Sleeping At Last formed in 1999, originally including Ryan O’Neal (vocals, guitar), his brother Chad (drums) and Dan Perdue (bass). The Illinois-based group released four albums before Chad and Dan left and Ryan continued on his own.
O’Neal has released three compilations of covers, and “Rainbow Connection” appears on Volume 2, released in 2016. The song, written originally in 1979 by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher for The Muppets Movie, has been named one of the greatest movie songs of all time by the American Film Institute.
The track begins in D and modulates up to Eb at 2:01.
“Released in November 1986, the fully instrumental Jazz From Hell was technically the last studio album that Frank Zappa released in his lifetime, despite having finished two others,” (UDiscoverMusic) … “Fittingly, Jazz From Hell was every bit as uncompromising and groundbreaking as the composer’s best work, giving a tantalizing glimpse of how Zappa might’ve continued to harness cutting-edge technology were it not for his untimely death.
Zappa had been an early adopter of the Synclavier Digital Music System – one of the first digital samplers and synthesizers – using it throughout the mid-’80s” on several albums. “The equipment opened up a world of possibilities for Zappa, allowing him to push the boundaries of his music beyond the capabilities of human players, as he told Keyboardist magazine in 1987: ‘The moment you get your hands on a piece of equipment like this, where you can modify known instruments in ways that human beings just never do, such as add notes to the top and bottom of the range, or allow a piano to perform pitch-bends or vibrato, even basic things like that will cause you to rethink the existing musical universe. The other thing you get to do is invent sounds from scratch. Of course, that opens up a wide range.’
Jazz From Hell arrived at a time when Frank Zappa’s profile had rarely been higher, thanks to his ongoing battle against censorship in music and the Parents’ Music Resource Centre (PMRC) in particular. Hilariously, his efforts in advocating for free speech meant that Jazz From Hell – an instrumental album, lest we forget – was given a Parental Advisory – Explicit Content sticker on release.”
“Night School,” the album’s opening track, starts in C lydian, departing from and returning to it multiple times throughout (the first example: a shift to C# minor from 0:55 – 1:07). The multi-layered electronic groove is so dense and relentless that when it finally disappears during the outro (4:37), we’re left with a feeling of relative restfulness — even though the melody is a lone sustained siren of a #11 note, leaning hard into C lydian.
Mayer also confirmed that the ex he is singing about in the lyric is Katy Perry, who he dated for four years, and claimed he spent more hours fine tuning the song than any other he has recorded.
The track is the lead single from the extended EP The Search for Everything: Wave 2, released in 2017. It begins in D and then detours briefly to Bb (and a new half-time feel) for the bridge after the second chorus at 1:47 before seamlessly returning to the chorus in the original key at 2:28.
Vocalist Trijntje Oosterhuis has been part of the Dutch pop scene since the 1990s. After touring with saxophonist Candy Dulfer, she formed the band “Total Touch” with her brother Tjeerd, releasing two successful albums in the late 90s. She went on to embark on a solo career.
She has released two albums of Burt Bacharach songs, The Look of Love (2006) and Who’ll Speak for Love (2007), with Bacharach performing on some of the tracks.
The selection here, “What the World Needs Now,” another Bacharach/David song, was a hit for Jackie DeShannon in 1965 (Billboard #7). The video is taken from a 2008 DVD release, Ken Je Mij (Do You Know Me), a series of duets with Uruguayan guitarist Leonardo Amuedo.
“If the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations‘ was a ‘pocket symphony,’ as it was so masterfully marketed, then the Supremes’ classic singles were pocket melodramas,” (Stereogum). “Those songs were heavily and fascinatingly orchestrated in their own ways, but the arrangements, nimble and groundbreaking as they might’ve been, were there to serve the stories. The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team found simple, direct ways to write about complicated feelings — heartbreak, elation, faint embers of hope. And Diana Ross sang those songs with poise and sensitivity, maintaining her composure even as she subtly hinted at huge and overwhelming feelings.
For years, the Supremes were an absolute machine. They cranked these songs out with a terrifying efficiency, and almost all of them hit their marks. And maybe that’s why ‘The Happening’ stands out in the group’s catalog. It’s a rare miss, a song that deviates from the plan and goes all the way awry. It’s the moment where everything falls apart … ‘The Happening’ sounds like exactly what it is: a cynical tie-in with a bad movie. But it doesn’t sound like a Supremes song — even though, in some literal sense of the term, it’s the last Supremes song.” Nonetheless, the track hit #1 in 1967, if only for one week!
The tune modulates up a half-step while trying its darnedest to be a light-hearted and goofy part of its “crime/comedy” genre.
“Upside Down” was the first single released from the 2001 album Teen Spirit by the Swedish pop group A*Teens. The song, which quickly became the group’s signature hit, went double platinum in Sweden and peaked at #10 in the UK as well.
The track begins in A and seamlessly modulates up a step to B at 2:45.
Taken from the December 29, 1963 episode of The Judy Garland Show, “That Lonesome Road” was one of many music numbers from that evening’s offerings, which were produced among some difficult times for Garland and for all of the United States. “Show 14 lacks a little of the sparkle of other episodes, but this is hardly surprising when you consider that Judy should really have been resting during the time it was filmed,” (JudyGarlandProject). “The taping occurred in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination. However, rather than take time off, it appears that Garland worked harder than ever following the death of her friend.
… Looking back on the entire series, over fifty years after it was broadcast, one can only be astounded at the huge achievement that it was, and still is. American seasons are lengthy, and here we have 26 episodes, each of nearly one-hour running times. Not only do they star the ‘World’s Greatest Entertainer’ but also a roll-call of the some of the great singers of the twentieth century, including Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, and Barbra Streisand. These shows will be around long after all of us have gone, and amen to that.”
Bobby Darin, an eventual inductee into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, was an established pop star and movie actor by the time of his guest appearance on Garland’s show. Converting Darin’s well-known tune “That Lonesome Road” into a duet for the episode, the two vocalists change keys at 0:58 and 1:40.
American singer/songwriter and three-time Grammy winner Michael W. Smith wrote “Place In This World” with Wayne Kirkpatrick and Amy Grant for his sixth studio album, Go West Young Man, released in 1990. The track ended up being his biggest mainstream success, reaching the #6 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
In an interview with Songfacts, Smith recalled hearing a story about how the song helped someone who was suffering. “Well, the one story I remember vividly, I could still go back to reading the letter, was some young girl, I think she was 18 or 19 years old, and had a horrific childhood in terms of abuse and that sort of thing. And she was suicidal. She gave me this whole story in a two page letter. She was driving down the freeway and listening to a pop radio station and heard ‘Place In This World’ and pulled over and began to weep. And had this encounter with God on the side of the interstate. And her life forever changed. And that’s the one that I’ll never forget. There’s been plenty of people talk about ‘A Place In This World’ but that’s the one letter that I’ll never forget.”
The track begins in B and modulates to C leading into the instrumental bridge at 2:15.
“A Change of Heart” is the title track of David Sanborn’s 1987 album, which “reached #74 on the Billboard 200, #43 on Billboard’s R&B Albums chart and #3 on the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.” (SessionDays).
“By the mid 1980s, saxophonist Sanborn’s sound was dominated by the synthetic tinge of keyboards and synthesizers, falling in line with the slick, crossover jazz style of the era,” (JazzAtelier). “Change of Heart is emblematic of Sanborn’s direction at the time, and its eight tracks alternate between funky, danceable numbers and smooth ballads, all with a highly polished commercial veneer.” Crossover was something of a code word for the more frequently used term smooth jazz, a genre which peaked in the 80s and could easily be found on the FM dial in most major North American cities at that time. AllMusic describes the genre as “an outgrowth of fusion, one that emphasizes its polished side.”
The track begins with a melodically acrobatic intro led by a panpipe-like patch on a wind-controlled (“EWI”) synthesizer, a new development in synthesis. The EWI player was one of the instrument’s foremost players and boosters, tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, who also used the instrument on some of his own material. The tune begins in earnest as a slow funk groove kicks in at the 0:50 mark, alternating between A minor and its relative C major. At 1:14 – 1:38, there’s a shift into Eb lydian mode and then a return to the original A minor/C major. A quick revisit to the intro’s territory from 2:25 – 2:50 brings a dialogue between Brecker’s birdsong-like EWI lines and Sanborn’s trademark jump-to-lightspeed sonic intensity. At 4:02, a late kitchen-sink bridge kicks in, led by Marcus Miller’s driven stepwise descending bass lines and a saturation of every possible square inch with multiple synth textures and compound harmonies. But at 4:24, the groove falls away and the intensity dissipates for the outro as Brecker’s darting EWI sound is once again the focus.
New York City-based singer Jerome “Little Anthony” Gourdine joined a group called The Chesters in 1957 “as the lead vocalist. The group recorded ‘Tears on My Pillow,’ which became an instant success. The Chesters changed their name to Little Anthony + The Imperials in 1959, and released their second hit single, ‘Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop,’ which sold one million records,” (TheHistoryMakers.org).
The group went on to more success with songs including “‘I’m Outside Looking In,’ ‘Goin’ Out of My Head,’ and ‘Hurt So Bad.’ They appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show, the Kraft Music Hall Television Show, and Dick Clark’s television specials. In 1969, Little Anthony + The Imperials signed with United Artists and recorded several chart singles. Gourdine left the group in 1975 to begin a sixteen year long acting and solo singing career.”
“Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop” features several half-step key changes during its run time of less than two minutes.The first modulation hits at 0:58.
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