Joy - Apollo 100 (1972) 7/28/22

Every so often during the rock era, someone would take a piece of classical music and update it in a way that spoke to current musical tastes.

Examples from the '70s alone include: Barry Manilow's "Could it Be Magic" (Chopin) Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven Eric Carmen's "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" (Rachmaninoff)

And Today's "Great Song of 1972:" "Joy" by Apollo 100.

Tom Parker, a multi-instrumentalist who played keyboards, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, trombone and just about everything else, put together the group and released an album of "rocked up classical classics." starting with Johann Sebastian Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," written in 1723.

Simply retitled "Joy," the song climbed into the Top 10, peaking at #6.

After that, unfortunately, Tom and Apollo 100 never charted again, making them yet another one-hit wonder--but one that's pretty unique.

I'm pretty sure that "Joy" was the only "Great Song of the '70s" that was also a "Great Song of 1723!"

(Note: More recently, Apollo 100's version has been featured in the films "Boogie Nights' and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin.")

Apollo 100:

Bach (Daniil Trifonov):