Author: Mod of the Day

Joss Stone | What Christmas Means to Me

“What Christmas Means to Me,” written by Allen Story, Anna Gordy Gaye, and George Gordy, has been covered by artists ranging from Stevie Wonder to Jessica Simpson to Train. English singer Joss Stone released the tune as her first single for her 2022 Christmas album Merry Christmas, Love. It modulates from C up to Db at 1:50.

Switchfoot | Hometown Christmas

Switchfoot, a Grammy-winning band based in San Diego, CA, have released twelve studio albums. “Hometown Christmas,” which also features the rock band Needtobreathe, is the final track on the group’s first Christmas record, This is Our Christmas Album, which was released last month. The tune begins in C, modulates up to D at 1:59, and returns to C at 2:44.

Roberta Flack | Oasis

“…traversing a broad musical landscape from pop to soul to folk to jazz, (Roberta Flack) is the only solo artist to win the Grammy Award Record of the Year for two consecutive years: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face won the 1973 Grammy and Killing Me Softly with His Song won the 1974 Grammy,” (RobertaFlack.com).

“Classically trained on the piano from an early age, Ms. Flack received a music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard University. Discovered while singing at the Washington, DC nightclub Mr. Henry’s by jazz musician Les McCann, she was immediately signed to Atlantic Records. With a string of hits, including The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Where Is the Love (a duet with former Howard University classmate Donny Hathaway), Killing Me Softly With His Song, Feel Like Makin’ Love, The Closer I Get to You, Tonight I Celebrate My Love, and Set the Night to Music, Roberta Flack has inspired countless artists with her musical brilliance and honesty … In 2020, Ms. Flack received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.” Over the past few years, the singer has been affected by ALS disease and is no longer able to perform.

Flack’s 1988 album Oasis features an exhaustive list of heavy-hitting studio musicians; the title track boasts bassist Marcus Miller and alto saxophonist David Sanborn. The tune reached #13 on the Adult Contemporary chart and topped the US Hot R+B/Hiphop chart in early 1989 — rather unusual, given its long run time of more than six minutes. Starting in C major, the track shifts to Ab major for the chorus at 1:13 before reverting to C major for the next verse at 1:34. That pattern continues throughout as the expansive tune grants Sanborn plenty of running room for solos and the extended outro unwinds a African-themed backing vocals feature.

Flim + the BBs | On the Avenue

“One of the most popular fusion and light jazz groups to emerge during the 1980s, Flim & the BBs comprised bassist Jimmy “Flim” Johnson, keyboardist Billy Barber, percussionist Billy Berg, and reeds player Dick Oatts. Debuting in 1982 with the album Tricycle, Flim & the BBs’ fusion sound proved ideally suited for the onset of the compact disc boom; they were among the first artists to record utilizing digital technology, and albums like 1985’s Big Notes and 1987’s Neon quickly found a following not only among contemporary jazz fans but also among tech-heads.” (AllMusic). The group continued to release albums until 1992.

In producing 1982’s Tricycle, “because of the ‘direct-to-disc’ setup (recording directly onto a lacquer platter) the band was required to play the entire LP side without stopping and without being able to do any editing afterward. When the resulting acetate disc was deemed inferior in sound quality to the digital master tape, the LP record was pressed from that digital backup tape, making it the second-ever U.S. commercially available digital recording. Since the machine used was a one-of-a-kind prototype, built before any digital recording standards were established — and dismantled within months — there is currently no way to reissue that first album on either LP or CD.” (from Tricycle‘s liner notes).

“On the Avenue,” built around a swaggering reggae-tinged groove and what appears to be an excellent sense of humor among the band, starts in G minor. At 2:29, a section that sounds an awful lot like a second intro shifts up to Ab, despite the saxophone’s lower register making the modulation feel more like a descending one. 3:35 brings a suddenly groove-less bridge and a shift of tonality to F# mixolydian; 3:49 brings another change, this time to D minor. 4:02 returns to G minor, as well as the groove.

for JB

Tommy James | I Think We’re Alone Now

Tommy James, along with his band, The Shondells, scored a Billboard #4 in 1967 with the just-over-2-minutes bubblegum rocker “I Think We’re Alone Now”. The song, written by Ritchie Cordell (who also co-wrote another Shondells hit, “Mony Mony”), stuck to one key throughout.

Over 50 years later, in 2019, James reprised the song on his album Alive, featuring only acoustic guitar and background vocals, and a much slower tempo. Missing in this version are the percussive “heartbeats” from the original, perhaps because at this tempo, they would be suggestive of brachycardia. James’ voice, perhaps sweetened by a touch of autotune, is really the highlight here.

The song starts in A; in addition to some subtle re-harmonization here and there, it features an elegant modulation to C at 2:18.

Home Free | Elvira (feat. The Oak Ridge Boys)

“While working on their new album of classic country covers — Country Evolution (2015),” the a cappella ensemble Home Free decided to cover The Oak Ridge Boys’ “defining 1981 hit ‘Elvira,'” (Rolling Stone). The kicker: Home Free collaborated with the song’s originators on the track. “’Once we got together as a group, there was a magic happening among the nine of us that just exploded…’

The result is an ‘Elvira’ that … maintains the cadence of the Oaks’ recording, but adds modern-day flourishes, thanks to Home Free’s beat-box singer Adam Rupp.” Home Free has been awarded “the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.”

After the initial surprise of “a capella + country” starts to wear off, there’s a half-step key change at 1:03; at 2:02, another modulation hits (this time a whole step). At 2:29, there’s a shift to the parallel minor for a brief bridge before a jubilant return to major at 2:40. Many thanks to first-time contributor Joya M. for submitting this track!

2022 In Review: Grateful for You!

We are taking a break today to spend with family and friends. But in taking that moment to breathe, we wanted to thank you for visiting MotD and keeping your ears open to so many genres and eras. Here’s a breakdown of what our 2022 has looked like so far:

Visitors by Country:

This graphic (based on page views, not visitors) is fairly typical of where we’ve been proportionately over the past few years, although the size of the visitor list has grown over time. One particular highlight: Given that Bahrain has only 1.85 million people in total, their #3 spot represents quite the disproportionate love of mods!

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2021’s top posts (or pages) so far:

Other than one Randy Rainbow mod which which was re-tweeted by Randy himself, you’ll see next to no overwhelming trends in our top 10.

The Home Page hosts our search function; many visitors seem to just visit and then search by artist, genre, or decade — sometimes repeatedly! It’s our most popular page, by far. Our mobile users tend to use our separate Search page instead. But musical theatre, r+b/soul, classical (one a cappella choral, another symphonic), pop, and prog rock are all part of our top ten (so far) this year. We’re proud of that variety and gratified that our visitors seem to resonate with it, too.

Visitors/Page Views:

We’re very close to racking up another year-end record for total visitors (2021’s total was 8033; this year, 7608 to date).

We’d be thrilled to set another site record for total visitors by year’s end.

If you know of any cross-genre music lovers who’d enjoy our content, please send them our way!

Meanwhile, please continue to submit modulating tunes which you hear in your travels; we’ve now featured submissions from 63 visitors (58 if you don’t count our official contributors)!

Little River Band | Happy Anniversary

“If you were listening to Top 40 around 1977-78, you know all about ‘Happy Anniversary,’ which narrowly missed the Top 10 at that time,” (Something Else Reviews). “For those of you who weren’t around, ‘Happy Anniversary’ was one of those snappy, mildly country-ish pop tunes laden with rich harmonies that sounded like soft California rock at its finest –except that these blokes were from Down Under. The deal-sealer is that funky undercurrent; the popping bassline not only works with the Nashville elements of the song, it makes the song downright irresistible.

The upbeat tone … belies that fact that it’s about a busted relationship, but hey, it’s got that funky bassline, so everything’s good. In fact, the album from which this ditty came, … Diamantina Cocktail, is arguably the best CSN album that Crosby, Stills and Nash never made.”

After the tune starts in E minor, there’s a shift at 1:15 – 1:36 for the early bridge, which features a lighter feel, agile ornamentation from a (likely real) string section, and a D major tonality. After the bridge, the return to E minor also brings a rock feel driven by an energetic funk-inspired bassline. There are several ingredients here that might suggest yacht rock. Yacht or Nyacht lists several LRB tunes, but they score low on YON’s scale. “Happy Anniversary” doesn’t make the list at all; despite checking a few boxes, it was released a little too early, and was a bit too short on breezy escapism, to have made the cut.

Michael Bolton | When a Man Loves a Woman

Written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, “When a Man Loves a Woman” was originally recorded by singer R&B singer Percy Sledge in 1966 and became his biggest hit. Michael Bolton included a cover of the tune on his 1991 album Time, Love & Tenderness, winning a Grammy for the track and making it the seventh tune reach the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 as recorded by multiple artists.

The song begins in Db and directly modulates up a half step to D at 2:04.