Eiffel Tower

It's very French! "Eiffel Tower" is a lovely song that has a certain poetry to it, but also gives us facts about the Eiffel Tower, which makes it a perfect cross curricular piece, too. And March 31st is Eiffel Tower Day, so this is a perfect time to celebrate it, though of course you can use it any time it works for you.

On our studio recording we feature a rhythm section with piano, upright bass, drums, and acoustic guitar. Then we added strings, vocals, and a couple passes of accordion. (You knew there had to be an accordion on this, right?) In fact, one accordion plays the melody for your students to follow along, and it is eventually joined by our string section. Suspended cymbal and harp add shimmer to the Parisian vibe. Our studio singers really enjoyed singing this tune, and we think your students will enjoy it, too! We'd like to give special thanks to Steve Potts who was the pianist on this song, and whose improvisation inspired John's orchestration.

A few facts about the Eiffel Tower

It was built by Gustave Eiffel for the World's Fair in 1889, and while he was the principal engineer on the project, he didn't design it. It was designed by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, and architect Stephen Sauvestre. Its current height is 1,083 feet, and at its base it is wider than the length of a football field at 410 feet. Over 18,000 pieces of iron were use to build it, and it has 2.5 million rivets. It took two years, two months and five days to complete.