Mod of the Day

The Roches | Hammond Song

“The Roches were a magical musical act, influenced by barber-shop style tight harmonies, Irish melodies, bee-pop and the Brill Building writers,” (HotPress.com). “They wrote – either solo or in various combinations – songs about: their lives together and apart; sweaty train journeys; cheating husbands; dogs; waitressing; family secrets; trips to Ireland; and, sometimes, even an impossible and improbable relationship.

They didn’t fit in, but by not fitting in they presented the perfect template for all the rest of us who felt we didn’t fit in either. They eventually found a way to fit in by creating – stealing might even be a better word – a space for themselves in a music business distracted and preoccupied by rock, disco, and punk …they were not scared to show their horizons lay way beyond the perceived limits of folk, or any other contemporary music, for that matter.”

A track from the trio’s debut self-titled album (1979), “Hammond Song,” gives voice to the inevitable forks in life’s road and the consequences which follow. The Roche sisters’ keening vocal delivery is immediately recognizable after only a few notes. Their nearly vibrato-free vocal style would be quite unforgiving of any intonation issues, but the Roches’ excellent ears and unfettered originality turned into their force-of-nature delivery into their indelible signature. After a start in Eb major, 2:37 brings a shift to Bb major, and then there’s a reversion to the original key at 3:28. Both modulations slip by during relative lulls in the volume and texture of this otherwise rich vocal tapestry.

Al Jarreau | Teach Me Tonight

“Teach Me Tonight” was written by Gene De Paul (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) in 1953, and has since become a jazz standard, recorded by Dinah Washington, Diana Krall, Sarah Vaughan and Aretha Franklin among others. Jarreau’s cover is featured on his Grammy-nominated 1981 album Breakin’ Away.

Beginning in Db, Jarreau shifts up a half step to D at 2:34.

Reliably Bad | If You Feel (the Way I Do)

Reliably Bad is an eight-piece Funk/Pop band based in Greensboro, NC. From the band’s website: “Specializing in composing innovative original tunes and arranging funk classics … (drawing) influence from artists such as Vulfpeck, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown, The Funk Brothers, Moonchild, J Dilla, and many more. The band was formed in 2018 with the initial intention of bringing danceable music to the college house show scene in Greensboro … Reliably Bad is committed to exploring innovative ways to engage audiences, refine their groove-oriented sound, and continue to build the musical community around them.”

“If You Feel (the Way I Do)” (2019) was released as an instrumental, but this live version with vocals has a lot more moving parts. The classic three-horn instrumentation handles the gentle funk groove with a palpable sense of fun — not least when the drummer comes forward to take the mic with a surprisingly soaring falsetto on a graceful rubato bridge, then runs back behind the kit like a jackrabbit. After the groove resumes, the key shifts from F major to Ab major at 3:27.

Westlife | My Love

“My Love” is the the Irish boy band Westlife’s most viewed song on Youtube, currently sitting at 304 million views. The track, which was the second single released from the group’s 2000 album Coast to Coast, was Westlife’s seventh consecutive #1 hit, tying a record originally set by The Beatles. It debuted at #1 on the UK Singles chart and won Record of the Year. There is a modulation from C up to D for the final chorus at 3:11.

John Mayer | Only Heart

“Only Heart” is featured on John Mayer’s second studio album, Heavier Things, released in 2003. “There’s a certain swing-for-the-fences feel and a hurried nature that I think you have when you’re making your first record and have much to prove,” Mayer said in an interview with Billboard when the album came out. “Now that I’m in a higher gear, I don’t have to press so hard on the gas, and I’m loving it.”

The track alternates throughout between G minor on the verses and B minor for the chorus.

UB40 (feat. Chrissie Hynde) | I Got You Babe

“It is a testament either to reggae’s amazing elasticity, the sunny music’s universal appeal, or the efficacy of its modern pop co-option that UB40, a racially integrated octet from Birmingham, England, would — in the wake of Bob Marley — become reggae’s longest-running hit machine,” (TrouserPress). “Not to put too fine a point on it: Marley lived only eight years after making the landmark Catch a Fire album; UB40 is already in its third decade of successful employment.

Significantly, UB40 (the official name for a British unemployment form) has built its empire on laid-back covers of soul and pop classics and gentle love songs, not religion and revolution; there isn’t a single item in the UB40 archive with the international social significance of ‘Redemption Song’ or ‘Get Up Stand Up.’ Ultimately, UB40 is loyal not to a culture but to a beat … the band’s formula is mighty steady: recent albums sound enough like early ones that it would be impossible to guess their order of release.”

In 1985, UB40 and The Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde covered Sonny and Cher’s original 1965 original of “I Got You Babe.” The original was Sonny and Cher’s best-performing single, spending three weeks at #1 on the pop charts; the tune went on to become a worldwide smash hit, achieving top 10 chart positions in Europe, Canada, Africa, and Asia. The UB40 cover reached #1 in the UK, but only #28 in the US. It traded the original’s sturdy 12/8 for a effervescent reggae groove that focused on all of the 16th notes in a measure, shot through with electronic percussion. A half-step key change hits at 1:22.

Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!

James Taylor | Letter in the Mail

An excerpt from TheGreatAlbums‘ review of 1988’s album Never Die Young: “Taylor’s final outing of the ‘80s doesn’t contain any surprises, although the absence of any cover song is a bit of a shock since most of his post-‘Fire and Rain’ hits had been covers and Taylor had seldom released an album without one. Never Die Young is almost equal parts comprised of Taylor’s trademark ballads and easygoing grooves tailor-made for adult-contemporary radio.”

So much for the singles. But “Letter in the Mail” is a gorgeous track buried in the middle of Never Die Young. Taylor’s tunesmithing was so refined by this point that the tune casually modulates between the intro and the first verse. But the subject matter couldn’t have been more serious: rock-ribbed rural America, hollowed out and depopulated, still proudly carrying on as best as possible even after the industrial or agricultural engine(s) of the community have long since departed.

When people used to talk about the country
That’s what they used to mean …

The intro starts in F major, followed by a verse in F# major. At 1:11, the pre-chorus shifts to A major; at 1:39, the chorus shifts back to F# major. At 2:14, another verse appears, this time in G major. 3:09’s pre-chorus is in Bb major. At 3:37, another chorus is back to G major — which is the key that finishes out the tune.

Lamont Dozier | Reach Out, I’ll Be There (feat. Jo Harman)

Lamont Dozier, who died earlier this month at the age of 81, “played his part in many of the songs that built the Motown legend and which now seem as impervious to the ravages of time as those of Rodgers and Hart or Lennon and McCartney,” (The Guardian). As Dozier worked with the songwriting team of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, the “Holland-Dozier-Holland” catalog grew to include classics such as “‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’ (with Martha and the Vandellas), ‘Can I Get a Witness’ (Marvin Gaye), ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (Four Tops), ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ (Isley Brothers), ‘Take Me in Your Arms’ (Kim Weston) and a record-breaking string of #1 hits in the US charts for the Supremes, starting with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964 and including ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love,’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.'”

The Guardian continues: “Long after their original radio and chart success had faded away, many of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s million-sellers turned out to have embedded themselves so deeply in the public consciousness that they enjoyed second lives, reimagined for new audiences in cover versions by non-Motown artists. Rod Stewart’s ‘This Old Heart of Mine,’ Kim Wilde’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ and Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ were among the many reinterpretations that kept a smile on the faces of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s song publishers as the years went by … In later years he provided songs for Alison Moyet, Debbie Gibson, Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, wrote with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall … Phil Collins, and Kelly Rowland. Dozier and the Hollands were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.”

Dozier released the album Reimagination in 2018, “a collection of twelve tracks previously written for other artists while at Motown, but Dozier performs them in a way that will make you forget the original,” (BlackGrooves.org). For a rendition of the Four Tops’ uptempo 1967 hit, “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Dozier and British vocalist Jo Harman have transformed the up-tempo classic into a gospel-tinged ballad. After a start in E major, 1:59 brings a shift to C# major. At 2:40, we revert to the original key for a piano solo before the arrangement beautifully unfolds into a full gospel texture. The cover is so earnest and so self-assured that yes, the distinctive original is indeed forgotten, at least for a time!

For reference, here’s the original:

Dirty Loops + Cory Wong | Thriller

Swedish pop/funk/fusion phenoms Dirty Loops could have just done the bare minimum with its 2021 cover of Michael Jackson’s global smash hit “Thriller” (1982) They could have re-animated the original’s 16th-driven groove with an effortless fast 12/8, replete with off-kilter kicks and the frisson of their trademark re-harmonizations. They could have limited their scope to their usual keys/bass/drums trio sound. All of these options would have sounded amazing and garnered hundreds of thousands of views nearly overnight — a feat the band has accomplished consistently.

But Dirty Loops, who first gained a following by posting innovative pop covers on Youtube in the mid-2010s, have evolved over the past few years. The band now has the support of Quincy Jones, the producer of the original “Thriller.” Jones describes Jonah Nilsson, the band’s lead vocalist and keyboardist: “‘He’s got the perfect balance of right brain creativity and left brain music theory. It’s in his blood. He’s got soul, with one of the biggest ranges I’ve ever heard,'” (OrcaSound).

Not content to build incrementally on past accomplishments, the band adds a horn section and guitarist Cory Wong (perhaps best known for his work with the American band Vulfpeck) to its already wide-ranging gallery of textures. Starting at 3:20, there’s a quick turn into uncharted territory, leaving the original key of C# minor behind. After a transition, 4:04 brings a horn section feature in F# minor; 4:20 features a surprising summation in D# major; finally, an outro at 4:49 doesn’t go very far towards resolving much of anything — just have a listen. (In case you missed the band’s jump from DIY darlings to musical juggernauts, the tune is followed by a full 2.5 minutes of credits.)

Sally Mayes | Until Now (from “Camille”)

“Camille” is a little-known musical, with music by Rob Abel and lyrics by Chuck Steffan, that premiered in 2004 at the York Theatre Company’s Summer Developmental Reading Series. We are featuring Sally Mayes, a Broadway actress and noted cabaret singer, singing “Until Now” from the show. Key changes at 0:47 and 1:40.