Barney's "Castle So High" chords/tune - what are they reminding me of?

December 21, 2014 7:51 AM

The chorus of Barney's Castle So High, starting around 19 seconds into that video, is giving me a massive dose of "I've heard that tune before!", but I can't put my finger on where. Any ideas? A musical, maybe?
posted by clawsoon to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

War Is Naughty?
posted by flabdablet at 8:38 AM on December 21, 2014

I can't find a good video to link, but it sounds a bit like the "Duff Beer for me! Duff Beer for you!" song from the Simpsons.
posted by rollick at 2:17 PM on December 21, 2014

I found a video of the Duff Beer song here, and that's definitely not it. Duff Beer uses a straightforward, traditional I-IV-V progression. I haven't got the chords for Castle So High completely figured out yet, but the chorus starts with I-VI-IV-V, with the second chord a major instead of the usual minor, a typical "let's make this musical sound more interesting" trick.

War Is Naughty... nope, that's naught it either.
posted by clawsoon at 4:31 PM on December 21, 2014

Ok so this started to annoy me too for a while, but I figured out what it reminded me of (don't know if it will help you though!):

The jingle for Kimberley biscuits

Also speaking of musicals, another suspect I had was The Crime of The Century from Ragtime, but I don't know enough music theory to say if it does the same things as Barney.
posted by rollick at 3:17 PM on December 22, 2014

I promise this will be my last contribution, but I heard this song over the holidays, and think it might be a contender:

Side By Side By Side / What Would We do Without You (from the musical Company, by Stephen Sondheim).
posted by rollick at 8:30 AM on January 2, 2015

The Sondheim is definitely speaking the same musical vocabulary. I haven't heard that particular song before, but I bet it's another Sondheim song. Good sleuthing!
posted by clawsoon at 10:59 AM on January 3, 2015