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The Imperial March sounds so much happier in a major key

Cheer up Darth!

The Imperial March sounds so much happier in a major key
24 February 2016

John Williams' Imperial March: one of the most iconic movie themes ever written and forever associated with Darth Vader and the dark, dark side.

Until now, that is.

Producer Ian Gordon has created this brilliant version, converting it from its original minor key to a major one. In one fell swoop, all that evilness is taken out and injected with a nice dose of happiness. It sounds like a Disney theme; appropriate, perhaps, given they now own the Star Wars franchise.

In fact, perhaps this is a glimpse of things to come: Star Wars Episode XXXVI: Attack of the Fluffy Rabbits.

Of course, people changing the key of songs is not a new thing; the invention of Melodyne's software to change the pitch of notes within a chord has enabled this to be one for a few years and there are some great other examples that are well worth a listen.

The (nice) Godfather: 

Losing your religion never sounded like so much fun:

Nothing else matters, because everything's fine really:

Sweet Dreams. Made sweeter:

This is like a lullaby:

But it works the other way too - check out this incredible minor key version of Hey Jude. Take a sad song...and make it sadder:

Check out this YouTube channel for even more examples.