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Thread: 10 most popular mandolin songs

  1. #1

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    What are the most mainstream, popular Mandolin songs? I'm thinking of songs that nonmusical people would recognize that have mando.

    I guess the "Godfather Theme" could be #1. There's a;sp beginning of "It's Now of Never" by Elvis? Going to California by Led Zep. What else is there?
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  3. #2

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    I know that those 3 songs exist, but don't know if I ever heard them more than once. Guess I'm waaay out of the mainstream. I like it like that. (Give me shelter from the norm).

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    Registered User cooper4205's Avatar
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    Copperhead Road maybe? And Rocky Top.
    Wes
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    The only song I think I knew before I started was probably "Losing My Religion" by REM. Zeppelin would also be recognized. Not much that non-musical people would know with mandolin. Most would probably know none, at least with the people I know.
    "Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man."

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    Rod Stewart's "Maggie Mae"
    Dave

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    Registered User Gutbucket's Avatar
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    I second Maggie Mae. That song got a lot of universal air time on a lot of radio stations back then. More then any bluegrass song before or since.
    A couple of mandolins
    A couple guitars
    An Upright Bass
    Some banjos
    Wax Paper over a comb
    A Loar era Didjeridoo

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  10. #7
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Never On Sunday, though I think it was a bouzouki rather than a mandolin.
    Allen Hopkins
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Play the theme from that movie about Captain Corelli.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  12. #9

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    Anything else? There's got to be more famous mandolin songs that could be considered "mainstream".

  13. #10

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    Less than half the people I meet outside of the mandolin world even know what it is. I don't think we are in any danger of becoming popular.
    Clyde Clevenger
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    once upon a time, drmole Joel Spaulding's Avatar
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    My wife's nephew (I won't claim him as MY nephew)assures me that the "Silent Hill" (SH)video game soundtrack is rife with mandolin. i'll take his word since he saw me playing mando one day and proclaimed : " hey, THAT's the instrument that sounds really cool on the #SH soundtrack! I wondered what instrument it was."

    Glad the young (22) guitar player could at least be introduced to highest itteration of fretted instruments.

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    You know, now that you mention it, I think Silent Hill does have mandolin. Is there mandolin in "Fields of Gold," by Sting?

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    Moderator JEStanek's Avatar
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    Scroll through this thread on mando in rock songs...

    Jamie
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    There's a nice mando intro to Jones and Wynette's "We're Not the Jet Set"
    and Dean Martin's "Amore"
    Bill Foley

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    What about "Santa Lucia" or "Come Back to Sorrento?" While they may not be popular favorites, surely they're some of the more recognizable mandolin tunes out there...
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  19. #16
    Registered User Gutbucket's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by (Mandolusional @ May 13 2008, 02:38)
    You know, now that you mention it, I think Silent Hill does have mandolin. #Is there mandolin in "Fields of Gold," by Sting?
    I'm not sure about Fields of Gold, but he has collaborated with a famous lute player from Italy recentlly. Sting is a novice lute player in his own right. Lute strings are like numbers. There's like, to many of them.
    A couple of mandolins
    A couple guitars
    An Upright Bass
    Some banjos
    Wax Paper over a comb
    A Loar era Didjeridoo

    "I Never Wanted To Be A Barber. I Always Wanted To Be A Lumberjack !"

  20. #17
    Moderator JEStanek's Avatar
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    Lutenist Eden Karamazov collaborated with Sting on Songs From The Labyrinth and was discussed here. Eden is from Bosnia (according to Wiki on Sting).

    Jamie
    There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865 - 1946

    + Give Blood, Save a Life +

  21. #18

    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    Atlantic City by the band

  22. #19

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    The latter half of Piano Man by Billy Joel has some melodic Mandolin intertwining with Billy's Piano.

  23. #20

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    Jimi Hendrix once broke a mandolin on stage when he ran out of Strats...

  24. #21

    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    It's hard to pick it out with all the overdubbing but on some of the Beach Boy stuff Barney Kessel played that mandolin guitar thing he played. Maggie May, The Theme from the Godfather. Lots of people saw "All The Pretty Horses" with Marty Stuart's soundtrack, does that count? Led Zeppelin did something with a mandolin didn't they? I'm not sure I never got past "Creme". All that Union Station stuff from that other movie kind of hit mainstream. But the all time most popular mandolin tunes of all time are "Rawhide" and "Bluegrass Stomp" that and maybe Vivaldi---

  25. #22
    Registered User Benjamin T's Avatar
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    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    my two cents regarding the most popular mandolin songs based on world wide populairty are in this order:
    O Sole Mio- Italian
    Blue Moon of Kentucky- Bill Monroe
    Concerto in C Major- Vivaldi
    Die Zufriedenheit (KV 349)- Mozart
    Ripple- The Grateful Dead
    Battle of Evermore- Led Zeppelin
    Rocky Top- The Osborne Brothers
    Uncle Penn- Bill Monroe
    Losing my Religion- R.E.M.
    Maggie May- Rod Stewart
    Raphael Ciani Galiano circa 1920
    Gibson F-5G FB 2003
    John D'Angelico 1933
    Vivitone Acoustic #338 circa 1933
    Gibson F4 1915 Blacktop
    Shutt/ Harmony Viol Mandolin circa 1930

  26. #23

    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    Oh My! I've never heard six of those... so I'd better get my 10 in.

    Speak Softly Love - movie theme,
    Maggie May - Rod Stewart/Ray Jackson,
    O Sole Mio - Italian,
    Santa Lucia - Italian,
    The Blacksmith - Irish (Andy Irvine),
    My Lagan Love - Irish (Derek Warfield),
    Uncle Noddy's Steamboat - Irish (Derek Warfield),
    Pelagia's Song/Theme (Cap'n Corelli),
    Losing My Religion (R.E.M),
    Mandolin Wind - Rod Stewart/Ray Jackson
    Last edited by Eddie Sheehy; Oct-20-2011 at 4:39pm.

  27. #24
    Registered User Jim MacDaniel's Avatar
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    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    Here are 5 pages of rock songs with mandolin; you should be able to find at least 10 that your non-musical friends would recognize -- assuming that they grew up in the Western world, or at least grew up listening to Western popular music.
    "The problem with quotes on the internet, is everybody has one, and most of them are wrong."
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: 10 most popular mandolin songs

    OK folks. The original criteria was the most popular songs that
    nonmusical people would recognize that have mando.
    If that means that nonmusical people would recognize the tune and recognize that there is a mandolin in it - the answer is none. I can't think of one.

    There are lots of popular tunes that have a mandolin in them to one extent or another, but I think nonmusical people would not recognize it.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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