“Ariel” is the only US hit for singer and multi-instrumentalist Dean Friedman (Billboard #26, 1977). His song “Lucky Stars” made to #3 on the UK charts the following year. Although he hasn’t been scoring hits since then, Friedman has toured and recorded consistently over the years, releasing the album American Lullaby in 2021.
“Ariel” is about a romance between a guy from New York City and a girl from the other side of the Hudson, Paramus, New Jersey, who likes to sing “Tears on My Pillow” (the Little Anthony and Imperials hit) and “Ave Maria” (a hit across the ages). It’s a song designed to be a radio hit, with its erudite lyrics, infectious chorus, retro yakkety sax solo, and clean production.
A repeat of the chorus goes up a step at 3:42, landing back at the original key for the final verse at 3:57.
“Maybe It’s My Turn Now” is featured in the fifth episode of the second season of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, which aired this summer.
The musical comedy series blends satire of and homage to the musical theater catalog, with this season focusing on the Post-Golden Age musicals of the 1960s-1980s.
Written by Cinco Paul and performed by Cecily Strong, this track is a pastiche of the Kander and Ebb anthem “Maybe This Time,” written for the movie adaptation of their 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. It begins in G major and modulates up a half step to Ab at 2:03.
“Early on, critics griped about Mariah’s reliance on vocal acrobatics, which, they claimed, kept audiences at a remove from her actual songs,” (SlantMagazine.com). “Indeed, the title track of her sophomore effort, 1991’s Emotions, and the album’s bombastic uptempo centerpiece, ‘You’re So Cold,’ are lessons in fabulous excess, showcases for Mariah’s famous five octaves. But the album’s second single, ‘Can’t Let Go,’ is one of her most understated hits, her downcast verses floating ephemerally atop the song’s pointillistic percussion … With Emotions, she managed to strike a balance of soul and pop that’s not just technically impressive, but filled with undeniable, honest-to-god feeling.”
Co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, “Can’t Let Go” was the second single from Emotions.Cashbox‘s review of the single included strong praise: “This time Carey is slowing down the pace from the first single ‘Emotions.’ In our opinion, this should have been the first single taken off the album. Her voice still has that crystal-clear sound that has hypnotized listeners of all sorts.” Although Carey’s first five American singles had reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Can’t Let Go” fell just short of that mark, reaching #2 and spending 17 weeks in the top 40 (Billboard).
Compared to much of the rest of her early material, where vocal fireworks were the rule, “Can’t Let Go” found Carey showing great restraint — showcasing her stratospheric whistle tone vocals only as a faint whisper during the intro (0:20 – 0:25). After several wistful verses and choruses, the bridge builds from its starting point (2:18), ascending through fluid layers of Carey’s own backing vocals to a shimmering half-step key change at 2:45. After one more chorus, the now wordless vocal of the outro cycles back to the melodic shape of the first line of the verse — suggesting that the sorrow from this unrequited love is nowhere near a resolution.
In the late 1960s, talk of revolution may have seemed credible. The antiwar movement, the Civil Rights movement, and of course, popular music were changing society in significant ways. The Beatles could sing “Revolution,” even if you could “count them out.” But here we are in 2023, where, as journalist George Monbiot points out, paraphrasing Rousseau, “man is born free, and is everywhere in chain stores.” At least we got some cool tunes out of the era.
One such tune is 1969’s “Something in the Air” by the short-lived English band Thunderclap Newman. The members were drummer “Speedy” Keen, who wrote the song, guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, later of Paul McCartney’s Wings, and the eponymous Andy Newman on piano. The group released one studio album Hollywood Dream, produced by Pete Townsend, who also played bass guitar on the recording. “Something in the Air” was a #1 hit in the UK, and reached a respectable #37 on the US Billboard chart. It’s been included in the soundtracks for several movies, including The Magic Christian, also released in 1969, and Almost Famous. The lyrics asserted “you know it’s right”, and in those times, you may not have detected any irony.
There’s a whole step modulation from the original key E major to F# major at 1:04; the saloon-style piano bridge starting at 1:58 passes through a few tonalities; lastly, when we land at the final verse at 2:55, we’re in G# major, two steps up from the original key.
“Peter Foley (1967-2021) was an award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. His musical theater works include The Hidden Sky, The Names We Gave Him, I Capture the Castle, Bloom, Whitechapel, and The Bear …” (Peter Foley Music Project). “Peter’s songs have been performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below …
Peter also composed scores and themes for numerous television shows and documentaries, including Listening to America with Bill Moyers … An accomplished pianist and expert in music notation, he served as musical director/keyboardist for the premieres of Rinde Eckert’s Highway Ulysses, Kenneth Vega’s Heartfield, and concert performances with Manoel Felciano. He was the music assistant for the Broadway production of Sting’s The Last Ship, associate music director for the developmental workshop of Elvis Costello’s A Face in the Crowd, and music preparation supervisor for the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit …
Loosely based on a true story, The Names We Gave Him is about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. With a richly textured, dramatic score and riveting choral music, this new musical explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind, the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?”
The duet “Yellow Field” from The Names We Gave Him (music by Peter Foley / lyrics by Ellen McLaughlin, 2021) begins with a spare accompaniment, with the voices occupying separate, alternating spaces as the narrative begins to unfold. But the first appearance of the refrain in E major (0:46) provides a solid platform for the duo to join in unison and octave unison. As the characters’ memories tumble forth, the sonic intensity grows. 2:41 brings another refrain, this time in Bb major. A gentle yet insistent repeated Bb from the piano provides connection into a final pass of the refrain at 4:20, this time in Eb major.
“Opening hearts has been my secret agenda in my entire musical life, really. I know it sounds pretentious, but I’m not afraid to say it. I just want to change how you feel for a couple of minutes, and maybe put you back in touch with some feeling that you haven’t felt in a while. That really was my whole goal.”
— Peter Foley
for Scobie
This live performance, featuring Briana Carlson-Goodman and Jason Gotay, has somewhat lower sound quality:
“They began as a bunch of faceless, veteran session musicians playing soulful pop, but the Grass Roots were no mere bubblegum band—they developed a mix of blue-eyed soul and big, brassy rock that would one day morph into the power-pop phenomenon,” (Liveabout).
“Formed in 1966 in Los Angeles, the Grass Roots may have made songs that are familiar to you even if you don’t know the band. ‘Let’s Live for Today’ and ‘Midnight Confessions’ remain the most likely candidates for Grass Roots songs you might have heard on radio, movies, or TV. The former was featured in Season 2 of American Horror Story, while the latter is heard in a Season 4 episode of The West Wing and on the radio in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.“
Full of kicks delivered by horns and organ, “Sooner or Later” (1971) is relatively repetitive, particularly in the simple lyrics of its chorus. But it somehow doesn’t feel that way due to the tune’s syncopation; every line of the chorus starts on an off-beat. At 1:47, a half-step key change kicks in unexpectedly as part of a tag at the end of a chorus.
“Flute Talk Magazine states ‘Nelson Rangell creates the impression that anything is possible when he improvises,'” (AllAboutJazz). “Such praise is a confirmation of what contemporary jazz fans have known since the Denver-based saxophonist emerged in the late 80s: that Rangell is one of the most exciting and diverse performers in the genre, equally adept at soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone, as well as being a genuine virtuoso on flute and piccolo.
… Rangell first played flute at the age of 15. Within months he was studying both classical and jazz music at The Interlochen Arts Academy … (then) the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.” After college, he worked in New York City with artists including Hiram Bullock, Jorge Dalto, Eric Gale, Richard Tee, Jaco Pastorius, David Sanborn, and Michael Brecker. “He also found occasional employment with the legendary Gil Evans Monday Night Orchestra and worked on many commercial jingle recording sessions.” Rangell has gone on to release 15 albums. While apparently no fan of smooth jazz, Stewart Mason of Tivo calls Rangell “a gifted soloist capable of twisting away from simple, melodic lines without losing the cozy accessibility that’s the calling card of this style of jazz.”
“Map of the Stars” (1992) gives Rangell a chance to showcase the piccolo at its most fluid and agile. The charming opening melody, in F major, shifts to a second section in F minor (0:48), back to major at 1:04, then minor again at 1:20, this time announced by a playful trill. By the time the groove-driven chorus arrives (1:44), we’ve slipped back into F major. At 2:13, the next verse begins with a guitar solo as the pattern continues — until 4:04, where a masterful extended solo by Rangell finishes out the tune.
French composer Jacques Ibert’s “skill (at) improvisation became useful when he was employed as a pianist at silent movie theatres, where he composed scores to fit the action on the screen,” (JacquesIbert.fr). “He later was to write over sixty film scores for sound movies. World War I interrupted Ibert’s studies at the Conservatoire. He joined an army medical unit, and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre by the French government.”
After his military service, Ibert continued to lead a life of high achievement, not only as composer but as a French citizen. “Shortly after returning to the Conservatoire, Ibert stood for the competition for the Premier Grand Prix (Prix de Rome). He won the prize,which meant living up to three years in Rome at the Villa Medici, in October 1919. In 1937, Ibert was named Director of L’Académie de France à Rome, the first musician to hold this post. In 1955, Ibert was appointed General Administrator of the Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux (the combined management of Paris Opera and Opera Comique). In 1956, he was elected to the Académie des Beaux Arts of the Institut de France.”
Ibert wrote “Française” for guitar in 1926. “Ibert … wrote a number of operas, ballets, and film scores, as well as orchestral, vocal, and chamber music and some thirty instrumental pieces,” (ThisIsClassicalGuitar). The “Française” … “is a virtuosic composition with a startlingly original guitaristic style. This lively dance with roots in folk-music in 2/8 time begins with rapid triplets interspersed with linking scalic passages. A middle section offers ingenious harmonic modulations, intricate cross rhythms and short bursts of melody, leading to a reprise of the first section and a vigorous coda.” After a start in C major, the piece modulates to E major at 0:45. More shifts in tonality follow.
“For a time England’s biggest pop sensation, heralded in America as leaders of a second British Invasion, Culture Club capitalized on Boy George’s outrageous nightlife cross-dressing and aimed-to-shock intelligence to slip their mushy mainstream soul-pop into respectable homes the world over,” (Trouser Press). “Phenomenology aside, the foursome never sounded anywhere near as bizarre as they originally appeared …
Dropping the silly “white boy” crypto-sociology that threads through the first album,Colour by Numbers gets right to the business at hand, which is the creation of irresistible pop hits in a variety of molds. And in that regard, the album is a real success … prominently features singer Helen Terry, who provides a powerful foil to George’s smooth crooning.”
One of the band’s most successful singles was 1984’s “Miss Me Blind,” a soul-inflected, danceable pop hit. With songwriting credits split among all four members of the band, the track hit #5 on the US Hot 100 and #6 on the Canadian pop charts. Built in G minor overall, the early bridge (2:14 – 2:30) shifts to E minor before returning to the original key. Culture Club seemed to largely avoid over-indulgence in synthesized textures, instead maintaining a focus on the human voice (both George’s and Terry’s). As a result, many of the band’s tunes seem a bit less dated than others of the same vintage.
Lauren Alaina was the runner-up on the tenth season of the American reality TV show American Idol, and “Pretty” is the final track on her 2017 album Road Less Travelled.
“This album is everything about me,” Alaina said in an interview with iHeart. “I didn’t really get to write the first album because I was at American Idol, I came off the show, and I was using that momentum to try to get the album out as fast as possible, to use that momentum. And this album I wrote for four years and had a lot of big changes in that time. My parents went through a divorce, and my dad’s an alcoholic and he went to rehab, I overcame an eating disorder — lots of really big changes. I moved to Nashville, I fell in love, all of these crazy life-changing things happened, and the whole album is about all of that. I feel like I’m really introducing myself to the world officially with this album, so hopefully they like me.”
The song is in F and modulates up a step to G at 3:25 for the final chorus.
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