Category: Elise

Culture Club | Time (Clock of the Heart)

“Time (Clock of the Heart)” wasn’t released on the debut Culture Club album Kissing to be Clever; “it was a stand-alone single that proved another smash hit and was later added to the album in America.” (Diffuser.FM) “In the process, Culture Club pulled off a pretty amazing feat, becoming the first UK band since the Beatles to have three singles from a debut album make the Top 10 in America. Despite the grand success of the music, for many the look often overtook the sound as the media began a love affair with the band, and George in particular. ‘People felt there was something really happening,’ said Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. ‘I think that was the main thing. People would look and say, Blimey, what is this?‘”

In a GQ interview, George recalls he “was obsessed with music as a little kid, that was where I escaped to. I shared a room with my four brothers and most of the time I didn’t have the room to myself, so whenever I could I would have the record player on. I’d listen to everything from Irish show tunes to early Bowie, T. Rex and disco. Discovering Bowie was the ‘Whoa, that’s what I want to be’ moment. I was 11 and somehow my dad got me a ticket to see Ziggy Stardust.”

“It was kind of almost overnight for us,” he said in a 2015 interview. “You know, one minute we were an unknown band that literally couldn’t get signed, but once we got on TV, it was the public, more than anything, that decided they liked us and I think that’s always been the case.”

Starting in G minor, the 1982 single features a short instrumental bridge at 2:26 in Bb minor before settling into the next chorus at 2:43.

The Jags | Back of My Hand

“Record labels and radio in the U.K. were grudgingly forced to allow new-wave and punk sounds to edge onto the airwaves in the late-’70s, long before their U.S. big brothers would even consider such an experiment. The Jags were perfectly suited to seize that moment.” (Magnet Magazine)

“The Jags’ sound in 1979 was jangly and based around clean, ringing guitar, with slashing rhythms, quick musical changes and expertly precise three-minute arrangements. Their original songs were upbeat, full of hooks, elegant melodies and guttural rock energy: a perfect model of power-pop/new-wave fun. (The UK press) quickly tagged the band as ‘Elvis Costello imitators,'” a comparison which the band wasn’t able to transcend.

After a start in E major, “Back of My Hand” (1979) features a downward shift to G major during an instrumental break (2:03), then a return to E major at 2:14 for a bridge that pivots about as if it might modulate to F# major at 2:29 — but doesn’t. According to AllMusic, the tune had “a chart life of 10 weeks and peaked at #17 in the UK. In the US, the song peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

Gladys Knight + The Pips | Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me

Vocalist Gladys Knight, according to IMDB, won the Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour talent show (1948) at age of seven. She later built a lasting career with her longtime backup singers/dancers, “The Pips,” comprised of her brother and two of her cousins. Perhaps best known for the tracks “Midnight Train to Georgia (1973) and 1985’s “That’s What Friends Are For,” Knight was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. She’s won seven Grammy Awards out of her total of 22 nominations.

All of the Pips have now retired. But The Guardian reviewed one of Knight’s 2019 concerts, remarking on her extraordinary energy and enduring appeal: “Uplifting anthems came laden with poignant nostalgia on a night where the vivacious veteran showed no sign of stopping … an astonishing 58 years after ‘Every Beat of My Heart’ hit the US charts … she is still clearly having fun, telling her euphoric audience: ‘We’ve been hanging out for, errrr … many, many years’ to ripples of laughter. Moments later, she quips, ‘I feel it coming on. Be careful not to hurt yourself.’”

“Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” written by Jim Weatherly, was released during the very heart of Knight’s prominence (1974); it became a huge hit in the US (#3, Pop; #10, Adult Contemporary; #1, R&B) and also went into the top ten in the UK and Canada. Knight sails a high tonic note from the new key over the transition into the modulation at 1:43 — along with her warm and slightly raspy tone, a true trademark.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Piano Concerto #1, 2nd movement (Tedd Joselson, piano)

From the CBC’s feature on Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto (1866): “It’s among the most popular works in the entire classical repertoire, a favorite of concert pianists headlining with symphony orchestras the world over … The concerto was an immediate success and has been a staple of the repertoire ever since, its penetration into pop culture later being confirmed by its use on The Simpsons, Mad Men and numerous films. Its most famous performance happened at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 — the height of the Cold War — when pianist Van Cliburn played it in the final round. It took approval by then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev for the jury to award the first prize to an American.”

Radio Free Europe reports that after Russia’s name, flag, and anthem were banned from all major sporting competitions from 2021 to 2023 by the World Anti-Doping Agency due to violations, Russian nationals competing in the Olympics instead heard a fragment of the Concerto when Russian athletes at those events won a gold medal.

After pizzicato strings and a soaring flute begin the piece gently in Db major, the piano states the theme. After an early transition section starts at 1:08 with a mischievous sense of mystery, we land in D major at 1:24 for a full feature by the woodwinds. Thereafter, plenty of other dramatic shifts continue, with the orchestra refusing to take a back seat to the piano in most sections.

Cats UK | Luton Airport

Luton, a borough of just over 200,000 less than 30 miles from London, made its name as a center of hat manufacturing. Its arts center, the Hat Factory, was exactly that during the industrial revolution. So its residents were probably a bit surprised when a single named after its airport, released by the all-female band Cats UK, reached #22 on the UK Singles Chart in 1977.

The tune was inspired by the 1977 Campari television commercial: a woman answers the pickup line “Were you truly wafted here from paradise?” by saying “Nahh, Luton Airport!” (The Scotsman).

There’s a whole-step modulation at 2:37.

Pat Metheny | In Her Family

“Pat Metheny’s love of Brazilian music comes into full bloom on 1987’s Still Life (Talking); it’s not the only stylistic element at play here, but it’s the most striking one,” (Apple Music). “The band is highly polished and coupled with Metheny’s crystalline production, the sound of the title track — and the rest of the album — sparkles.” Sierra Music describes “In Her Family,” the album-closing track, “one of Pat’s most haunting, pensive, and beautiful ballads.”

After a start in Ab minor, a simple, largely stepwise melody is greatly magnified by a bridge which takes flight over sweeping multi-key terrain (1:22-2:12). At 2:12, we’ve reverted to the original key, with short melodic phrases once again allowing the harmonies to take center stage.

Jonah Nilsson | Diamond Ring

Jonah Nilsson’s management agency, AGI, provides this bio of the Swedish vocalist/keyboardist: Jonah’s “life changed overnight after he and a couple of long-time friends (Dirty Loops) uploaded their own covers of huge pop hits, like Lady Gaga’s ‘Just Dance’ and Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby,’ to YouTube.

The unique funk-pop covers spread like wildfire in the music community, garnered them millions of views, and got them the attention of many acclaimed artists, namely 16x Grammy Award winning producer David Foster … (he) has acquired a significant fan base of high-profile musicians, including music impresario Quincy Jones: ‘He’s different though, he’s got the perfect balance of right brain creativity and left brain music theory. It’s in his blood,’ says Jones. ‘He’s got soul, with one of the biggest ranges I’ve ever heard.’”

Nilsson’s “Diamond Ring” (2021), featuring the legendary Steve Vai playing “Stunt Guitar,” finds Nilsson out from behind the keyboards, thoroughly embracing the role of frontman. After starting in C# minor with a full funk groove, 2:19 brings a quiet interlude in D# major; at 2:43, we’ve climbed to E major. At 3:00, another transtion: the sole accompaniment is the band clapping en masse on beats 2 and 4, along with some beatboxing(?). The cherry on top is Vai’s appearing via green screen for a culminating solo in A Dorian minor as the tune’s volume — but never its intensity — fades.

Ornella Vanoni | L’Appuntamento

“Born in 1934, to a Milanese family, Italian singer Ornella Vanoni spent most of her twenties alternating between theater and music … She started by singing “le canzoni della mala,” or songs about the underworld, but after meeting Gino Paoli in 1960 (with whom she wrote “Senza Fine,” one of her biggest hits) she began exploring the more sentimental sounds of pop” (AllMusic). She became known as the First Lady of Italian Music.

She later “branched out — both in terms of audience and style — from her homeland, exploring Brazilian music as she sang Italianized versions of Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho as well as of Erasmo Carlos’ ‘Sent Ado A’beira Do Caminho,’ retitled ‘L’Appuntamento’ (a song which, incidentally, after its inclusion in the 2001 film Ocean’s Twelve, started a resurgence in Vanoni’s popularity stateside). She has also sung with jazz players like Herbie Hancock, Gil Evans, and Beppe Quirici.”

“L’Appuntamento” (1970) features half-step modulations at 1:50, 2:50, and finally 3:49 for the wordless outro. The tune hit #2 in Italy and enjoyed a wave of popularity after its feature in Ocean’s Twelve.

Benjamin Britten | Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

UK composer Benjamin Britten’s classic educational work, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” originated “in an educational film titled Instruments of the Orchestra,” (LeoQuirk.com).  “Following World War II, initiatives to better the British people included introducing public secondary schools, health and food support for underprivileged children, and widespread democratization of high art, with the goal of nourishing a moral and productive populace. To this effect, the BBC, the primary radio station of the time, maintained relatively high percentages of classical music on the air. They created such programs as orchestral concerts and music talks for schools, preceded with introductions of each instrument and their sound for recognition during the piece of music.

Britten chose to use Henry Purcell’s Rondo theme from his Abdelazer Suite as a basis for the work and, though some thought this was an easy way out of composing, his choice to reference a British composer was praised by others as a demonstration of his skill in the art of variation, and a link as being the greatest British composer since Purcell. Here is Purcell’s original theme.”

The University of Kentucky breaks down the careful introduction of each instrument family — many of which are accompanied by key changes. “The theme is first played by the full orchestra, then by the various families of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and full orchestra again). Next, Britten shows off the individual instruments by having them play a variation of the theme … There are thirteen variations. Finally, the composition ends with a new tune, first introduced by the piccolo and then played in a fugue (a sort of counterpoint that Britten called “a race between the instruments”) by each of the other instruments of the orchestra until the brass instruments again play the main theme to close the work.”

The original 1946 short film, Instruments of the Orchestra:

Comedian John Hodgman came up with a new take on the piece’s narration in the 2010s. An excerpt from his performance with The Boston Pops:

Sanford Townsend Band | Smoke From a Distant Fire

The Sanford Townsend Band formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama but later found great success on a national level and beyond on the strength of its 1977 single “Smoke from a Distant Fire,” which reached the top 10 in the US. Band member Johnny Townsend: “‘We had landed a publishing deal in 1974 and made demos with a lot of the great players of the day that again, caught the attention of another big time New York producer, Jerry Wexler” (Songfacts). “It was Wexler’s idea to take the band to (Muscle) Shoals to record … The experience was incredible … What can you say about Jerry Wexler (alias Tex Wex) that hasn’t been said. He discovered Ray Charles … He took Aretha from a so-so history at Columbia Records, signed her to Atlantic, and helped create some of the greatest popular music ever recorded … When the opportunity to work with him came up we didn’t bat an eye. He was a god to us.'”

Ritter Records reports that the band, unable to duplicate its 1977 success, broke up in 1980, returning to work as session musicians and songwriters. “Sanford went on to co-write Michael McDonald’s debut solo hit ‘I Keep Forgettin” in 1982, while Townsend also worked with Michael McDonald, Jackson Browne, and Gregg Allman (among others),” along with solo releases.

The shuffle-driven hit features stacked backing harmonies that locked from start to finish. The tune has funk feel and a saxophone hook but also features a southern rock sound around the edges. In A major overall, the bridge modulates to F major from 1:28 – 1:49.