Waterman plundered classical music for his hits

Pete Waterman says he swiped many of his biggest hits from classical tunes, including Kylie Minogue's I Should Be So Lucky.

He pointed out that he was far from alone in plundering the classical vaults to find inspiration for his cheesy pop hits, citing The Beatles, Barry Manilow and The Farm as other culprits.

Waterman told the BBC he had lifted elements of Wagner's compositions around 20 times over the years, but added: "If I'm good at what I do, you shouldn't be able to hear where I've taken it from."

The Minogue track which launched her career was filched from Pachelbel's Canon, while Dead Or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) borrows from The Ride Of The Valkyries, said songwriter and producer Waterman - currently a judge on the Popstars: The Rivals programme.

And he said Last Thing On My Mind by Steps took its unlikely musical inspiration from Mozart.

"I think classical music has had an amazing influence on pop, although at the moment American R&B and rap artists have forced all the tunes out. But pop will come back to classical music.

"There's Pachelbel's Canon which is almost the godfather of pop music because we've all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years.

"The Farm used it for All Together Now and we used it for I Should Be So Lucky by Kylie. Then you've got Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum which is Bach's Air On The G String, while Could It Be Magic by Barry Manilow is of course Chopin's Prelude in C Minor.

"For people like myself, The Beatles and Burt Bacharach, the tune was always the most important thing. If you look at the greatest pop writers, you'll always be able to spot the classical influence," he told the November issue of the magazine.

Waterman, a major influence in pop for two decades, accused Alicia Keys of using Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on her track Piano & I.