Category: Elise

Good Morning (from “Singin’ in the Rain”)

“’Making Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I’ve ever done,’ Debbie Reynolds wrote in her 2013 memoir, Unsinkable,” (Slate). “’The movie was actually harder, because it hurt me everywhere, mostly my brain and my feet.’ Reynolds was only 19 when she was cast alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in what would become one of the greatest Hollywood musicals … But she had no training in dance, and she was about to share the screen with two of Hollywood’s greatest hoofers. ‘I wasn’t a dancer,’ Reynolds wrote, ‘and I had three months to learn what Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor had been doing for years.’

Reynolds’ preparation was arduous, and Kelly, who co-directed Singin’ with Stanley Donen, was a stern and unforgiving taskmaster who had opposed Reynolds being cast in the part. At one point, according to Unsinkable, she wound up crying under the piano in one of MGM’s rehearsal rooms, where she was comforted by no less than Fred Astaire. ‘You’re not going to die,’ Astaire told Reynolds. ‘That’s what it’s like to learn to dance. If you’re not sweating, you’re not doing it right.’” It’s riveting to watch Reynolds, well known as a triple threat, keep up with dance legends Kelly and O’Connor — particularly given that the number was shot over a single 15-hour day.

“Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is the best musical of all time, according to the prestigious American Film Institute,” (The Guardian). “West Side Story came in at number two, followed by The Wizard of Oz and Cabaret.”

After a start in B major, we shift to G# major at 1:01. Several other key changes follow, beautifully presented by full orchestra.

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans | Undecided

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, “the Belgian-American musician who cut a singular path as a jazz harmonica player … began his professional career as a guitar player (and added the ability to whistle a line above it), but inspired by the mid-20th century innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he returned to the chromatic harmonica and developed a bebop-influenced technique on it,” (NPR). “He performed and recorded widely with his bebop heroes and many other stars of postwar jazz, and his tune ‘Bluesette’ quickly became a jazz standard. His work also graces many film and television scores.”

Later in his career, “Thielemans became a first-call studio musician for top arrangers like Quincy Jones. His harmonica graced the theme song for Sesame Street and the score for the movie Midnight Cowboy. And that’s his whistling in the commercial jingle for Old Spice toiletries. Jazz remained his first love; even toward the end of his career, he would begin every morning with practice on the complex changes to John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps.’ … He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in the U.S., and a baron by the king of Belgium. He only retired from performing at the age of 92.” He passed away in 2016 at the age of 94.

His performance on “Undecided,” a 1939 standard by Charles Shavers, would have been remarkable for any other harmonica player — but it was utterly routine for Thielemans. His technique on the instrument broke through to entirely new levels of speed and agility. The groove drops out for a break just before the half-step modulation at 1:18. As if that weren’t enough, the second half of the video showcases Toots’ famous guitar-and-whistling skills!

Talking Heads | With Our Love

On the Talking Heads’ album More Songs About Buildings and Food, “You can hear (producer Brian) Eno’s ‘studio as instrument’ approach in all sorts of sonic details.” But in comparison to the band’s early days as regular performers at spartan punk-centric clubs like CBGB’s, ” … these increasingly intricate aesthetics never threaten to overthrow the music’s pleasure center: an involuntary compulsion to move your body … Talking Heads were sorting out how to engage simultaneously with the mind and the soul (or at least the hips)—how to be both art-rock and dance music,” (Pitchfork).

Salon called the album “a backwards exorcism of frozen-brittle guitars, smeared textures, and super-ecstatic vocals. The record brought forth an essential darkness and didn’t try to extinguish it. These were songs about emotions that lurk, about the secret part of ourselves that knows people can see right through us on buses, planes, and subways, all sung by a disjointed, ferocious, manic, shivering guy named David Byrne. It was a kind of State of the Union address, examining the nation’s health from a dozen different angles, including the sky.”

Sharing real estate on the 1978 release with “Take Me to the River,” a languorous track which became the band’s first hit, is the up-tempo “With Our Love.” The verse is built around G minor, with prominent Bb minor chords. 0:30 – 0:37 brings an off-kilter section featuring Db minor and Cb minor chords before a return to the original G minor section. At 0:45, the chorus alternates between E minor, G major, and A minor chords. 1:36 starts the cycle again. The tune’s driving forces of groove, lyric, and texture seem to transcend any expectation of traditional rock chord progressions; it doesn’t so much modulate as it fails to ever settle into a specific tonality in the first place. Disjointed, ferocious, and manic, indeed.

Seals and Crofts | We May Never Pass This Way Again

After getting their start in rock and pop bands in the 1950s, Jim Seals and Dash Crofts, “adherents of the Baha’i faith, sought to make a calmer brand of music, mixing folk, bluegrass, country and jazz influences and delivering their lyrics in close harmony,” (New York Times). “‘Jim Seals plays acoustic guitar and fiddle,’ Don Heckman wrote in the NYT in 1970 in a brief review of their second album, Down Home, “and Dash Crofts plays electric mandolin and piano; together they sing coolly intertwined, and quite colorful, vocal harmony.” The duo had an impressive run of top 10 soft rock hits in the 1970s (including “Summer Breeze” and “Hummingbird”), although they never topped the US pop charts outright.

“We May Never Pass This Way Again” (1973) “calls on people to show courage and continue to stand with one another, partly because they may never see each other again. Written by the duo, it’s an example of their strong convictions to the Baha’i faith. They made a pilgrimage to Haifa, Israel, where they studied the teachings of the faith, and often based their lyrics on themes of compassion and devotion.” (Songfacts).

The ambitious track shows the duo’s writing abilities soaring toward their highest point. The track reached top 30 on multiple US, Canadian, and Australian pop charts and #2 on both the Canadian Adult Contemporary and US Easy Listening charts. Alternating between vocal solos, unisons, and harmony, the duo (with lead vocals by Jim Seals) urge the listener to seize the day. It’s hard to imagine now that a densely textured harmonic feast of a tune — centered around the life philosophy of living in the moment, marinating in earnestness, and clocking in north of four minutes — was fodder for top 40 radio. But somehow, this track’s many sections took flight when combined together, somehow creating a feeling of advance nostalgia for … now.

Seals passed away this week at age 79. It would be difficult to find a better tribute to the songwriter and performer than this track.

  • 0:00 intro and verse 1 / A Major
  • 0:33 Pre-chorus 1a / C major
  • 0:50 Pre-chorus 1b / multiple compound chords
  • 0:58 Chorus / B minor
  • (Second verse and chorus)
  • 2:27 Bridge / F major
  • 3:14 Instrumental chorus / B minor
  • 3:56 Outro / E major (modulation via common tone in melody)

Whitney Houston | Love Will Save the Day

“Love Will Save the Day,” according to RandomJPop, was “the one single from Whitney that I think is oft forgotten about due to the likes of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” and “So Emotional” being such huge hits and the songs most remember from the album,” (the singer’s 1987 debut, Whitney). “It was one of the few songs from the release which gave us Whitney’s personality in a way that not all of the other songs did. We got a bit of matriarchal Whitney. A bit of church Whitney. A bit of street Whitney.

‘Love Will Save The Day’ stuck out greatly on the album because of its sound, which could be seen as a response to the boom of Madonna at the time. Madonna was known for her uptempo cuts, whilst Whitney was still defined greatly by her ballads. But of course Arista records wanted to show that Whitney can compete with the club kids. After all, a bitch was from Jersey … ” Although the review dates from 2020, both it and the track seem relevant: ” … at a time when politics are a mess, the world is on literal fire and mental health is something that is being aired out in the open with more regularity than ever before, this song really does hit now.” The track never had the benefit of a music video, but “managed to chart well without one. So a music video probably would have secured Whitney yet another Billboard number 1 single.”

Roy Ayers’ immaculate vibes performance is most prominent during a duet feature with Whitney at 3:35, but keeps the groove at a low 16ths boil elsewhere. After 4:10 brings a blockbuster whole-step key change, the tune doesn’t let up a notch — right to the last second.

Ella Fitzgerald | Old MacDonald Had a Farm

“Dubbed ‘The First Lady of Song,’ Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century,” according to Fitzgerald’s website. “In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.) She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common – they all loved her.”

Her relentlessly energetic rendition of the children’s song “Old MacDonald,” performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, begins in Eb major. Starting at 0:18, she skips effortlessly upward through a series of half-step modulations, ending in Ab major.

Richard Smallwood + United Voices | I Will Sing Praises

“World-class composer, pianist, and arranger Richard Smallwood has clearly and solidly changed the face of gospel music,” (KennedyCenter.org). “He can impeccably blend classical movements with traditional gospel, and arrive at a mix that is invariably Smallwood’s alone. A diverse and innovative artist, Richard Smallwood has achieved many honors; Dove Awards and a Grammy also attest to his talents … Richard began his recording career in the late seventies with an album simply titled The Richard Smallwood Singers. The debut project spent 87 weeks on Billboard’s Gospel chart … His song “I Love The Lord” crossed onto the big screen when Whitney Houston sang it in the film The Preacher’s Wife.”

“I Will Sing Praises” (1996) was both written and arranged by Smallwood. Starting at 3:05, multiple half-step modulations arrive, with the intensity only further magnified by the choir’s brief jump to a cappella at 4:47.

Jon + Vangelis | Italian Song

“Greek composer Vangelis was one of the most influential figures in the history of electronic music and as a composer of film scores,” (AllMusic). “His popular work utilized synthesizers in an orchestral manner, featuring romantic melodies and lush arrangements. However, his oeuvre encompassed many genres, from progressive rock and jazz improvisation to choral and symphonic music.

He achieved international mainstream success for his triumphant theme music to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire and several collaborations with former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis.” The composer, who died last week at the age of 79, found his largest success in his score for the massively influential dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982). The Guardian describes the score as “a stunning sonic panorama of the fragmented, alienated world that (director Ridley Scott) depicted on the screen, where advances in technology were matched by the decay of human emotions. His music became almost like an extra character in the development of the story.”

Vangelis’ joint release with British singer Jon Anderson, 1983’s “Italian Song,” modulates several times and features a sonic palette which overlaps with the Blade Runner score in timbre but not in mood; the impression that the track leaves in its wake is one of a celestial lullabye. The first shift in tonality (0:37) is from F major to A major.

George Benson | Give Me the Night

“‘Quincy Jones was looking for artists for his new label, Qwest Records,” jazz/pop vocalist and guitarist George Benson remembered in a Guardian interview). ‘I’d started to cross over from jazz and Quincy asked: Do you want to make the world’s greatest jazz record – or go for the throat? I laughed and said: Go for the throat! … He said: George, put yourself in my hands. I know more about you than you do yourself. I was insulted at first, but calmed down, and things started happening.’

George was under pressure to have a crossover hit. Nobody yelled at each other but there was tension, because he wouldn’t always do what Quincy told him to. (The sessions for 1980’s ‘Give Me the Night’ were) a clash of the titans at first. ‘I asked for the same musicians he’d used on (Michael Jackson’s) Off the Wall. The sound they made inspired me. Quincy also brought in Rod Temperton, formerly of the band Heatwave … Rod was always in the background except for when something went wrong. He didn’t mind saying: George, you’re singing in the wrong key.” Patti Austin, now known for her own R+B, jazz, and pop material, was the accomplished background singer Jones hired. Austin remembers: “‘When I went into the studio, the tracks were already recorded. I used to be a jingle singer; you have to be able to walk in, sight-read, and make whatever product the jingle is plugging sound orgasmic. So I worked very quickly.'”

Built in F minor overall, the tune shifts to Ab minor for the chorus at 1:19 – 1:42, later repeating the pattern. The track crossed over with a vengeance; it wasn’t a smash hit, but managed to become a solid global presence (see below) while hitting top five on the US Pop, Soul, and Disco charts.

Simply Red | Enough

Sweetwater.com defines sophisti-pop as “the 80s’ most elegant genre … combining pop sensibilities with refined arrangements that were inspired by jazz, avant-garde classical music, and soul … looking simultaneously to the past and the future.”

Mick Hucknall, frontman for UK band Simply Red, fits the genre well: ” … in love with ‘60s soul, which he gives a high-tech overhaul and an ‘80s pop gloss,” (LA Times, reviewing the 1989 album A New Flame). “Refracted through the Hucknall filter, some of the hard-core earthiness of the style doesn’t survive. Hucknall has created a hybrid that’s laid-back and maybe just a little too slick — but still teeming with understated passion … Most of the album’s music is dreamily romantic and fairly mellow. One of the best songs is “Enough,” which reflects the fragile, wispy style of Marvin Gaye’s great What’s Going On album.”

As an album closer and a non-single, “Enough” was granted plenty of freedom. The percolating bassline and syncopated keyboard kicks of the verse, starting in C minor, open into a more uncomplicated chorus in Ab major (0:54); the cycle repeats at 1:12. At 2:25, a bridge appears (or second chorus, as we hear it more than once?), with its lead vocal featuring only a few emphatically repeated words (the title among them). At 2:43, an instrumental verse and chorus are home to piano and guitar features, followed by an outro featuring a lithe soprano sax at 4:21; all set a tone which wouldn’t be out of place at a jazz club, yet also for a time had a place on the pop charts.