“Couch injects each project with their signature flavor: expressive horns, warm vocals, and bubbling synths—crafting an oasis of joy for musicians and non-musicians alike, ” reads the description of the 7 piece Boston-based band Couch on their website. The group’s music synthesizes funk, r&b, and soul; they released their debut EP in 2021 and follow-up, Sunshower, in 2023. While the band members were all studying at different universities, they wrote and recorded virtually, and in 2023 embarked on a multi-city tour with a sold-out run in the UK.
“Poems” was released as a single in 2022. It begins in G and shifts up to A at 2:28.
For the 1973 film The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand served in the role of leading lady and also a mainstay of the soundtrack. “Marvin Hamlisch came up with the melody; he was asked to write in the minor mode, but instead wrote in the major.” (SuperSeventies.com). “‘If I’d written in a minor mode, it might have told you too much in advance,’ he said, ‘that Streisand and Redford were never going to get together. So, I wrote a melody that was sad, but also had a great deal of hope in it.’ The tune was completed by a husband-and-wife songwriting team, Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
Streisand’s single broke in late November 1973, and reached number one in mid-February 1974. It was her first number one hit, and first single to stay on the charts for more than five months. It earned an Academy Award as the Best Film Song of 1973, Billboard ‘s award as the Top Pop Single of 1974, and a Grammy as Song of the Year.” The powerful ballad served as fodder for covers by a range of performers including Andy Williams, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Beyoncé, and more.
But the tune’s most memorable cover might have been Gladys Knight’s 1974 version from her album I Feel a Song. Mixing in extensive quotes of “Try to Remember” from Broadway’s The Fantastiks before adding a half-step modulation (3:00) not found in Streisand’s original, Knight leaves her distinctive signature on the tune.
“Power pop. It’s the redheaded stepchild of rock,” (PopMatters). “It started as a quick fix description of those mid-’90s bands who turned their noses up at grunge and preferred the sunny melodies and crunchy guitars of such luminaries as the Beatles, Big Star, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick, and, last but certainly not least, Jellyfish, who may be the first band to be christened with the dreaded power pop moniker … In 1999, power pop very nearly broke into the mainstream, thanks to a number of strong outings from artists such as John Faye Power Trip (whose debut also turned out to be their swan song), Ben Folds Five’s dark but dazzling The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner … Even Nik Kershaw turned in the best record of his career with 15 Minutes, a near flawless guitar pop album, and XTC resurfaced after a self-imposed seven-year exile with the orchestral pop masterpiece Apple Venus Vol. I.
However, those albums all paled in comparison to the 1999 debut of one Will Owsley. After Owsley’s first attempt at rock stardom crashed and burned in the form of the infamously unreleased Semantics album Powerbill (now available as Japanese import), he went on tour supporting Amy Grant and Shania Twain, making enough money in the process to build his own recording studio. He then made an album with his own money and offered it to the labels as is. Eventually, Giant Records bit (and later, bit the dust) and released Owsley, a fantastic collection of new wave- and classic pop-fueled gems that heralded the arrival of a Major New Talent.”
“Zavelow House,” a track from that eponymous debut album, tells a story that’s likely familiar to North Americans who grew up in the suburbs: That One House(TM) — abandoned, growing weeds through cracks in the driveway, windows boarded up. Not surprisingly, the local kids are scared but intrigued, with imaginations working overtime. Built in E major overall, the groove-driven track shifts to A major for an instrumental bridge (2:02 – 2:24) before returning to E. At 3:16, A major returns and holds sway until the final chord drops back into E.
Though now almost exclusively associated with the musical Cabaret, Kander and Ebb’s iconic ballad “Maybe This Time” was not originally written for the show. The songwriting duo composed the song for cabaret singer Kaye Ballard in 1964, and later included it in the 1972 film adaptation of Cabaret. The tune was added to the stage musical for the 1998 revival and has been included in subsequent major productions.
A new revival of Cabaret began previews on Broadway last week after transferring from London’s West End. The track is performed here by Jessie Buckley, and modulates from Ab to A at 2:21.
Lenny Cocco, the founder and lead vocalist of the New York City-based doo-wop vocal group The Chimes, “was deeply influenced by his parents and motivated by his father, Leonard,” (TheChimesMusic). “A professionally accomplished accordionist, (Leonard) advised Lenny to focus on Tommy Dorsey’s 1937 number one hit, ‘Once In Awhile.’ Lenny arranged the standard to work itself well with his vocal quintet. Standards were their passion!
In 1960, they visited the Brill Building in Manhattan, New York, to record a demo. The engineer during the session introduced them to Andy Leonetti, of TAG Records. Within minutes their lives were changed.” In 1961, the tune reached #11 on the US pop charts and #15 in Canada. “As a result, their major bookings, in the beginning, were in intimate theaters, such as The Howard in Washington, D.C., the Regal in Chicago and the Apollo in Harlem, New York. The intimate theater setting bonded people together like never before … The group made two appearances on ‘American Bandstand’ with Dick Clark” and had several other minor hits during the early 1960s.
The 12/8 tune could easily serve as an example of the doo wop genre as a whole. After beginning in Eb major, there’s a shift to G major for the bridge (1:08 – 1:35) before the track returns to the original key.
“Fall Again” was written and originally recorded by Michael Jackson in 1999, and subsequently covered by Canadian R&B singer Glenn Lewis for the 2002 film Maid in Manhattan. Lewis makes a brief appearance performing the song in the film, which starred Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes.
The track begins in E minor and modulates up a half step to F minor at 3:06.
“Although Franz Schubert died at the age of 31, he left behind a remarkably extensive oeuvre, including around 600 Lieder, sometimes composing as many as seven songs a day.” (Bachtrack) “Five of his Goethe settings … were written on 19th August 1815 alone! His mastery of giving each of his poets an unmistakable musical voice is unsurpassed, and so is the overwhelming number of his settings dealing with death and his longing for finding eternal peace, most famously reflected in his two song cycles Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin. ‘My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs.’”
Der Musenson (The Muses’ Son), Schubert’s setting for a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was written in 1822. The piece, written in a breakneck 6/8, has been published in various keys suitable for a full range of voices. This edition begins in Ab major and transitions to C major at 0:33, then alternates between the two keys throughout.
“With Led Zeppelin, there was no break-in period, no ‘early phase’ where they figured out what kind of band they wanted to be,” (Pitchfork). “They were fully formed from the first repetition of the ‘Good Times Bad Times’ riff, and they powered along through their first half-dozen albums crushing everything in their path. Zep never had their Sgt. Pepper’s, their Exile, their Who’s Next, because every album was more or less that good — for a while, anyway.
This was a band that knew the music it wanted to make and executed it with ruthless precision … Physical Graffiti … found the band inhabiting what Neil Tennant once described (and Tom Ewing fleshed out) as their ‘imperial phase’ … everything they tried during these years somehow worked. Physical Graffiti … (is) Led Zeppelin’s White Album, the one they made when they were at their creative peak and had a million ideas, but were also under a tremendous amount of strain and saw the end starting to come into focus.”
After barreling along in G minor through the first verse, the Physical Graffiti track “The Wanton Song” (1975) next features a multi-key interlude (0:58 – 1:23) before returning to G minor. The surprisingly contrasting interlude is back at 2:03, but this time we land in an F major instrumental section at 2:28. At 3:03, we’re back on the express train of the G minor verse — with a quintessential Zeppelin guitar riff at its heart.
“Only Girl (In The World” is the lead single from Barbadian singer Rihanna’s 2010 album Loud. A number one hit in the United States, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland, the track won a Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording. “Only Girl (In the World) aims squarely for dance-floor domination,” said Billboard critic Monica Herrera.
Rihanna performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 2010, and at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2022. The track begins in F# minor and subtly shifts up to B minor at 1:03. It returns to F# minor for the second verse at 1:49 before a final modulation to B minor at 2:18.
The Sweet Inspirations are a vocal group, formed in the late 1950s, best-known as backup singers for other artists, appearing on recordings for Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Jimi Hendrix, the James Gang, and Yusef Lateef. They toured with Elvis Presley towards the end of his career.
The original members included Doris Troy, who had a hit with “Just One Look” and recorded an album for the Beatles’ Apple label; future superstar Dionne Warwick; and Warwick’s sister Dee Dee. The later lineup on the cut here features lead vocalist Cissy Houston, mother of 1980s superstar Whitney Houston and the aunt of the Warwick sisters. The other members of this classic lineup were Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown, and Myrna Smith. A version of the group continues to tour to this day (Encyclopedia of Popular Music).
Besides their backup work, the group recorded their own singles and albums. [Ed. note: I first became aware of the group from their 1968 single named for the group, “Sweet Inspiration”.] The track here appeared on their third Atlantic album, What The World Needs Now Is Love, and was released as a single. The album, produced by Tom Dowd and arranged by Arif Mardin, bears the unmistakable sonic signature of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (you could ID Roger Hawkins’ snare in a police lineup.)
“Unchained Melody,” with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret, was written for the 1955 movie Unchained. The Righteous Brothers’ 1965 single on Phil Spector’s Phillie Records is probably the most famous recording of the song. That version features a languorous 12/8 rhythm, extracting maximum emotion from Bobby Hatfield’s tenor. The Sweets’ version (1968) is in straight 4/4 and is a bit more up-tempo, but Cissy Houston’s soaring lead is no less emotive.
There’s a half-step modulation at 1:48 as the verse repeats.
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