“(I’d Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China” is a Frank Loesser tune, originally published in 1948. It has been covered by pop artists ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to Miss Piggy. Today we feature Barry Manilow and Bette Midler in a 2005 performance on The Today Show. The easy rapport resulting from Barry and Bette’s longterm status as accompanist/music director and vocalist/touring artist (respectively) is clearly on display here. The first of two key changes is at 1:40, and it’s even announced!
Author: Mod of the Day
AJR | Weak
AJR is an American pop band led by three brothers, Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met. The New York Post describes the band’s sound as an “electric” mix of “pop, doo-wop, electronic, and dubstep.” In 2019, the band’s third album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 and reached #1 on the Top Rock Albums chart. In an interview with Allaccess.com, the trio said “…our songs might be known, but we are not famous.” The band’s 2016 single, Weak, “came from balancing the need to give into temptation with the importance of staying strong.”
“Weak” features a whole-step key change at 2:56.
Astral Drive | Sing to the World
“SIng to the World” (2019) by Astral Drive is a track from “a long lost album from the 1970s that only existed in (songwriter / performer Phil Thornalley‘s) own mind. A labor of love that is very much the statement of a lifelong music fan living in the modern world,” reports Thornalley’s label, Lojinx.
Along with a sustained career as a sideman and/or producer for bands such as The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs, Duran Duran, and Paul McCartney, Thornalley also co-wrote Natalie Imbruglia‘s smash hit “Torn.”
The tune is based on G major until the bridge shifts us to Bb major at 1:29 before returning to G at 1:51.
On My Way (from “Violet”)
“On My Way” is the opening number of the first show I music directed at my alma mater, St. Olaf College — Jeanine Tesori‘s VIOLET. It sets the stage beautifully for the show, thanks in large part to the key changes! The song starts in F major and modulates to D at 1:42. At 2:30 there is a transitory bridge before a return to D at 2:57, and a final shift up a step to E at 3:32. This recording is from the 2014 Broadway production starring Sutton Foster.
Billy Childs | Twilight Is Upon Us
AllMusic‘s review of Billy Childs‘s album, Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), asserts that the pianist/composer’s “second CD as a leader puts as much emphasis on his composing and arranging talents as his skills as a pianist…It was clear even at this fairly early stage that Billy Childs was on his way to developing an original voice.” Having cut his teeth playing with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard‘s band for half a decade and keeping his varied list of role models in mind, from Herbie Hancock to Maurice Ravel to Keith Emerson, it seems that Childs was on the road to that original voice very early on.
The title track is nothing short of a sonic journey — it clocks in at 8.5 minutes, but is definitely worth the time.
The gentle intro yields to an unsettled, multi-meter, multi-key accompaniment under a plaintive saxophone melody line at 0:59. We’re thrown headlong into a bass-heavy, groove-driven solo section for the sax at 2:32, clearly in 6/4 time. The clearest pivot in tonality arrives at 3:46; from there, the piano solo and rhythm section rebuild gradually. We eventually return to the maelstrom, with Bob Sheppard‘s sax lines navigating skillfully over the turbulent, angular accompaniment.
Sergio Mendes | Never Gonna Let You Go
A weekend bonus mod from MotD fan Christopher Larkosh:
“‘Never Gonna Let You Go'” (1983) marks a moment where Brazilian composer, keyboardist, bandleader, and performer Sergio Mendes, formerly of Brasil 66, can be considered to be fully assimilated into the US musical scene. The song was a smash hit, spending weeks on the charts — which at the time meant Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 and the TV show ‘Solid Gold.'” The Solid Gold Dancers, emblematic of the popular weekly show, apparently took their coffee break during this segment.
This tune’s keys-of-the-moment and modulations are too numerous to track: Exhibit A, the shift from the intro to the first verse (0:23).
EDIT, June 2021:
Rick Beato managed to wrestle the entire tune into submission. What a chart!
The Police | So Lonely
“So Lonely” was the third and final single from The Police‘s debut studio album, Outlandos d’ Amour (1978). Bassist and frontman Sting has this to say about the band’s unique sound:
“People thrashing out three chords didn’t really interest us musically. Reggae was accepted in punk circles and musically more sophisticated, and we could play it, so we veered off in that direction. I mean let’s be honest here, ‘So Lonely’ was unabashedly culled from ‘No Woman No Cry’ by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Same chorus. What we invented was this thing of going back and forth between thrash punk and reggae. That was the little niche we created for ourselves.”
AllMusic adds: “Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-’70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.”
The video features the not-yet-famous UK trio strolling through Hong Kong and riding around on the Tokyo subway. A whole-step modulation hits at 2:04.
The Kooks | Shine On
Our seasoned mod scout JB’s latest contribution: “Shine On,” by UK indie rock band The Kooks, was released in 2008. Deemed a “mid-tempo ’60s-tinged number” by AllMusic, the track reached only #63 in the UK Singles Chart but has nonetheless had plenty of staying power, receiving steady airplay over the years.
Starting in F# major, the tune transitions at the chorus (0:40) to G# major, then pivots back and forth throughout.
Thomas Dolby | Simone
Best known for his 1982 dance/funk mega-hit “She Blinded Me With Science,” Thomas Dolby has continued to make music in the decades since. He was also pivotal in the process of advancing the tech behind cell phone ring tones and is now the Homewood Professor for the Arts at John Hopkins University’s Peabody Recording Arts and Sciences program.
Dolby’s 2011 release, A Map of the Floating City, is a full slate of harmonically wide-ranging tunes which were recorded onboard his solar and wind-powered converted lifeboat studio, The Nutmeg of Consolation, at his North Sea beach house in eastern England. “Simone” unfurls the tale of a trans woman’s romance with Dolby’s usual flare for timelessness. This fan-produced video beautifully captures Dolby’s penchant for a retro (and often retro-futuristic) mood.
Starting in Bb, the tune shifts to Ab minor partway through the chorus (at 1:28). At 1:47, verse 2 is in B major. The pivots continue throughout the tune, with harmonic transitions marking each new form section.
Aretha Franklin | The Dark End of the Street
Q: What do Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Eels, and Cat Power all have in common with Aretha Franklin?
A: They’ve all covered “The Dark End of the Street,” originally recorded by the unfairly overlooked soul singer James Carr in 1967.
Our Twitter follower @bradfarberman submitted Aretha’s 1970 version, which modulates at 2:28; it clearly illustrates why the Queen of Soul won the #1 slot on Rolling Stone‘s “Best Singers of All Time” list.
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