Lover of language that I am, I am a proud subscriber to wordsmith.org, where facts about words are tossed out like meat to hungry lions, and we devour it gleefully. It's the kind of website to which one can turn for succor after hearing a tire salesman say, "Hopefully, we'll get you out of here by noon."
The other day, their popular A.Word.A.Day feature, written by the website's founder Anu Garg, taught me a new word: contrafactum, pronounced KON-truh-fak-tuhm. It means counterfeit music: "A composition that makes use of an existing piece of music with different lyrics."
Mr. Garg goes on to say the word comes from the Latin contrafacere (to counterfeit), from contra- (against) + facere (to make or do). Its earliest documented use was in 1940.
I'm sure there are dozens of examples of using the same tune, different words in the world of classical music, and maybe my more cultured readers can supply some. But of course, in the world of popular music, I think of one example right off the bat.
In 1963, Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys, got word that Phil Spector was about to release a Christmas album (and what a record that was!) Brian quickly wrote a hot-rod themed Santa Claus song called "Little Saint Nick," and it was released in time for the 1963 holiday season.
In 1964, while recording the album "All Summer Long," Brian included a new song called "Drive-In," about the good old days of drive-in movies where no one watched the movie.
And during those same recording sessions, Brian, as close to a musical genius as anyone who walked this earth, came up with a great idea: "Let's play the background track to "Drive-In" and sing the lyrics to "Little Saint Nick" and it will come out sounding like this. That version was not released until 1998, however, when Brian put out "Ultimate Christmas," a CD with all the band's holiday songs.
Did Brian know what a contrafactum is? Or that there's a word for it? We know that later on, he settled a beef with Chuck Berry for using the melody to Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" for an early Beach Boys hit "Surfin' USA," but this time, it was his own music he was recycling.
And that was long before we started putting out empty beer cans and spaghetti sauce jars for the county to take away.
Tell me more contrafacta!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEVlePSvkSM st nick drive in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ5tJY9551A drive in
2 comments:
Thanks for calling this great music back to mind! Once the British Invasion started in the 60s, I stopped giving the Beach Boys the attention they deserved until George Lucas, in the best credit-roll music decision of all time, slipped All Summer Long under the end of American Graffiti. And Don't Worry, Baby captures the essence of American mid-century innocence so very sweetly (and may have the most understated, minimalist guitar break in popular music history). Brian is indeed a genius.
Sittin' in my car outside your house
'Member when I spilled Coke all over your blouse....
Those words take me right back every time!
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