Author: Mod of the Day

Hall + Oates | Ooh Child

“Ooh Child” was originally released as a single in 1970 by Five Stairsteps. The song’s uplifting, hopeful message led to its ranking of #402 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Performed here by Hall & Oates for their 2004 release, Our Kind of Soul, the verses and chorus modulate back and forth throughout.

Red Velvet | One of These Nights

Rising K-Pop stars 레드벨벳 (Red Velvet) are best known for up-tempo dance tracks, but their 2016 R&B-style ballad release “One of These Nights” shows an entirely different side of the vocal quintet. A persistent theory among the group’s fans is that the video’s somber mood and multiple references to water, small life boats, flickering lighting, etc. symbolize a memorial to the victims of the South Korean Sewol ferry tragedy of 2014. The Sewol sank suddenly, killing hundreds of passengers, most of whom were high school students.

The tune is full of modulations, further enhanced by a huge harmonic vocabulary. After the string intro, the verse begins at 0:14, loosely based around G minor; at 1:05, the chorus begins with a devastating downwards modulation to F# minor. The pattern holds for verse 2 and chorus 2. Finally, a bridge shifts briefly to a sunny G major at 3:06, but at 3:20, just where we’d expect a cliche upwards modulation by half-step, we instead get a 4-second pause before falling back down into the plaintive F# minor chorus. The group’s occasional mixing of English with Korean lyrics only adds to the affecting intrigue.

Kenny Barron | Have You Met Miss Jones

“Have You Met Miss Jones,” an enduring jazz standard, originated in the score of the 1937 musical I’d Rather Be Right, composed by the legendary songwriting team of Rogers and Hart. The tune is a part of the discographies of jazz artists including Stan Getz, Ahmad Jamal, Art Tatum, Kenny Barron (whose live performance we’re featuring), and many others.

The middle eight section of the tune (first heard at 0:17 – 0:25) features several modulations, departing from the overall key throughout.

Brent Bourgeois | Dare to Fall In Love

Vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter Brent Bourgeois released “Dare to Fall In Love” in 1990 as the single from his first solo album after leaving the band he co-fronted during the late 80s, Bourgeois Tagg. The lushly produced track builds to a modulation at the start of the bridge (2:36), remaining in the new key throughout the return of the chorus (3:03) and the remainder of the tune.

Bourgeois remembers the tune’s origins well: “I didn’t want my record company to hear it, because it was very ‘pop,’ very commercial, and didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the record. I was afraid if they heard it, they would want to make it the single, and the record would be misrepresented to the public. Well, they heard it, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Average White Band | Schoolboy Crush

Chalk up another mod contribution for JB: “Schoolboy Crush” was a 1975 hit single for Scottish funk stalwarts Average White Band, reaching top 30 on the US pop and R&B charts. The album which featured the track, Cut the Cake, gained ongoing fame when it scored positions of #4 (Pop) and #1 (R&B) on the year-end album charts. The tune has enjoyed a renewed lease on life through extensive sampling by hiphop artists from TLC to Floetry to Eric b and Rakim to NAS.

Starting in E minor, the tune has a tritone shift to Bb minor at 1:17, then G minor at 1:40 and back to E minor.

Lisa Stansfield | All Around the World

UK pop/soul chanteuse Lisa Stansfield‘s career breakthrough was the smash 1989 hit “All Around the World.” The short intro ends by winding into the song’s sole modulation: a string-heavy compound chord which rings out in a crescendo from 0:14 – 0:18 leading into the first verse. The tune is driven by compound chords throughout and plenty of melodic tensions during the chorus.

Jacob Collier | Moon River

Jacob Collier‘s newest release is an arrangement of “Moon River,” written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer in 1960 — it will blow your mind. Starting in Bb, it modulates to Db at 3:48, then to D at 4:34. After a long, winding transition, we end up in Eb at 5:55, and go in many different directions from there before ultimately landing on a…C major chord. 🤯 There is no one like this guy, and this might be his most epic masterpiece yet.

UPDATE | April 12, 2020:

This update isn’t strictly a modulation, but in this 90-minute video Collier breaks down, in granular detail, how he put together the arrangement. It is staggering, and includes a fascinating discussion of harmony.

The Beach Boys | I Get Around

The Beach Boys‘ first charting single, 1964’s “I Get Around,” was co-written by band members Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Starting in G major, the tune transitions to Ab major at 1:06.

Rolling Stone magazine’s Anthony DeCurtis praised Wilson’s tendency to be “very complex and have every single thing you do have an emotional impact, and have the hearer not even be aware of it — just hear it the first time and get it. That’s hard.”

Natalie Cole | I Miss You Like Crazy

Usually, modulations tend to happen closer to a tune’s end than the beginning, but seven-time Grammy winner Natalie Cole’s “Miss You Like Crazy” (1989) breaks that trend. The track became a huge hit in the US, Canada, and Europe.

“‘So many things have happened in my life,'” Cole reflected on her father Nat King Cole’s death when she was only 15. “‘But the death of my father remains the most painful.'” (Billboard). “‘I adored him in a way that only a teenager girl can adore her dad. When he died, I fell apart. For years, I ran from his memory. I even ran from his music. When I inadvertently stumbled into a career, I was thrilled to learn that I could sing rhythm and blues. I loved singing soul. But it wasn’t until I found the courage to sing the music associated with my father that I found my deepest peace and greatest satisfaction. The fact that even in Dad’s death we have grown closer brings me a beautiful comfort. It makes me think we ascribe too much severity to death. Spirit doesn’t die. Music doesn’t die. And the love that links spirit to music knows nothing about death. That spirit, that music, that love is eternal.’”

This power ballad modulates multiple times starting nearly right out of the gate (0:42) and continues with other shifts. At 2:18, the key locks in at the bridge and remains the same for the duration.