Ave Maria by Vladimir Vavilov
( misattributed to Giulio Caccini).

Ave Maria is usually attributed to Giulio Caccini. It is the biggest musical hoax. Actually it was composed and first performed by Russian guitarist, lutenist and composer Vladimir Vavilov (1925-1973).  In 1970 Vavilov recorded and publish this song on the album “Lute Music of the XVI-XVII centuries” on the Russian Melodia label with  the  song attribution to “Anonymous”.

Almost all songs on this album were composed by Vladimir Vavilov and ascribed to composers of Baroque era. The reason for such a hoax was banal. At that time it was impossible to imagine that the major Russian label will release the music of unknown soviet composer. As Vavilove’s  daughter Tamara mentioned "My father was convinced that the self-taught works of unknown composer with a trivial name "Vavilov" will  never be published. But he really wanted his music reached the audience and he went so far as to give all the glory to the medieval composers and "unknown authors."

For the first time the "authorship"of Caccini appeared on the record of Irina Bogacheva in 1975, released by the same Melody label. But the world wide success the song got after Irina Arkchipova performed and released the song on the album “Ave Maria” in 1987. Then this song was performed by numerous artists including Inessa Galante, Charlotte Church, Andrea Bocelli, Hayley Westenra and many more.