Telstar — The Tornadoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ybCjf6ras

Telstar, I am told, was one of the most famous songs of the early '60s, helping to define the British Invasion. They used to play it on TV and radio for interstitials, as the closing credits for a number of programs. Listening to it now, nearly... oh, god, fifty years later!, it's clear that the genre of instrumental semi-orchestral rock hasn't really changed all that much. It sounds distinctly nostalgic, but only because our definition of nostalgia is defined around the old timbres of music.

The rhythm guitarist for The Tornadoes, George Bellamy, is the father of Matthew Bellamy, who is the frontman of modern British rock group Muse, who are famous for their — wait for it — semi-orchestral rock.

Now listen to Muse's Knights of Cydonia in a new context: not only that of a direct thematic derivative, but of a literal blood descendant.