“Each member of Toto played a part in bringing ‘Rosanna’ to fruition. Vocalist Bobby Kimball and guitarist Steve Lukather transposed the musical key so the verse and chorus could be traded between them as a duet,” (LouderSound). “(Keyboardists) Steve Porcaro and David Paich ironed out the keyboard solo at five o’clock in the morning. Late drummer Jeff Porcaro laid down a masterful shuffle inspired by John Bonham.
‘Jeff was really into Led Zeppelin,’ Lukather told Classic Rock, ‘and for ‘Rosanna’ he morphed ‘Fool In the Rain’ [from Zep’s 1979 album In Through The Out Door] with a Bernard Purdie drum groove [a renowned session drummer, Purdie invented the Purdie Shuffle]. And we took it from there.’ As former session musicians to a man, it was little surprise that Toto bottled ‘Rosanna’ fast in the studio. ‘In one afternoon we did the basic rhythm track,’ Lukather said. ‘And that first guitar solo was made up on the spot the first time we played it.'”
All the hard work certainly paid off: upon its release in the summer of 1982, the track reached US #2 and UK #12. Starting in G major, the key shifts down to F major for the second half of the verse. But the downward motion in key is muted by a rising melodic range (up a minor seventh) as the lead vocal shifts from Lukather to Kimball at 0:36.
Melanie Safka was only 22 when she performed at Woodstock. Prior to that appearance, the largest audiences she had faced were the intimate crowds at Greenwich Village folk clubs such as Café Wha? and the Bitter End.
Her appearance at the festival was basically a fluke. The Woodstock organizers had an office in the same NYC building as Melanie’s manager, Peter Schekeryk (who would ultimately marry Melanie). Very early in the planning process, before the organizers had lined up some of the major acts who ultimately performed at Woodstock, Peter asked them whether Melanie could appear at the festival, and they essentially said “sure, whatever”. Given all the chaotic, last minute changes to the running order, it was not clear that Melanie would even get a shot at performing. But on the first night of the festival, the storm rolled in, and the Incredible String Band and several other artists refused to go on in the inclement weather. As a solo act with only an acoustic guitar, Melanie was an easy setup, so she was thrust onstage on very short warning. She didn’t even have a prepared set-list; instead, she apparently played every song she knew that night.
Melanie has described herself as so terrified that she basically had an out-of-body experience as she took the stage and confronted a half million people, arrayed on the hillside before her. But unbeknownst to her, the Hog Farm (the informal “Please Force” for the concert) had been passing out candles to the audience, in an attempt to keep spirits up during the rainstorm. The audience started lighting their candles as Melanie’s performance progressed, and something about that connection with the audience transported her an almost fugue-like state for the balance of her performance. Years later, when she saw some archival footage of her performance, Melanie was shocked by how long she had been onstage. Although Melanie wrote “Lay Down” soon after Woodstock, it wasn’t released until 1970.
Melanie’s Woodstock performance was the first widespread example of a concert audience lighting candles en masse, a tradition that has been passed down from Bic lighters to iPhones.
The first 1:48 of the recording is a spoken-word prologue, describing the Woodstock candles-in-the-rain experience. [On the single, the “Candles” portion was released as the B-side, which was an interesting A&R decision, if nothing else].
The song proper finally commences after two minutes, with a dramatic cold open by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, belting out the chorus. Melanie then sings the much quieter, folkier verse alone. This gospel/folk alternation continues for the rest of the song, with a dynamic range that prefigures the standard grunge template of two decades later. The song ends with an extended gospel outro, loosely organized around call/response and an improvised vocal vamp.
The outro [which was omitted from both the single and the LP, but is captured in the 9-minute master being discussed here] has its own fascinating back-story: Apparently, the entire vocal track was recorded in a single take! The choir had rehearsed a much shorter outro, but during their first take in the studio, the producer was so pleased with the vamp that the singers had settled into that he kept signalling for another go-round. A careful listener will hear several junctures [5:45, 6:05, 6:15, 6:46, 7:10, etc.] where Melanie and/or the choir subtly fumble the call/response handoff before recovering on the fly. Improvisation like this from a 40-voice SATB choir was possible only because the singers had spent countless hours in live worship settings following Edwin Hawkins (who played piano on the take) as he arranged on the fly.
The chorus (1:48) is in G major, with a strong mixolydian skew due to the bVII -> I backdoor cadence. The verse (2:12) is in E Aeolian, and the bridge (3:07) is in E Dorian.
For many more stories about this amazing recording – including how the 9-minute version saved a helicopter crew during the Vietnam War – check out Sam Tweedle’s detailed history.
“One of the defining figures of mid-’80s synth pop, Howard Jones merged the technology-intensive sound of new wave with the cheery optimism of hippies and late-’60s pop … (The UK’s) Jones released his first single, ‘New Song,’ in England in the fall of 1983 and it became a big hit, peaking at number three,” (100PercentRock). “His second single, ‘What Is Love,’ was released a few months later and it reached number two. Humans Lib, Jones’ debut album, was released in the spring of 1984 and quickly rose to number one in England. Thanks to repeated exposure on MTV, the album became a moderate hit in the U.S. Later in 1984, ‘New Song’ and ‘What Is Love’ became American Top 40 hits, while ‘Pearl in the Shell’ became his third British Top Ten single.
In 1985, Jones … formed a touring band and released his second album, Dream Into Action. The record became his most successful, reaching number ten and going platinum in the U.S., spawning the hit singles ‘Things Can Only Get Better,’ ‘Like to Get to Know You Well,’ ‘Life in One Day,’ and ‘Look Mama.'” He’s continued releasing albums ever since, the most recent being Transform in 2019.
“City Song” is the album-closing track from Jones’ 1992 album In the Running. Starting with a desolate synthesized drone in Ab minor, the tune’s groove kicks in for the second section of the intro at the 1:00 mark, followed by the verse’s vocal at 1:41. At the 2:00 mark, a pre-chorus in B minor enters before a return to the original key for the next verse. The D minor chorus finally arrives at 3:03. The pattern continues from there — until 4:44, when C# minor is in effect for the bridge. The key changes are so frequent that the focus remains instead on Jones’ melodies and lyrics. Characteristically, Jones focuses on humanity writ large and the possibility of its betterment: What is it about this city, that brings us all to life / Ten millions souls vibrating / They’re shimmering in the night.
“Classic rock is known for having subversive songs, dealing with taboo topics. So, it’s not all that surprising to learn that quite a few tunes from the genre were not allowed on radio stations at one time or another,” (Yahoo) ” … Far Out ranked The Beatles’ 1967 song, ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,’ as the best classic rock song ‘banned from radio.’ According to the publication, the John Lennon-penned hit, off the acclaimed record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was deemed not radio-friendly because of its initials. The official Beatles website reported that ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ was prohibited by the BBC due to theories that it was inspired by LSD. Far Out reported that Lennon stated the rumors were untrue.”
“… the Faberge psychedelic egg that was finally laid on the eve of the Summer of Love came so fully-realised that it changed the way we listened to recorded sound forever,” (BBC). “Sgt Pepper’s is at once warm and familiar, yet wild and strange … Yet what was revolutionary was the sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms.”
After the tune starts in A major, there’s a shift to Bb major for the pre-chorus at 0:32. At the 0:50 mark, the G major chorus begins, built around a repeated I-IV-V chord progression. At 1:08, the pattern repeats.
Lou Johnson’s “magical 60s Big Top recordings have long been regarded as a template for classic uptown soul and those who own any Johnson singles know they own real treasure … Raised as a gospel singer, Lou’s greatest vocal quality was honesty,” (Soul + Jazz + Funk). “Within a few bars he could go from raw power to vulnerable tenderness and always sound convincing. He was also an accomplished piano player.
Big Top Records also ensured that their man was only given the very best songs to record. The company’s HQ was in New York’s famed Brill Building – home to the city’s songwriting community. People like Bacharach and David were regularly offering Big Top their new songs. Lou Johnson recorded seven Bacharach songs (‘Message To Martha’, ‘Reach Out For Me’, ‘The Last One To Be Loved’ ,’Always Something There To Remind Me’, ‘Magic Potion,’ and ‘If I Never Get To Love You’). Johnson’s best known UK outing (is) the Northern fave, ‘Unsatisfied’ … The big question, of course, is why such outstanding music didn’t make Johnson a star … “
“Unsatisfied” (1965) opens with a bang, driven by an infectious groove. Supported by a boisterous percussion section, brass, and a confident group of female backup singers, Johnson romps through the syncopated lead vocals. At 1:23, the key shifts up by a half step in advance of an interlude and then the return of the lead vocal.
After the popularity of disco waned, so did album sales for the Bee Gees — widely considered standard bearers for genre. “… And yet Bee Gees songs still hit huge in the US (in the early 1980s); they just did it without the words ‘Bee Gees’ on the record cover,” (Stereogum). “Consider Barbra Streisand’s 1980 LP Guilty. Barry Gibb produced the album with his regular Bee Gees collaborators Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten. Gibb also wrote or co-wrote every song on the LP. He sang, played guitar, and did the horn and string arrangements on Guilty. Guilty was basically a Bee Gees album, except with Barbra Streisand singing lead … On Guilty, the ballads dominate. ‘Woman in Love,’ the biggest hit from Guilty, is an extremely Bee Gees song, and yet nobody would confuse it with disco.
… Multi-tracking his own voice, Barry Gibb does the backing vocals, echoing the song’s central melody and anchoring it so that Streisand can sing all her showiest runs. Gibb and Streisand recorded the song in Miami with an elite squad of session musicians, and it sounds lush and clean and expensive. Strings and horns hum to each other. Electric pianos glow. The heavily processed guitars murmur fancily. On the chorus, the echo on Gibb’s voice is immaculate, and Streisand holds notes for absurd lengths of time. It’s terribly dramatic, in a good way. ‘Woman in Love’ (was) Streisand’s fifth and final #1 hit.”
After a few verses and choruses in Eb minor, 3:03 brings a shift up to E major for a final chorus. Streisand’s famously strong belt takes top billing here, well above melody, lyric, arrangement, etc.!
“It’s humorous to see what experts in the music world thought was the location of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘My Little Town,’ the duo’s final Top 10 Columbia Records single,” (Viera Voice). “On October 18, 1975, Simon hosted the second broadcast of Saturday Night Live. In doing so, he brought on his former partner. They sang three songs together, including a new Simon composition called ‘My Little Town” … the fun began when people began to opine exactly where they thought that little town was.
In his book Paul Simon: A Life, writer Marc Eliot proclaims that ‘My Little Town’ is ‘clearly Queens, and all the references to schoolbooks, saluting the flag and so on appear to be symbols of nostalgia for the days of Tom and Jerry as much as for the years of Simon and Garfunkel.’ Not so, counters music critic Dave Marsh, the author of The Heart of Rock and Soul. ‘(It’s) a portrait of the middle-class Forest Hills, NY neighborhood where Simon and Garfunkel grew up.’
… In a (1980s) interview with Bill Flanagan for his book Written in My Soul: Conversations with Great Songwriters, Simon admitted, ‘I was picturing a town. I was thinking about Gloucester, Massachusetts. A friend of mine comes from Gloucester, and he used to talk about what it was like to grow up there … . That song was entirely an act of imagination. … There’s no element of me in there at all.'”
Starting in E major, the tune then briskly parades through many keys; at the 1:14 mark, D major is a resting point for awhile. After an interlude, the tonality shifts to B minor at 2:05 for the woeful mantra “Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town.” 2:23 brings another multi-key tour before B minor and the mantra return — this time accompanied by the intensity of a full horn section even as the tune fades.
“Nascimento is one of a handful of Brazilian artists — think Carmen Miranda, Caetano Veloso, João Gilberto — to break through the Portuguese language barrier to gain some renown in the English-speaking world. Jazzers (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock) and pop musicians (Paul Simon, Sting, David Byrne) sing his praises,” (Brazil Blog). “American record companies distribute his albums. Anglophone critics put his stuff on best-of lists.
Although born in Rio de Janeiro, Nascimento moved to Três Pontas as a child after his mother died and the couple who adopted him relocated to the Minas Gerais city. They were involved in the music world there, and Nascimento was set on his path. He recorded his first song in 1962, worked with people in the Belo Horizonte scene and then debuted his first album in 1967 just as bossa nova was transmutating into MBP (musica popular brasileira) and tropicália was being born.” Nascimento’s emergence on the music scene during this post-bossa musical transition gives his music its utterly distinctive sound.
Released on Nascimento’s 1988 album Miltons, “Don Quixote” is built primarily in a slightly up-tuned E minor. At the 3:40 mark, a shift to F minor (as well as a change from Nascimento’s solo vocals to a small vocal ensemble sound) bring a welcome renewed energy, fueling a track with a run time of over six minutes.
Dana Valery was ahead of her time. She released her cover of Simon + Garfunkel’s “You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies” a half-year before their own version was released as the B-side to “Fakin’ It” in July 1967. There’s even a snippet of Paul Simon speaking on the recording (at 0:39). Her version is a banger!
She was born in Italy, and moved with her family to South Africa at an early age. Her brother was the famous tenor Sergio Franchi. While she recorded mostly in English, her discography includes 1963’s All’Italiana and two EPs of Italian material released in South Africa. Valery was a member of the original South African cast of the musical Wait a Minim; she later reprised her role with the London and Broadway productions of that play.
The sonic palette of this track is so expansive that it’s hard to believe its runtime is only 2:13 long! The groove of Valery’s cover version is stronger, the textures more saturated, and the tempo is faster than the original (which we’re including below). The cover’s key change is at 1:34.
Ray Charles and Willie Nelson’s duet “’Seven Spanish Angels’ showcases the vocal strengths of both artists … allowing the lyric and the singers to shine,” (Country Universe). Written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, the tune was released in 1985. “… Charles and Nelson deliver this song with the reverence and empathy that it deserves. It feels like the best music often comes from storytelling like this, where characters with such different lives than us listeners can imagine have their stories told with humanity.”
“It was released in November 1984 as a single from Charles’ 1984 album Friendship,” (The Billboard Book of Country Hits). “Charles and Nelson split the verses, with Charles singing the first and Nelson the second, Charles sang the first and second choruses with Nelson joining for the outro. It was also included on Nelson’s 1985 compilation album Half Nelson. ‘Seven Spanish Angels’ was the most successful of Charles’ eight hits on the country chart. The single spent one week at number one and a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.”
Willie’s clipped delivery provides contrast with Ray’s lyrical phrasing. The two vocalists have a similar range, but the overarching difference in timbre between their two instantly recognizable voices is one of this version’s more noticeable features. At 2:58, the key moves up a half step for the final few verses.
