Mod of the Day

The Brothers Johnson | The Real Thing

“Guitarist/vocalist George Johnson and bassist/vocalist Louis Johnson formed the band Johnson Three Plus One with older brother Tommy and their cousin Alex Weir while attending school in Los Angeles,” (AllMusic). “When they became professionals, the band backed such touring R&B acts as Bobby Womack and the Supremes. George and Louis Johnson later joined Billy Preston’s band, and wrote “Music in My Life” and “The Kids and Me” for him before leaving his group in 1973.”

After scoring hits with “I’ll Be Good to You,” “Stomp,” and “Strawberry Letter 23,” The group released the single “The Real Thing” in 1981, reaching #11 on the R&B charts.

“The Real Thing” starts in A minor, but prominently shifts to C# minor at 0:50 and again to E minor at 1:20 before returning to A minor at 1:35. More changes follow from there.

Bobby Vinton | Mr. Lonely

“Mr. Lonely” was the last #1 single released by American singer Bobby Vinton, and the only one that wasn’t a cover.

Vinton wrote the song while serving in the army, and the lyric depicts a solider who is missing home. Epic Records initially gave the song to Buddy Greco to record, but his rendition didn’t crack the top 50 on the charts; when Vinton included the track on his greatest-hits collection in 1964, it quickly became a hit and remained his favorite recording.

The tune begins in E and modulates up to F at 1:26.

Counting Crows | Chelsea (live)

“Leave it to the Counting Crows to follow its first two studio albums with a double live release,” (MusicBox Online). “Many have questioned the need for Across a Wire (1998), but one listen to the music contained on this set reveals the ingenious creativity of this multi-faceted group. The recordings were taken from the band’s appearances on VH-1’s Storytellers and MTV’s Live at the 10 Spot. One of the Counting Crows’ goals of performing on Storytellers was to present reworked versions of its songs. Therefore, although several of the tunes are repeated between the two discs, they are given remarkably different treatments …

Throughout Across a Wire, Adam Duritz’s voice has never sounded better. He masterfully channels the deep-seated emotion behind his lyrics as the band bathes his vocals in both swirling angst and subtle nuance. There’s never a dull moment at a concert by Counting Crows, and this set certainly captures the group at its best.”

Originating in F major, “Chelsea” shifts to a chorus in the closely related key of Bb major (first heard between 1:00 – 1:24). The change is played up yet further by the contrast between the hypnotic I-IV repetition of the the verse and the broader harmonic vocabulary of the chorus.

for Kelli

Randy Rainbow | Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens

MotD favorite Randy Rainbow released his latest song parody yesterday, riffing on the 1941 song “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” written by Don Ray and Hughie Prince and originally recorded by The Andrews Sisters. The tune starts in Bb and modulates up to B at 2:58.

The Dukes of September | Who’s That Lady (live)

The Isley Brothers recorded “That Lady” twice. Songwriters Ronald, O’Kelly, and Rudolph Isley, the original family trio, released the first version in 1964.

Besides the sweet vocals, the prominent features of the song are the insistent cowbell (!), and the supporting horn riff towards the end.

But it was the Isleys’ 1973 version that made the song famous (Billboard #6 that year). By then, younger brother Ernie Isley had joined the group, and it’s his fuzzed-out guitar that’s the hook in that version. For that release, the lyrics were embellished, and the superior recording quality reflects the improved technology of the day. Neither of the Isleys’ versions featured a key change, however!

Donald Fagen (of Steely Dan), Michael McDonald (of the Doobie Brothers), and Boz Scaggs toured as The Dukes of September from 2010 to 2012, playing hits from their own bands and some of their own favorites, like the song here. Guitarist Jon Herington, who had recorded and toured with Steely Dan, manages to capture the flavor of Ernie Isley’s solo in this performance at Lincoln Center in 2012.

In the Dukes’ version, there’s a half-step modulation at 2:36 — although this shift seems bigger due to an interruption of the groove, some unexpected kicks, and flourishes from the horn section.

Bush | The Chemicals Between Us

“English rock band Bush emerged during the grunge boom of the early ’90s, becoming the first British band post-Nirvana to hit it big in America. Following the release of their breakthrough debut, 1994’s Sixteen Stone, they carried that international, multi-platinum success to greater heights with their chart-topping follow-up, Razorblade Suitcase,” (AllMusic). “A hit on radio and MTV, the band — fronted by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Rossdale — rounded out their peak period of popularity with 1999’s experimental The Science of Things.” In 2001, the band broke up for a decade, returning in 2010 to renewed popularity.

Representative of the band’s edgy and lyrics-forward sound, “The Chemicals Between Us” is a track from The Science of Things, an album probably best known for its slow, hypnotic, modulation-free track “Letting the Cables Sleep.” Starting in a heavily de-tuned C minor shot through with E-naturals not only in the guitars but in the bass line as well, 0:54 brings a chorus built around Bb minor. At 1:14, C minor returns in advance of the next verse.

Bleachers | I Wanna Get Better

“I Wanna Get Better,” released in 2014, was the debut single of the indie band Bleachers, fronted by Jack Abramoff. ” [I see this song as] the story of my existence so far and a lot of the things I struggled with,” Abramoff said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “A lot of things on the album, including this song, are about loss…It feels joyous, but for me it’s very desperate.”

Abramoff recorded all the instruments himself in addition to singing the lead vocal. The track was critically acclaimed and remains the group’s #1 song. It begins in E and modulates very briefly up a step to F# major at 1:52 before returning to E at 2:02.

Sting | When We Dance

As quoted on his own website, Sting describes “When We Dance” (1994): “‘I wanted to bookend the Greatest Hits album with two new songs. It’s presumptuous, because you don’t know if a song’s going to be a hit, but ‘When We Dance’ seems to be going in the right direction. I’d never tried to write a hit before, a song designed to be played on the radio. This is basically a generic ballad, but it took me a year to write. I had no main idea for the song, so I came up with this love triangle. I love you and you love him. It has a flattened fifth at the end of the first line. It’s an unusual, uncomfortable sound, which suits the situation in the lyrics.’

A classic Sting ballad with a twist, the song was released as a (UK) single in October 1994 where it performed extremely well spending seven weeks on the chart and peaking at the #9 spot. It was less popular in the US, where its one week chart residency was at the #38 position.” The song became his only solo top 10 hit in the UK.

E major provides the setting for the tune’s first portion: a placid background for the twist of the knife that is the “flatted fifth” (which many would instead call a #11). 2:30 brings a side-step into a key change to F# major at 2:32.

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox ft. Mykal Kilgore | My Heart Will Go On

Celine Dion’s signature song, the theme of the 1997 film Titanic, is covered here by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, known for their inventive interpretations of well-known classics. The track, the style of Jackie Wilson and Frank Valli, features singer/songwriter Mykal Kilgore, and modulates at 2:22.

Billy Childs (feat. WDR Big Band) | Mount Olympus

From the WDR Big Band: “The American composer and pianist Billy Childs has several Grammy awards under his belt and is one of the few people who work both in the classical field (including multiple commissions for the LA Philharmonic) as well as the jazz scene, both for smaller groups and big bands. We had the opportunity to work with him back in 2018 and here’s a clip from that project. ‘Mount Olympus’ is a composition by Billy, here in arrangement by Florian Ross. It features Paul Heller on tenor sax and Billy Childs on piano.” From a 2020 JazzTimes profile: “Los Angeles-born and bred, Billy Childs has built a remarkable career as a pianist, composer, and arranger largely away from the New York jazz scene … he was classically trained both in high school and at USC, where he studied composition. After early gigs with J.J. Johnson and Freddie Hubbard, Childs went on to lead his own groups and release a dozen albums … netting 13 Grammy nominations. Artists such as Dianne Reeves and Chris Botti have leaned on his composing and arranging chops.”

“A top European jazz group, Germany’s WDR Big Band is a sophisticated ensemble, featuring an evolving line-up of some of the country’s best musicians,” (AllMusic). “A function of the German public broadcasting institution Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln based in Cologne, the WDR Big Band are musical ambassadors charged with promoting jazz and culture at home and around the world. Over their seven-plus-decades career, the WDR have released numerous albums on their own, featuring such guest artists as Ron Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval … and (won) a Grammy Award for their 2005 Brecker Brothers collaboration Some Skunk Funk. Although much of the WDR Big Band’s performances take place in Germany, they often tour the globe.”

Released in 1989 on Childs’ album Twilight is Upon Us, “Mount Olympus: starts in D minor but shifts to Eb minor from 0:27 – 0:35 — the first of the track’s many unfolding moments. A frenetic 7/8 starts and ends the tune, with off-beat kicks obscuring the meter. But 4/4 takes over the arrangement’s midsection, with nearly every 16th note fair game for an off-kilter kick or suspenseful chord change. The track is the first of many on the live compilation Do You Know My Name.

for Travis