List of variations on Pachelbel's Canon explained

Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major, written in the mid-Baroque period and revived from obscurity in the 1960s, has been credited with inspiring pop songs.

Some pop songs borrow its chord progression, bass line, or melodic structure, a phenomenon attributed to the memorability and simplicity of the work. The Canon also shares roots with other, more significant chord progressions that lay the foundations of modern pop music. Its perceived ubiquity is itself an object of cultural discussion.

History and analysis

Pachelbel's Canon was written sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century by Johann Pachelbel. It was not widely appreciated by his contemporaries; in fact, it was largely forgotten by history for hundreds of years. Interest in Pachelbel's work increased in the early 20th century with the revival of Baroque-era compositions, but the Canon remained relatively obscure until the 1960s.

Alexandra S. Levine, writing for The New York Times, said a late-1960s recording by French conductor Jean-François Paillard led to the piece's ubiquity in pop music and at events such as weddings and funerals. Ilario Colli, writing for Limelight, traces Pachelbel's influence on modern pop to the Bee Gees' 1966 single "Spicks and Specks", which has a bass line and sequence of chords nearly identical to the Canon.^[1]

Suzannah Clark, a music professor at Harvard, connected the piece's resurgence in popularity to the harmonic structure, a common pattern similar to the romanesca. The harmonies are complex, but combine into a pattern that is easily understood by the listener with the help of the canon format, a style in which the melody is staggered across multiple voices (as in "Three Blind Mice"). Colli says the bassline and its repetition are the main factor in the Canon's popularity. The repeated use of perfect fourths in the bass line, as well as its repetition, helps the listener understand and latch onto the music, and makes it easily reproducible in a variety of genres. The harmonic structure is also similar to the I–V–vi–IV progression, which is much more common in pop music.Not many pop songs use the Canon's exact chord structure; one is Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)". But many use a similar structure, omitting a chord or otherwise modifying the structure of the harmony; examples include Green Day's "Basket Case". Maroon 5's "Memories" takes its harmonic structure from the Canon and the beginning of its hook from a snippet of the Canon's violin melody.^[2] Acts like Maroon 5 were able to interpolate the piece because it is in the public domain, no longer covered by copyright protection.^[3]

The perceived ubiquity of Pachelbel's Canon is itself an object of notoriety. It has inspired songs such as Rob Paravonian's "Pachelbel Rant" and the Axis of Awesome's "Four Chords", which comment on the number of popular songs borrowing the same tune or harmonic structure.^[4] "Four Chords" does not directly focus on the chords from Pachelbel's Canon, instead focusing on the I–V–vi–IV progression.^[5]

Producer Pete Waterman of Stock Aitken Waterman, which used the Canon in many of their hits, referred to Pachelbel as "almost the godfather of pop".^[6]

List of songs

• "Spicks and Specks", a 1966 single by the Bee Gees^[1]
• "Rain and Tears", a 1968 single by Aphrodite's Child^[7]
• "Oh Lord, Why Lord", a 1968 single by Pop-Tops^[8]
• "One Tin Soldier", a 1969 song by the Original Caste^[5]
• "Streets of London", a 1969 song by Ralph McTell^[9]
• "Isn't Life Strange", a 1972 single by the Moody Blues^[10]
• "No Woman, No Cry", a 1974 single by Bob Marley and the Wailers^[9]
• "Three Variations", the B-side of Brian Eno's 1975 album Discreet Music^[8]
• "Go West", a 1979 single by Village People^[11]
• "Goodbye to Romance", from Ozzy Osbourne's 1980 album Blizzard of Ozz^[12]
• "I Should Be So Lucky", a 1987 single by Kylie Minogue^[2]
• "All Together Now", a 1990 single by the Farm^[11]
• "Cryin'", a 1993 single by Aerosmith
• "Go West", a 1993 single by Pet Shop Boys^[13]
• "Hook", from Blues Traveler's 1994 album Four^[7]
• "Basket Case", a 1994 single by Green Day^[7]
• "Life Goes On", from 2Pac's 1996 album All Eyez on Me^[7]
• "Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying", from Belle and Sebastian's 1996 album If You're Feeling Sinister^[14]
• "C U When U Get There", a 1997 single by Coolio^[7]
• "Christmas Canon", from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 1998 album The Christmas Attic^[15]
• "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (I Can't Help Falling in Love)", from Spiritualized's 1997 album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space^[8]
• "Graduation (Friends Forever)", a 2000 single by Vitamin C^[7]
• "The Day You Went Away", a single by M2M^[16]  
• "Canon in D Major", from the Jacques Loussier Trio's 2001 album Baroque Favorites^[7]
• "Love Is Color Blind", from Sarah Connor's 2004 album Sarah Connor 
• "Paris", from Delerium's 2004 album The Best Of^[7]
• "Canon Rock", a 2005 song by JerryC^[1]
• "Welcome to the Black Parade", a 2006 single by My Chemical Romance^[7]
• "Pachelbel Rant", from Rob Paravonian's 2009 album Songs from the Second Floor^[4]
• "We Dance On", a 2010 single by N-Dubz^[17]
• "Would You Stay for Tea?", from Hello Venus' 2013 EP of the same name^[18]
• "Rockelbel's Canon (Pachelbel Canon in D)", from the Piano Guys' 2013 album The Piano Guys 2^[7]
• "Step", a 2013 single by Vampire Weekend^[19]
• "Sunday Morning", from Procol Harum's 2017 album Novum^{[9] [20]}
• "Beautiful in White", a 2017 song by Shane Filan^[21]
• "Loose Canon", a 2017 parody by John Finnemore on John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, alongside a sketch about the canon entitled "One Hit Wonder (Pachelbel)".^[22]
• "Fancy", from Doja Cat's 2018 album Amala^[23]
• "Memories", a 2019 single by Maroon 5^[2]
• "Full of Life", from Christine and the Queens' 2023 album Paranoia, Angels, True Love^[24]

Notes and References

1. News: Colli . Ilario . September 1, 2013 . Canon fodder . Limelight.
2. News: Macdonald . Kyle . January 14, 2020 . Maroon 5's 'Memories' is a brazen reworking of Pachelbel's Canon . . November 12, 2023 . June 3, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230603045310/https://www.classicfm.com/composers/pachelbel/maroon-5-memories-canon/ . live .
3. Goldman . Matthew B. . 2022 . Fragmented music copyright protection: A better arrangement . . 40 . 1 . 732.
4. News: Levine . Alexandra S. . May 9, 2019 . How 'Canon in D' became the wedding song . . November 12, 2023 . November 9, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211109185931/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/fashion/weddings/canon-in-d-major-wedding-song.html . live .
5. Book: Stone, Stephen C. . Music Theory and Composition: A Practical Approach . . 2018 . 978-1-5381-0124-7 . 431.
6. News: October 7, 2002 . Pop mogul 'inspired by classics' . . November 12, 2023 . July 16, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230716062045/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2306337.stm . live .
7. Book: Denisch, Beth . Contemporary Counterpoint: Theory & Application . . 2017 . 978-1-5400-1223-4 . 95.
8. News: Kim . Kristen Yonsoo . September 27, 2012 . One-Hit Wondering - Johann Pachelbel . . November 12, 2023 . November 7, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231107021803/https://www.vice.com/en/article/65g3b6/one-hit-wondering-johann-pachelbel . live .
9. Book: Morley, Paul . A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love with Classical Music (and Decided to Rewrite Its Entire History) . . 2021 . 978-1-5266-4455-8 . 306–307.
10. Web site: Dome . Malcolm . The top 10 best Moody Blues songs . Louder . August 8, 2016 . November 27, 2023.
11. News: Rentoul . John . January 19, 2019 . The Top 10: Pop songs based on classical music . . November 12, 2023 . March 31, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190331014051/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/top-10-pop-songs-based-on-classical-music-a8733681.html . live .
12. Book: Heritage, Gareth. Brown. Andy R.. Spracklen. Karl. Kahn-Harris. Keith. Scott. Niall W.R.. 2016. Global Metal Music and Culture: Current Directions in Metal Studies. 'It's Like a Mach Piece, Really': Critiquing the Neo-Classical Aesthetic of '80s Heavy Metal Music. https://books.google.com/books?id=EL_OCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55. Routledge. 978-1-138-82238-2. 10.4324/9781315742816-5.
13. Web site: Laurence . Rebecca . Pop music's classical inspiration . BBC Home . August 6, 2014 . April 6, 2024.
14. News: Guendelsberger . Emily . August 7, 2012 . Why "Hook" by Blues Traveler is actually a pretty genius work of metafiction . . November 12, 2023 . June 1, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230601220342/https://www.avclub.com/why-hook-by-blues-traveler-is-actually-a-pretty-geniu-1798232765 . live .
15. News: Chan . Lorne . December 18, 2014 . Trans-Siberian Orchestra dusts off The Christmas Attic . . November 12, 2023 . April 17, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230417014828/https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/article/Trans-Siberian-Orchestra-takes-you-to-The-5965539.php . live .
16. Web site: The Pachelbel Canon: Classical music's most famous tune. . www.celebratewithmusic.co.uk . 17 September 2023 . 24 Mar 2024.
17. News: Copsey . Robert . May 24, 2010 . N-Dubz ft. Bodyrox: 'We Dance On' . . November 13, 2023 . November 13, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231113081054/https://www.digitalspy.com/music/single-reviews/a221491/n-dubz-ft-bodyrox-we-dance-on-221491/ . live .
18. Web site: 헬로비너스 "'차 마실래?' 너무 야한 게 아니냐고 물었죠" . . May 5, 2013 . June 11, 2024.
19. News: Hogan . Marc . January 2, 2014 . Hear Danny Brown defend his girl on Vampire Weekend's 'Step (Remix)' . . November 12, 2023 . September 7, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230907232728/https://www.spin.com/2014/01/vampire-weekend-danny-brown-heems-despot-step-remix-mp3/ . live .
20. News: Warne . Jude . April 18, 2017 . Prog rock icons return with their 50th anniversary album . . November 12, 2023 . April 17, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230417045811/https://observer.com/2017/04/procol-harum-novum-interview-gary-brooker/ . live .
21. Web site: 'Beautiful in White' có MV sau 8 năm . Hà Thu . July 6, 2018 . July 8, 2018 . . vi . "Beautiful in White" music video released eight years after the song's debut . 8 July 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180708104052/https://giaitri.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/nhac/lang-nhac/beautiful-in-white-co-mv-sau-8-nam-3773737.html . live .
22. Web site: John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme - Series 6, Episode 3. British Comedy Guide. January 10, 2017. November 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230417014816/https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/finnemore_souvenir_programme/episodes/6/3/. April 17, 2023. live.
23. News: June 26, 2018 . NPR Music's 40 favorite albums of 2018 (so far) . . November 12, 2023 . August 15, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200815092048/https://www.npr.org/2018/06/26/622438789/npr-musics-40-favorite-albums-of-2018-so-far-part-2 . live .
24. Web site: Mason . Eric . Christine and the Queens 'Paranoïa, Angels, True Love' Review . Slant Magazine . June 5, 2023 . February 17, 2024.