Daniel T's video: Canon in D - Johann Pachelbel: Piano

This piano piece was composed by Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706). Pachelbel's Canon is the name commonly given to a canon by the German Baroque composer, Johann Pachelbel, in his Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo. Like most other works by Pachelbel and other pre-1700 composers, the Canon remained forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered only in the 20th century. Several decades after it was first published in 1919 the piece became extremely popular. The piece was particularly prevalent in the pop charts of the 1990s, being sampled and appropriated in numerous commercial hits. It is frequently played at weddings and included on classical music compilations, along with other famous Baroque pieces such as 'Air on the G String'. During the years of Baroque Pop in the second half of the 1960s, two bands incorporated the melody of Pachelbel's Canon in D in their songs, adding vocals and pop/rock arrangements. The first one was The Pop Tops in Spain with their international (mostly European) minor hit "Oh Lord! Why Lord?" (1968), and the second one was the Paris based band Aphrodite's Child (formed by later very popular Greek members like Demis Roussos or Vangelis) with their European hit "Rain & Tears" (recorded in Paris, May 1968). But moreover, if the former bands openly announced their credit to Pachelbel, there are other songs which took their harmony right from the Canon without saying it openly, and thus made big hits on the charts: The Bee Gees with their first hit "Spicks and Specks" (1966), and Ralph McTell with his "Streets of London" (1969). In 2002, pop music producer Pete Waterman described Canon in D as "almost the godfather of pop music because we've all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years". He also said that Kylie Minogue's 1988 UK Number One hit single "I Should Be So Lucky", which Waterman co-wrote and co-produced, was based on Canon in D.