Borrowed Melodies: Nightwish's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"

Finally this is on the verge of official release!  Which means they actually got permission to use the song from originator Michael Nyman.  If you recall, there was some controversy after NW used this song as their outro for their final concert of the DPP tour - but as the saying goes, any press is good press, even bad press.  The iffy debut of "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" only created an intense longing for NW fans to have the song released.  And on March 2 it will be, as a B-side to the single release of "The Crow, the Owl, and the Dove", the second single from Imaginaerum.

But of course there's been an - ahem - early unofficial release, and here it is:

I absolutely love it.  I love how it builds and builds on itself, I love the lyrics, I love the power and emotion. There are no weaknesses in this song at all.  It was worth the wait.

And I am a big fan of the film The Piano and it's soundtrack. Here is the original version:

Borrowed Melodies: Where Is the Love by Baracuda

Baracuda is a German dance project consiting of DJ Toby Sky and vocalist Suny. Their 6th single, they don't have an album just singles, "Where Is the Love" is a sort of cover of NW's "Amaranth" single. The single consists of Amaranth's melody and some elements from Alice Cooper's "Poison". The single was released in 2009 and became very popular in the dance scene.

The lyrics can be found here.

 

NW's Amaranth video: 

 

Borrowed Melodies: The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Nightwish

"The Heart Asks Pleasure First" composed by Michael Nyman, is a part of soundtrack for a famous film The Piano. This album is rated in the top 100 soundtrack albums of all time.

In 2007, Nightwish recorded the song as a bonus song for their new album Dark Passion Play.
Anette wrote about the song in the sturio diary: "Sunday and last day for my vocal recordings!!! Only one song left and this one is a bonus song, which we don't even know yet if we're gonna be allowed to release since the original composer hasn't said his yes yet....but we keep our fingers crossed and of course we record it anyway... It's a very, very beautiful song and Tuomas lyrics are so good and suit it well. For me, I felt a bit nervous about this one, since it goes extremely high in the end and there were some difficult parts here and there for me to get over. But the guys were so nice and helpful and when we started to work on it, I just let the song flow and it went very well. Did the harmonies as well and then Tuomas recorded some demo-keyboards on top and it sounded amazing! I sure hope the composer will say yes, cause it would be so disappointing if we can't release this one..."

Unfortunately, Nyman haven't given the permission for the song's release yet.
In February, Tuomas said about the song "It's gathering dust in my cd-r shelf and hoping to see daylight one day." In June, during the live chat on his official website, Tuomas confirmed that he was told "to get rid of everything to do with their version".

However, NW played "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" as an outro at the end of the Hartwall show in 2009.


There aren't high-quality videos, so I tried to pick up the best one.

In December 2010, Italian rock noir band Belladonna released a song "Let There Be a Light". This song's based on Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" and he himslef plays the piano on the track. That's probably the reason why he gave the permission for its release.
I find this song really messy. The piano parts don't fit to the song at all, IMO. In this case I find NW's version million times better than this one.

Borrowed Melodies: Je Porte Plainte by Tunisiano

I didn't put this under the title "Come cover me" because this song contains only the main melody of Ever Dream by Nightwish which is repeated throughout the song and the lyrics are different. So it's actually not a cover. Je Porte Plainte - This is a complaint - is a rap song by French rapper Tunisiano. The song was released in 2008 and straigh away Nuclear Blast opened a lawsuit for plagiarism since the melody had been taken without their consent.

Since I am not a fan of rap music there is really nothing to say about it. It's just a broken Merry-Go-Round blah blah for me. Same annoying music as the one which comes from this carousel. Just wanted to let you know that song like this exists out there.

In case that you are interested in the lyrics.