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A Fifth of Beethoven

Field	Value
name	A Fifth of Beethoven
cover	A Fifth of Beethoven Walter Murphy single.jpg
type	single
artist	Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band
album	A Fifth of Beethoven and Saturday Night Fever
B-side	California Strut
released	1976
studio	Sound Ideas (New York)
* Disco<ref>{{cite magazine	first	Tom	last= Bentkowski	title= Ludwig on the Charts	magazine=New York	date= March 28, 1977	volume= 10	issue= 13	page= 65	issn= 0028-7369	url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YOMCAAAAMBAJ&q=%22disco%22&pg=PA65}}
* funk<ref name	"Breihan 2019"
* novelty<ref name	"Breihan 2019"/
length	3:02
label	Private Stock
producer	Thomas J. Valentino
prev_title	Disco Bells
prev_year	1975
next_title	Flight '76
next_year	1976
misc

| B-side = California Strut

Disco
funk
novelty
Ludwig van Beethoven
Walter Murphy "A Fifth of Beethoven" is a disco instrumental recorded by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, adapted from the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The record was produced by production music and sound effects recording producer Thomas J. Valentino. The "Fifth" in the song's title is a pun, referencing a liquid measure approximately equal to one-fifth of a gallon, a popular size for bottles containing liquor, as well as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony from which the song was adapted.

Released as a single by Private Stock Records in 1976, the song debuted at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and climbed to number 1 within 19 weeks, remaining there for one week. In 1977, it was licensed to RSO Records for inclusion on the best-selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The song is Murphy's only Top 40 hit.

Background and recording

In college, Murphy's interests included rock music, particularly that which was adapted from classical music, such as "Joy" (1971) by Apollo 100 and "A Lover's Concerto" (1965) by The Toys. Later, in 1976, while writing a disco song for a commercial, a producer suggested the idea of "updating classical music", which "nobody [has] done lately". He then recorded a demo tape of five songs—three were ordinary pop songs, while the fourth was a disco rendition of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony titled "A Fifth of Beethoven"—mailing it to various record labels in New York City.

The response was underwhelming, but "Fifth" caught the interest of Private Stock Records owner Larry Uttal. Murphy signed on to Private Stock and recorded the album A Fifth of Beethoven, containing the title track and first single of the same name. The single was credited to "Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band" upon encouragement from Private Stock, which believed it would be more successful if credited to a group rather than an individual. However, two days following the record's release, Private Stock discovered the existence of another Big Apple Band (which promptly changed its name to Chic). The record was later re-released and credited to "The Walter Murphy Band", then simply to "Walter Murphy".

The 1998 single "Enjoy Yourself" by A+ samples this song.

Reception

"A Fifth of Beethoven" started at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100; the single eventually reached number 1 within 19 weeks, where it stayed for one week. The single sold two million copies, while the album sold about 750,000 copies. The second single, a rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", titled "Flight '76", reached number 44 on the Hot 100.

In popular culture

The music was used in a recruitment campaign by the Irish Defence Forces in the early 1980s.

The song was used as the theme of the television miniseries Mrs. America.

The song was used in an episode of the second season of the TV series Pose.

An a cappella arrangement of A Fifth of Beethoven by Tobias Hug as recorded by The Swingles, was used for the pilot episode of Glee, which was first aired on Fox in May 2009.

The song was also used for a brief Saturday Night Fever parody that opened the 2006 Family Guy episode "Hell Comes to Quahog"; Murphy also composes the score for Family Guy.

The instrumental was used during a montage in the series finale of Loki, "Glorious Purpose".

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Chart (1976)	Peak
position
url= https://imgur.com/a/QxANsEK	title= National Top 100 Singles for 1976	publisher= Kent Music Report	issue= 131	via= Imgur	date= December 27, 1976	access-date= January 15, 2022}}	15
South Africa (Springbok Radio)	14
US Billboard Hot 100	1
US Billboard Hot Disco Singles	10
US Billboard Hot Soul Singles	10
US Billboard Adult Contemporary	13
US Cashbox	1
US Record World	1

Year-end charts

Chart (1976)	Rank
Australia (Kent Music Report)	91
Canada Top Singles (RPM)	8
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)	25
US Billboard Hot 100	10
US Cash Box	6

All-time charts

Chart (1958–2018)	Position
US Billboard Hot 100	120

Certifications

References

(March 31, 2008). "Interview with George Klabin, President of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation and the new Resonance Records jazz label".
Bentkowski, Tom. (March 28, 1977). "Ludwig on the Charts".
Breihan, Tom. (September 16, 2019). "The Number Ones: Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band's "A Fifth Of Beethoven"".
(August 6, 1986). "Thomas J. Valentino Is Dead; Early Sound Effects Producer". [[The New York Times]].
Campbell, Mary. (October 15, 1976). "Beethoven Arranger Having Ball". [[The News and Courier]].
Itzkoff, Dave. (November 4, 2007). "A Satirical Sit-Com's Memorable Music". [[The New York Times]].
""A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy".
O'Connell, Hugh. (May 12, 2012). "Video: Why don't the Defence Forces make recruitment ads like this any more?". [[TheJournal.ie]].
. ["Tobias Hug"](https://www.ingeniumacademy.com/tobias-hug).
. ["Tobias Hug Biography"](https://www.singers.com/performers/Tobias-Hug/).
"Hell Comes to Quahog – IMDB".
""Loki" Glorious Purpose (TV Episode 2023) – Soundtracks – IMDb".
(December 27, 1976). "National Top 100 Singles for 1976". [[Kent Music Report]].
"Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – Top 100 End of Year AMR Charts – 1970s". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien.
"South African Rock Lists Website SA Charts 1969 – 1989 Acts (M)".
"A Fifth of Beethoven – Awards". [[AllMusic]].
Whitburn, Joel. (1993). "Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993". Record Research.
"''Cash Box'' Top 100 Singles – Week ending October 9, 1976".
(September 25, 1976). "The Singles Chart".
(January 8, 1977). "Top 200 Singles of '76".
"End of Year Charts 1976". Recorded Music New Zealand.
"Top 100 Hits for 1976".
"The ''Cash Box'' Year-End Charts: 1976".
"Hot 100 60th Anniversary".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1970s-instrumentals 1976-singles 1976-songs american-disco-songs arrangements-of-compositions-by-ludwig-van-beethoven billboard-hot-100-number-one-singles cashbox-number-one-singles cultural-depictions-of-ludwig-van-beethoven pop-instrumentals popular-songs-based-on-classical-music private-stock-records-singles rpm-top-singles-number-one-singles songs-from-saturday-night-fever songs-written-by-walter-murphy symphony-no.-5-(beethoven)

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