ah ! Vous dirai - je , Maman ” until 1838 . “ The Alphabet Song ” ( “ A - barn - C - D - vitamin E - F - G ” ) was published as “ The Schoolmaster ” in 1834 , and “ Baa Baa Black Sheep ” existed under a unlike melody as far back as 1744 . Of the three , It seems like the first to practice the French tune wasprobably“The Alphabet Song , ” but it ’s severe to say for certain .
2. “THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER”
Library of Congress
Though Francis Scott Key ’s lyrics are unabashedly American , the melody they ’re arrange to is anything but . Before it crossed the Atlantic , “ The Star - Spangled Banner ” was a British song called “ To Anacreon in Heaven . ”Writtenfor a London gentleman ’s music baseball club called the Anacreontic Society around 1775 , the song originally celebrated Anacreon , an ancient Greek poet who enjoy love , music , and vino .
3. “MY COUNTRY, TIS OF THEE”
The U.S. national hymn is n’t the only loyal Sung to have originated elsewhere : Though “ My Country , Tis of Thee ” has more regal origin , its back story is similar to “ The Star - Spangled Banner . ” The song may have first appeared as “ God Save Great George the King”sometime around 1740 , and it ’s still used today as “ God Save the Queen / King ” :
Baptist pastor Samuel Francis Smith did n’t match American lyrics to it until 1831 , while he was analyse at Andover Theological Seminary . During the 18th and nineteenth centuries , the song also became the Danish national anthem , the Prussian national anthem , and the Liechtenstein internal anthem , among others .
4. “HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING”
Before “ Hark ! The Herald Angels Sing ” was a Christmas carol observe the coming of the “ newborn Martin Luther King Jr. , ” it was a Felix Mendelssohn oratorio that celebrated the coming of Johannes Gutenberg . Called “ Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säcularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst , ” the piece was writtento honorthe 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing pressure . In 1855 , an English player named William Cummings made a 1739 writing entitled “ Hymn for Christmas Day ” check the Mendelssohn masterpiece . Today , of course of study , “ Hark ! The Herald Angels Sing ” is much considerably get laid than the Gutenberg oratorio .
More Articles About Nursery Rhymes :
5. “AULD LANG SYNE”
Many mass listen “ Auld Lang Syne ” exactly once a year , when the clock strike 12 on New Year ’s Eve . In Japan , the nostalgic vocal is much more prosaic — it’susedin many retail storage to notify customers that the store is closing soon . Instead of “ Auld Lang Syne ” ( which is itself a mashup of an old folks Song dynasty and aRobert Burns poem ) , the vocal is called “ Hotaru no Hikari , ” with lyrics about the various hardships suffered by a devoted student , including canvas by the lighter of a firefly .
6. “WHAT CHILD IS THIS?”
This religious Christmas standard has come a foresighted agency since its 16th - century origins as an honest-to-god English folk song . The original lyrics sang the congratulations of “ Lady Greensleeves”—and there’sa theorythat the full term “ greensleeves ” is really a reference to a cocotte .
Though rumor have long eddy that Henry VIII write the Sung dynasty for Anne Boleyn , they ’re belike false — the Song dynasty did n’t become popular until the reign of Henry ’s daughter , Elizabeth I.
7. “YANKEE DOODLE DANDY”
You ’ve believably been singing " Yankee Doodle " since before you may call back — it ’s one of the most common folk song in the U.S. , not to mention thestate anthemof Connecticut . But before it was a Fourth of July basic , the Britishsang itto make fun of the poor , ragtag colonists . And before it wastheirs , the Dutch used it as a harvest Song dynasty , using nonsense lyrics like “ Yanker dudel doodle down . ''
8. “MY WAY”
Few songs are as synonymous with a performer as " My Way " is to Frank Sinatra — but it was n’t really " his . " Itstarted outas a French birdcall called " Comme d’habitude , " drop a line in 1967 by composers Claude François and Jacques Revaux .
Singer , songwriter , and quondam adolescent perfection Paul Anka hear it while visit Paris , thought there was something to it , and buy the right . He eventually rewrite the lyric specifically for Frank Sinatra , and the rest is history . unluckily , it seems Ol’ Blue Eyes got a small burned out on his hitting . " He always think that Sung was self - serve and ego - indulgent , " his daughterTina once severalise the BBC .
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