Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Evening Groove / Three Tune Tuesday post.

As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.

I'm trying to shake things up lately and doing something different from Japanese jazz every other week. Last week I did Japanese jazz, so that means this week is an off-week.

Usually my son watches Japanese cartoons, but the other day he was watching Looney Tunes shorts on YouTube. He watched two in a row that featured classical music. That gave me an idea to write about it for Three Tunes Tuesday.

I think for many people, Looney Tunes was probably their introduction to classical music. As kids, music is just music and none of us would have realized it was more famous than the cartoons we were watching, but later in life when we heard the classical song, we immediately recognized it and it called to mind the cartoon we used to live as a kid.

This is of course true well beyond cartoons. At least half the Baby Boomers probably still immediately think of the Lone Ranger when they hear the William Tell Overture. But for this post I want to just focus on a few from Looney Tunes.

The Barber of Seville Overture by Gioachino Rossini

This is one my son was watching the other day. It also was one of my favorites when I was a kid. The short is The Rabbit of Seville and features Elmer chasing Bugs around a theater that is performing Rossini's piece.

Warner Brothers is pretty active in taking down full episodes of Looney Tunes that appear on YouTube, but I found one that seems to have evaded the copyright bot by making it black and white. Watch it while it lasts!

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt

When I think of classical music in Looney Tunes, this is the top one that immediately comes to mind. I remember Tom and Jerry did it as well, but it is the Looney Tunes version that I loved the most as a kid.

The Looney Tunes episode was Rhapsody Rabbit. Here it is:

Come to think of it, I wonder if this short stole from Tom & Jerry because it's very uncharacteristic of Bugs to be chasing after a mouse and to be defeated. Hmm.. At any rate, a lot of fun and a great exposure to a good piece of music.

Frühlingsstimmen, Op. 410 by Johann Strauss

You probably don't recognize that name, but you will immediately recognize the song. This is featured in a great many cartoons, usually whenever some one is dancing. It's such a joyful waltz, so one can understand the connection.

The one that I remember it most from is when Bugs is fighting the boxer. I had to look up the episode name, it's Rabbit Punch. I couldn't find the full episode, but here's a clip:

Bonus: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Der Fliegende Holländer, and Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner

Anyone who knows Looney Tunes knows what short I'm referring to. This in fact may be the most memorable Looney Tunes short of them all. It is rated by animators to be one of the best cartoons ever and has even been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

It is What's Opera, Doc, featuring Elmer chasing Bugs with the help of his magic helmet. These operas are all way too long to put embeds here, but I encourage you to look them up on YouTube. I did, however, find the full Looney Tunes short on Vimeo. Watch it quick before it's taken down!

What's Opera Doc from 2K HistoryClips on Vimeo.

So what's your favorite?

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org.