Unexpectedly, I got to spend a few hours with a very good friend on New Year’s Eve, a high point of the holiday – perhaps THE high point. He’s been in the act of overhauling his living room, taking up the carpet, replacing the furniture, and, his greatest source of pride, enhancing his entertainment center.
So we listened to Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp (yes, folks, that is how I like to celebrate New Year’s Eve) and “Straussiana,” and, since he’s also a ‘70s prog rock guy (when we were teenagers, I remember, I would sometimes see him at school wearing a Yes t-shirt), we fell into a discussion about unexpected quotations of classical music in ‘70s popular song.
That’s when he put on “Beach Baby.” “Beach Baby,” written by John Carter and his wife, Gillian Shakespeare, became the only substantial hit for the band The First Class in 1974. It clearly emulates the carefree endless summer sound of The Beach Boys, in ironic contrast to the lyrics which suggest it’s all now a faded memory, at least as far as the love relationship is concerned.
So I’m sitting there, my thoughts drifting to Wawa Hoagie Fest jingles, when all of a sudden what should appear in the firmament but the noble “swan theme” that climaxes Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5! Talk about out of left field.
Sibelius, Finland’s national composer, wrote the 5th on a commission from the Finnish government to celebrate his 50th birthday. That’s how big a deal Sibelius was and is in Finland. The last movement builds to a climax of impressive grandeur, a sublime apotheosis in the form of an ennobling “swan theme” (identified as such, as Sibelius specifies in his journal that it was the sight of swans in flight over a lake near his home that inspired it). The 5th Symphony is among the noblest in the entire literature, and I have long regarded it as my favorite symphony.
And here it was, hilariously, seemingly out of nowhere, in “Beach Baby.”
Somehow its use got back to the Sibelius estate, as a lawsuit was filed against the songwriters for copyright infringement. The case was settled out of court, with the estate receiving half of the song’s proceeds.
But I guess it was worth it, as it became the band’s biggest hit. In fact, it was the band’s only hit. Although they went on to release two studio albums and a number of singles, The First Class was unable to replicate the success of “Beach Baby.” Maybe if they had gone on to appropriate the big tune from Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2…
Interestingly, Trenton composer George Antheil, who never seemed to have a problem with aping the styles of his contemporaries, also “borrowed” a passage from Sibelius’ 5th. I’ve never seen anything to the effect that he received a cease-and-desist because of it. Then again, it’s not quite so blatant unless you really know Sibelius’ symphony. For some reason, he poaches not the “swan theme,” but rather a scurrying passage in the strings introduced at the opening of the last movement (preceding the big tune). Did George really get away with it? He WAS the Bad Boy of Music.
All in all, a New Year’s Eve well spent.
Once you know “Beach Baby,” it’s easy to detect a suggestion of the Sibelius tune at the opening, but the blatant crib appears around three minutes in.
In this recording of Antheil’s Symphony No. 3, his Sibelius crib appears for the first time, in the second movement, around 17 minutes in. Here, I cued it up for you.
Finally, the last movement of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5, in all its glory
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The Sibelius estate says, see you in court!
