"A Fifth of Beethoven" is a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

recorded by

Walter Murphy Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which topp ...

and the Big Apple Band, adapted from the first movement of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's Symphony No. 5. The record was produced by

production music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Background ...

and

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s recording producer

Thomas J. Valentino Thomas J. Valentino (April 27, 1907 - August 4, 1986) was an American businessman of Italian descent being amongst the first to develop libraries of sound effects and taped music. Valentino was born in the outskirts of Palermo, Sicily; his family i ...

. The "Fifth" in the song's title is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...

, referencing a liquid measure approximately equal to one-fifth of a

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

, a popular size for bottles containing

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

, as well as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony from which the song was adapted. Released as a single by

Private Stock Records Private Stock Records was a record label that operated from 1974 to 1978. The label was founded by Larry Uttal after he was ousted from Bell Records. The label primarily focused on pop music and had numerous hit records, many of them one-hit wo ...

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 RSO Records was a record label formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood and record executive Al Coury in 1973. The letters "RSO" stood for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. RSO managed the careers of several maj ...

for inclusion on the best-selling ''

Saturday Night Fever ''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

. The song is one of Murphy's few Top 40 hits.

Background and recording

In college, Murphy's interests included

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, particularly that which was adapted from

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

, such as "Joy" by

Apollo 100 Apollo 100 was a short-lived British instrumental group, that had a U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 hit with the Johann Sebastian Bach–inspired single "Joy" in 1972. History Apollo 100 was founded by arranger and multi-instrumentalist Tom P ...

and "

A Lover's Concerto "A Lover's Concerto" is a pop song written by American songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, based on the 18th century composition by Christian Petzold, " Minuet in G major", and recorded in 1965 by the Toys. "A Lover's Concerto" sold mo ...

" by

The Toys The Toys were an American pop girl group from Jamaica, New York, which was formed in 1961 and disbanded in 1968. Their most successful recording was "A Lover's Concerto" (1965), which sold more than two million copies and reached the number-tw ...

. Later, in 1976, while writing a disco song for a commercial, a producer suggested the idea of "updating classical music", which "nobody asdone lately". He then recorded a demo tape of five songs—three were ordinary pop songs, while the fourth was a

rendition of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

'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

owner

Larry Uttal Lawrence Uttal (December 2, 1921 – November 25, 1993) was an American music business executive who led the Madison Records, Bell and Private Stock record labels in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in New York City. He joined Bill Buchanan i ...

. 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 Chic (; ), meaning "stylish" or "smart", is an element of fashion. It was originally a French word. Pronounced Chick. Etymology ''Chic'' is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s. Early references in English dictiona ...

). The record was later re-released and credited to "The Walter Murphy Band", then simply to "Walter Murphy".

Reception

"A Fifth of Beethoven" started at number 80 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and 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 Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...

's " Flight of the Bumblebee", titled "Flight '76", reached number 44 on the Hot 100. In addition to ''Saturday Night Fever'', it appears in a heavily edited form in the movie ''

House of Gucci ''House of Gucci'' is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book ''The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed'' by Sara Gay Forden. The film follows Patriz ...

''. It is used as the theme of the TV miniseries

Mrs. America Mrs. America may refer to; * ''Mrs. America'' (miniseries), a 2020 US television mini-series * Mrs. America (contest), a US national beauty pageant See also * '' Mr. and Mrs. America'', a 1945 film * Mr. America (disambiguation) * Miss America ...

In popular culture

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

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifth Of Beethoven, A 1976 singles 1976 songs 1970s instrumentals Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Disco songs Cultural depictions of Ludwig van Beethoven Pop instrumentals Private Stock Records singles Songs from Saturday Night Fever Songs written by Walter Murphy Popular songs based on classical music