Cody Fry shares his ambitious cover of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” along with an accompanying ‘score video.’ The track features Fry’s patented live orchestral touch, arranged with a 60-piece orchestra as well as a nearly 400-person choir made up of his fans who submitted audio files from all over the world.
Watch the score video for “Eleanor Rigby” HERE
Stream/Purchase "Eleanor Rigby" HERE
Building on what George Martin accomplished with The Beatles, Fry’s version of “Eleanor Rigby” was inspired by the pandemic, amplifying the original to ecstatic heights, driven by the notion of “all the lonely people,” and the fear and dread of living in a dying town or not fitting in. “It’s almost like a ‘Fantasia’ version of the song, especially the outro, where the melody is trying to find its place in the chord changes, but never really does,” explains Fry. “Things feel a little topsy-turvy, and the tension just keeps ratcheting up. That’s such a rich song. There’s so much going on in it.”
One of the most evident examples of Fry’s love for orchestral music can be found at the very end of his 2017 album Flying, on the aptly titled track “I Hear A Symphony,” which Fry began noticing unusual Spotify activity on earlier this year with its streams climbing incrementally, eventually hitting a peak of 400,000 streams per day. Going down the internet rabbit hole, he discovered some comments on his YouTube videos that led him to TikTok, where “I Hear a Symphony” had been adopted, first by a K-Pop fan community, then by anime aficionados, who used the song in their video montages – more than 45,000 of them, representing millions of streams. That activity has spurred his four-year-old album Flying to garner over 50 million streams and counting.
That has earned Cody the luxury to choose his own creative path, and the result is a new record of fully arranged covers and originals recorded with a 60-piece orchestra, which Cody is excited to start unveiling.
“I’ve run the gamut of emotions, from confusion to thunderstruck excitement to the fear of how long will this last?” admits the Chicago-raised Fry, following in the footsteps of his father, Gary Fry, a successful commercial jingle writer turned symphonic composer who writes for orchestras around the world, and conducts on his son’s two live videos. “This has totally changed my life. It’s allowed me to say no to things I don’t want to do and be able to pursue what I do.”
Although major record labels came calling following his viral success, Cody has decided to remain independent for the time being. “I didn’t feel right about the offers,” he says. “I wanted to see what I could do on my own now that I can support myself this way. Even though record companies can add tremendous value, it was too tantalizing for me to be able to make the music I wanted, without any outside interference.”
