Giorgio Moroder and Chicago - What's the link?

[The Boogie Doctor]

Hi party people,

I write to you all with a musical query. It has come to my attention that the tracks 'I Wanna Rock You,' written by Giorgio Moroder, and 'Streetplayer,' written by Chicago, both have the same descending melody/hook in their content. In the former track it is a synthesiser which features after the second chorus has concluded, whilst in the latter it is a hornline that constitutes the introductory passage of the song, famously sampled by Kenny Dope (Bucketheads) on his track 'The Bomb.' Furthermore, both pieces of music were released in 1979, which begs the question, however futile: out of Giorgio Moroder and Chicago, who originally wrote this particular melody/hook? Did Moroder, the grandmaster of Italian- and Euro-Disco pilfer musical content from mainstream American bands or was it the opposite, namely, did a mainstream US band purloin hooks from a relatively obscure Italian (then German) disco producer. I put these questions to you, the knowledgable people here at Discomusic.com.

Lots and lots of peace and love,
The Boogie Doctor.

[Mr.Ree]

Hi party people,

I write to you all with a musical query. It has come to my attention that the tracks 'I Wanna Rock You,' written by Giorgio Moroder, and 'Streetplayer,' written by Chicago, both have the same descending melody/hook in their content. In the former track it is a synthesiser which features after the second chorus has concluded, whilst in the latter it is a hornline that constitutes the introductory passage of the song, famously sampled by Kenny Dope (Bucketheads) on his track 'The Bomb.' Furthermore, both pieces of music were released in 1979, which begs the question, however futile: out of Giorgio Moroder and Chicago, who originally wrote this particular melody/hook? Did Moroder, the grandmaster of Italian- and Euro-Disco pilfer musical content from mainstream American bands or was it the opposite, namely, did a mainstream US band purloin hooks from a relatively obscure Italian (then German) disco producer. I put these questions to you, the knowledgable people here at Discomusic.com.

Lots and lots of peace and love,
The Boogie Doctor.

BD: I have no knowledge of those songs but I ALSO found a Giorgio Moroder song that has a melody from a different source. The Toys' classic "A Lover's Concerto" is reprised in one of Moroder's instrumental compositions included on the "Electric Dreams" soundtrack. I remember being shocked when I heard it.....I can't imagine a composer as prolific as Moroder ever taking credit for a composition that's clearly not his own. I'd love to know the story behind this.....

[markydefad]

BD: I have no knowledge of those songs but I ALSO found a Giorgio Moroder song that has a melody from a different source. The Toys' classic "A Lover's Concerto" is reprised in one of Moroder's instrumental compositions included on the "Electric Dreams" soundtrack. I remember being shocked when I heard it.....I can't imagine a composer as prolific as Moroder ever taking credit for a composition that's clearly not his own. I'd love to know the story behind this.....

"A Lover's Concerto"--although credited to Sandy Linzer/Denny Randell-- was adapted from Johan Bach's Minuet in G, a five-finger piano exercise ....so it's sorta fair game for interpolation into soundtrack music--lotsa pop composers have stolen from classical composers--Barry Manilow stole the melody of "Could It Be Magic" from Chopin & Billy Joel's "This Night is credited to Joel/Beethoven!!! ....it's been done many times.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Lest we not forget "La Nuit Blanche", from the Munich Machine's "Whiter Shade Of Pale" LP.

It was a remake of 2001 A Space Odyssey's theme: "Also Sprach Zarathustra"

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Alec R. Costandinos & The Syncophonic Orchestra, featuring Alirol & Jaquet
"SYNERGY", is completely lifted from Vivialdi's 'Four Seasons' - Summer

And, I believe, the main hook in "The Rite of King Gymenaud", is also lifted from somewhere in Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'.

[markydefad]

Here's another example of Giorgio sampling from the classical masters...

AMERICAN GIGOLO [soundtrack]


from AMG:
"The other six instrumentals blend a noir ambience with the utility of background music
The most notable is "Hello Mr. W.A.M" — whose initials stand for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — which contains some interesting observations on his Concerto for Clarinet in A Major."

[Mr.Ree]

regarding Moroder's borrowing, I see nothing wrong with composers and producers using material other than their own...but I THOUGHT the source of the material was always supposed to be noted on the label of the recording (as it is on "Hello Mr W.A.M."). My copy of the "Electric Dreams" song in question here lists only Moroder's name and not the original composers of "A Lover's Concerto". This may just be some kind of label printing error, but SOME composers get MIGHTY annoyed when they're not credited for their work and this has received quite a lot of publicity in cases involving the Rolling Stones, Queen/David Bowie, the Isley Brothers, Dr. Dre, Frankie Beverly and more recently, lots of those teen pop acts whose names I can't remember. And hip hop acts are famous for this. Check out EPMD's "Strictly Business" on You Tube...it uses Eric Clapton's cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" in its entirely and lists EPMD as the composers.

[EricHG23]

I think with classical pieces in the public domain it's different (though it would be nice if they still gave credit where it's due). There was a huge French pop hit in the 90s which sampled throughout Ravel's Pavane and enver said as much.

Maybe they assumed with the Electric Dreams song everyone would know it (A bit liek that track Moroder did Clasically Elise based on Beethoven's Fur Elise)--Minuet and G is one of the earlier piece syou learn when yopu study nearly any string instrument as a kid--at least it was for me.