It's not so uncommon for the more astute rock bands to take a riff from a jazz artist and fashion a new song out of it. When the Byrds did "Eight Miles High" the opening lead guitar riff was lifted from a Coltrane sax solo.
With classical, it's a bit different. They take the entire melody and add words and an updated format to it. "Lover's Concerto" done by both the Toys and the Supremes is a straight-up rip-off of a Bach minuet. Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" was a total rip-off of Rachmaninoff.
Two songs I utterly hate that are clones are that Josh Groban "You Lift Me Up" song (don't know the actual title and don't want to) and that "Wind Beneath My Wings" song every singer does when they perform in front of soldiers or marines or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I'm a vet myself, I just hate both songs and all the more because they are clones.
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