Music That Always Gets Associated With Something Else

So, the recent trailer for the upcoming Green Hornet movie (see earlier post) made me notice that, whether rightly or wrongly, the film executives chose not to use Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" anywhere in the trailer. I was actually torn on this. On the one hand, I felt it was a move to show that, while this movie was going to be inspired by the past it wasn't going to be chained to it. On the other hand, the music is ingrained in the public consciousness that whenever it is played it automatically conjures up the character's name at the very least.



The song has been used as the Green Hornet theme ever since the character debuted on the radio in the 1930's. So it seemed a shame not to pay tribute to that -- perhaps with a modern rendition.

But "Flight of the Bumblebee" is not alone among the 'songs that have forever become associated with something else'...

There is Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" which many will forever associate with the Phantom of the Opera



Poor Rossini's "William Tell Overture" will probably forever be thought of as "The Lone Ranger Theme"...



And, while not in quite the same company, James Q. Rich and saxaphonist Boots Randolph's seminal "Yakety Sax" is almost never recognized under it's true name but rather referred to as "The Benny Hill Theme".




So, here's a slaute to all those great composers who'se music lives on, even if most people don't remember who wrote the originals....