10 pop songs you didn’t know were inspired by Pachelbel’s Canon

27 January 2026, 17:09

Liam Gallagher performs in front of Pachelbel's Canon in D. Picture: Alamy

By Jacques Richardson

If it ain’t baroque, don’t fix it – if you think all pop music sounds similar, you might be right. But what was the original one-hit wonder?

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German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel was widely popular during his lifetime, seeing success from his many works. He is best known today for the Canon in D, a piece with a chequered past and no consensus on when it was written.

Despite being relatively obscure for centuries, the musical components of the canon have appeared across different genres in popular music.

Here are 10 of the most recognisable pop songs we recommend you check out, to see if you can hear Pachelbel’s iconic music woven in. Beware, you might never be able to listen to pop music in the same way again.

Pachelbel Canon in D Major - the original and best version.

Memories – Maroon 5

Arguably the most recognisable interpolation, the Californian band’s 2019 hit ‘Memories’ takes both harmonic and melodic inspiration from Pachelbel’s Canon. Not content with just sampling the structure, frontman Adam Levine uses the first seven notes of the violin line as the basis for his vocal melody. The song continues to create variations on the melody with later sequences.
The parallels to Pachelbel evoke the reflective themes of the song. In 2017, Levine tweeted that “this song is for anyone who has ever experienced loss”, as a result of their band manager’s death. ‘Memories’ peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Maroon 5 - Memories (Official Video)
C U When U Get There – Coolio

Been spending most our lives, living in Pachelbel’s Paradise...
Featured on the soundtrack for the 1997 comedy Nothing to Lose, this Coolio and 40 Thevz song opens with a straight sample of the Canon, before a record scratch introduces the smooth synths and beats popular in 90s hip-hop. Rapping over the classical chord progression, Coolio reflects on the personal losses he witnessed to street violence while seeking hope amid hardship. Released as the first single for his third album, it was Coolio’s last Top 40 hit in the US.

Coolio - C U When U Get There (feat. 40 Thevz) [Official Music Video]
Basket Case – Green Day

Green Day made a big splash in the punk-rock scene in 1994 with the release of their third studio album, Dookie. Packed with frantic, passionate songs, the album became an instant classic and proved the genre still had staying power. The third single, ‘Basket Case’ tackles themes of anxiety and explores lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong’s panic disorder diagnosis. The crunchy, distorted guitar riff closely mirrors the same chord progression as Pachelbel’s Canon, before an explosion of thumping drums and bass brings in the chorus.
The lead singer later admitted that he wrote the song under the influence – which can’t be said for Pachelbel...

Green Day - Basket Case [Official Music Video] (4K Upgrade)
I Should Be So Lucky – Kylie Minogue

In 1987, the Aussie pop star travelled to London to work with writer-producers Stock Aitken Waterman. However, they didn’t know who she was and had forgotten she was coming, so scrambled to produce a quick hit. 40 minutes later, ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ was born and Kylie was in the studio ready to record. While Kylie left feeling a bit disillusioned, when the song was eventually mixed and completed, it went to No.1 for five weeks.
Pete Waterman, one third of the producer trio, later remarked that the song was inspired by Pachelbel’s Canon, which was refuted by his peers in a podcast. Both pieces follow the same harmonic structure, and with the lack of prep time it’s not hard to believe some artistic borrowing was employed.

Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky - Official Video
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

American rock band My Chemical Romance created a fusion of classical and pop-punk music for their 2006 concept album.
Very few piano riffs are as recognisable as the opening bars of ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’, and we have Pachelbel in part, to thank. The song is so similar to the Canon, that you can play the cello line from Canon in D with the song’s melody. Many songs follow the Pachelbel chord progression, but this a little more closely than most.
Read more: How Pachelbel’s Canon become the most popular wedding song

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade [Official Music Video] [HD]
One Day More – Les Misérables

Pachelbel’s Canon remained in relative obscurity until French conductor Jean-François Paillard recorded it in 1968. And eight years later, it influenced one of France’s biggest musicals, Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables. Pachelbel’s Canon is knitted into many of the musical’s most popular songs, from ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ to the powerful ‘One Day More’, in which all the musical’s leitmotifs come together in one glorious chorus number.
Read more: Family sings epic ‘One Day More’ in Les Misérables living room karaoke

One Day More | Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary | TUNE
No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley

From Germany to Jamaica, as Pachelbel’s influence spreads to the musical genre of reggae. Bob Marley is believed to have written the melody of the song, while collaborating with his friend Vincent Ford for the lyrics. The song has become a massive success and has even been covered by many other notable artists like the Fugees. The music follows the same chord progression of Pachelbel’s Canon and beautifully captures the flow of the original.

Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry (Official Video)
Sk8er Boi – Avril Lavigne

According to Avril Lavigne’s producer, they wanted to come up with the most stupid opening line for a song ever. And they just so happened to pair it with one of the most enduring pieces of classical music ever.
‘Sk8er Boi’ was the second single from Lavigne’s debut album Let Go. After a year at her record label with no successes, the singer’s team discovered that she was eager to write punk-rock music and so pivoted the direction of the album. The distorted guitars, playful lyrics and tight drums landed Lavigne a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Performance. Despite the genre shift to punk rock, the chords found influence from much further back as it follows the same progression as Canon in D.

Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi (Official Video)
Don’t Look Back in Anger – Oasis

Pachelbel goes supersonic! The opening piano solo in Oasis’ chart-topping hit ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ strongly resembles another classic piano-led song: ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. The Gallagher brothers commented on the likeness in true Gallagher style, saying: “Fifty percent of it’s put in there to wind people up”. But the chord progression of both songs almost strictly follows the same as Pachelbel’s Canon, bar the final chord. They later said they used the piano riff from ‘Imagine’ based on an idea that a 13-year-old might read an interview about the song’s similarities and go buy Lennon’s album.

Oasis - Don’t Look Back In Anger
Let It Be – The Beatles

It wasn’t just John Lennon who found musical inspiration from Johann Pachelbel. In fact, a year earlier, Paul McCartney used the chords for ‘Let It Be’. However, the origins of the song’s inception are contested. If you ask McCartney, he says the idea came from a dream about his late mother. He recounts that his mother spoke the words “let it be” to him and he instantly heard the tune in his head. However, The Beatles’ road manager Malcolm Evans suggested that the song was conceived after Paul had suffered visions in India.
McCartney has written his own oratarios and choral works, and has been open about classical music’s influence on his pop songwriting. Most famously, his song ‘Blackbird’ was inspired by J.S. Bach’s classical lute piece, Bourrée in E minor. It adds up that Pachelbel’s Canon might have been in his mind during the conception of the song.

Read more: 15 pop songs you didn’t know were inspired by J.S. Bach

The Beatles - The Beatles - Let It Be (Official Music Video) [Remastered 2015]

Pachelbel’s Canon has buried itself into the musical structure of so many pop songs and will continue to do so. Many artists influenced by the piece have expressed their admiration for the original and are proud to spread awareness of the classical piece to a contemporary audience.