Why did pop lyrics become set to classical themes For example Full Moon and Empty Arms Til the End of Time etc. Who was on strike?

Answer 1

You must know that the first song is set to a theme from the Second Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov. It was one of the most popular classical works around 1940, along with the First Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky. No one was on strike. In those longago days, a lot of people actually knew and enjoyed a handful of familiar classical works. To steal one of those tunes and set words to it was a good way to create a popular hit. (Not stealing, since the music was in the public domain, out of copyright.) In fact, RCA Victor had a hand in promoting a kind of crossover (a word not used in those days). Freddy Martin and his Band had recorded a piece based on the Tchaikovsky concerto, which benefited the sales of the concerto recorded by Artur Rubinstein, the best-selling classical pianist of the day. On the basis of that success, RCA got Freddy Martin to do the same with the Piano Concerto by Grieg, another very popular work, and made a recording of that concerto with Rubinstein. One hand washing the other, as they say. "Till the End of Time" was a 1946 movie that used the song, based on Chopin's Polonaise No. 6 and written a year earlier, as its theme. Not only was the song a big hit, but recordings of the Chopin piece by Jose Iturbi and Vladimir Horowitz were best sellers that year. (That year there was a Chopin movie, "A Song to Remember," with Iturbi on the soundtrack, that tied in.) "Full Moon and Empty Arms" had come out a few years before that. A young songwriter named Leo Mossman wrote all of these, several hundred in all. He had a classical training at the Eastman School so he knew the music.