Fanfare for the Common Man, by Aaron Copland, was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens. During World War I he had asked British composers for a fanfare to begin each orchestral concert. It had been so successful that he thought to repeat the procedure in World War II with American composers. A total of 18 fanfares were written at Goossens' behest, but Copland's is the only one which remains in the standard repertoire. It was written in response to the US entry into the Second World War and was inspired in part by a famous 1942 speech where vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the "Century of the Common Man".

Although Copland was far from a conservative, much of his music was. This piece is one of his most famous pieces. It is performed here in a stirring performance by NWYSO, a youth symphony who gives it their all.

Copland's fanfare was used in 1977 by British rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer on the album Works Volume 1. It became one of the band's biggest hits when an edited version was released as a single that year. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK. Keith Emerson had long been an admirer of Copland's Americana style, previously using Copland's Hoedown on the band's Trilogy album in 1972.