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The Oldest Hit Song Ever


cytania
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I'm wondering what the oldest song to be revived as a contemporary hit is.

A quick google search brought up this;

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxlste3JucU"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxlste3JucU[/url]

Now if the (ahem) exuberant Hank Green becomes an YouTube sensation, then the Seikilos Epitaph would be the oldest revived song at 2000 years old. He's just shy of half a million views at the moment.

My next thought was Black Betty. This is a work chant turned into a heavy rock hit by the Ram Jam Band and lately by Oz metal outfit Spiderbait. (It even featured in the trailers for 'the Voice' this year). Recorded versions go back to 1934 but as a march chant it could be 18th Century.

Then we have 'Falling In Love With You' by Elvis Presley, lately revived reggae style by UB40. This derives form 'Plaisir D'Amour' written by Jean-Paul-Egide Martini in 1784. Different lyrics and a middle 8 but it's recognisable the same tune. Hmm. since I typed that I just watched this;

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLYgXm8s3p4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLYgXm8s3p4[/url]

Maybe Andre Rieu's authentic revival shows there isn't that much similarity :lol:

Can anyone suggest other songs that keep coming back?

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Scarborough Fair has got to be a contender, with original versions older than Bach, and the version we know being about 200 years old (and Paul Simon once claiming a writing credit)!!

Younger, but a much with a more definitive written and published date, a song revived by Sting, Spread a Little Happiness, originally written in 1929.

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[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1429281134' post='2750015']
Scarborough Fair has got to be a contender, with original versions older than Bach, and the version we know being about 200 years old (and Paul Simon once claiming a writing credit)!!.
[/quote]

Fair enough, he is getting on a bit.

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[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1429281134' post='2750015']
Scarborough Fair has got to be a contender, with original versions older than Bach, and the version we know being about 200 years old (and Paul Simon once claiming a writing credit)!!
[/quote]

Which was a bit cheeky as Paul Simon stole Martin Carthy's version of it.

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Something like "Jungle Rock"?? - Hank Mizall - released in the late 50s but wasn't a hit till the mid 70s - a "[i]bit of a sleeper[/i]" apparently

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCQQyCkwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DB9ToIq7AZkg&ei=9DUxVZ7mBZLQ7QaPhoCgBA&usg=AFQjCNFDMxSN8KlnHMgygmZ9sFb8mhyxkg&sig2=W4DvvWz8h8mo0feJ45RHQA

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[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1429296315' post='2750260']
Oldest song that keeps coming back ?

Happy Birthday !
[/quote]

Funny story about that song.
Mates band went for an audition as a "functions band" with an agent.
What would you like to hear they asked the agent.

Happy Birthday he replied.
Err we dont know it.
Bye then the agent said, come back when you do, what kind of a functions band can not play a version of happy birthday ?

Good point he said...

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[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1429283403' post='2750039']
Lonnie Donegan pulled a few out of the ark, too.
[/quote]

Yeah. Wasnt The Golden Vanity written by Walter Raleigh ?

B side of My old mans a dustman btw, which sounds like an old music hall song to me.

Edited by BILL POSTERS
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[quote name='cytania' timestamp='1429339506' post='2750508']
Good call Bill, Golden Vanity was first collected by Samuel Pepys in 1667. Sir Walter Raleigh didn't write it but is name-checked in versions of the song!
[/quote]

Not really a hit song though, just the B side of a hit.

Actually had to explain to somebody what a B side was the other day ! Must be getting old :rolleyes:

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Not the oldest ever , but three songs that go back further than generally assumed are ;

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
- Written in 1923
[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_You_When_You%27re_Down_and_Out"]https://en.wikipedia...re_Down_and_Out[/url]
The eight bar changes are worth knowing . I read somewhere that Sting based one of the Police numbers on the changes .
( I like Popa Chubby's version on YT )

Blue Moon
- Written in 1934
People tend to think it is a 50s or 60s number.
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Moon_%281934_song%29"]http://en.wikipedia....%281934_song%29[/url]

Smile
-Music written in 1936 by Charlie Chaplin , lyrics added in 1954 .
Michael Jackson's favourite song .
[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_%28Charlie_Chaplin_song%29"]https://en.wikipedia...Chaplin_song%29[/url]
Chaplin played 'cello and violin left-handed and also piano . After he made his first million he had a pipe organ installed at his home in Beverley Hills and ensured that the cue sheets for the cinema organists in those silent movie days followed his instructions for his own films .
Genius tune .

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Most of the ones mentioned so far were not actually hits.

Didnt Joe Brown have a hit with Hava Nigila ? Or was it Dave Edmunds ?
Either way its a very old song, and was at least, a minor hit for one of em.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Oo8dSBwAA

Edited by BILL POSTERS
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I included a version of a Hurrian Song (oldest notation of a song, from what is now Syria...) in one of my BC Composition Challenges. Not a world-wide hit, though; don't know why. :unsure:

[url="http://soundcloud.com/dad3353/things-that-were-are-and-may-1"]Things that were, are and may yet come to pass...[/url]

Edited by Dad3353
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