Miguel Rios

The year 1970 was the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Miguel Rios created the first rock version of a classical song with his 1970 'Ode to Joy' from the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Rios recorded the song in English, Italian and Spanish.

A&M Records signed Rios for the U.S. Canada, Australia, England, the Far East and Scandinavia. A&M Records of Canada broke the single "A Song of Joy" in Canada and Detroit, Michigan. At the time, record labels in Canada had a difficult time breaking records because radio station music directors used the U.S. music charts as a guide to programming. A&M vice president of international Dave Hubert heard the recording while working on the creation of A&M Records Ltd. in England. Hubert played the song for Liam Mullan of A&M Records Canada. Mullan pushed the song with Canada's president Gerry Lacoursiere. They got all of the largest radio stations in Toronto to play the song. That generated 35,000 singles sold for the song and interest in it spread across Canada. As the record broke in Canada, Rios flew in for radio station interviews across Canada. 

Rios was signed to Hispavox, S.A. of Madrid Spain (part of United Artists Music Group) and A&M in the U.S. obtained the rights from United. Time magazine reported, "At first," says one company executive, "no one exactly went wild over it. But we kept listening, and we realized we had something very special." A&M in the U.S. rush-released the album in July 1970 because of the success of the single.

In 1970, the single "A Song of Joy" was ranked as the #29 Top Single in Australia.

On March 27, 1971, Billboard reported that "A Song of Joy" had sold over three million copies worldwide. Eventually the song sold over four million copies. It sold over one million copies in Germany.