“Recorded live at Friendship Baptist in Yorba Linda, California, Brent Jones and the Best Life Choir’s rafter-raising ‘Praise in the Choir Stand’ (2025) offers Sunday morning gospel chock full of R&B influences,” (Journal of Gospel Music). “There’s a swaggering confidence in Jones’s voice, a gospel impresario on the best of terms with the musicians, singers, and the congregation. The full-throated Best Life Choir—which is so good, it should have received co-billing on the album cover—thunders its support like an ‘80s mass choir, especially on the title track … Like Jones’ previous release Live Your Best Life, Praise in the Choir Stand offers the spiritual and physical thrill of a live gospel program.”
After a start in Bb minor, there’s a shift to C# minor at 1:28 which persists to the end — through a grand pause and a huge sonic buildup by the ensemble.
“The Chuck-A-Lucks … first started singing together at Amarillo College immediately after World War II, and then moved to Denton, TX, where the three of them enrolled in North Texas State College,” (AllMusic). “They were known as the Dipsy Doodlers for a time, and turned semi-professional after becoming popular on the North Texas State campus.
… By 1953, the trio were forced to give up the name Dipsy Doodlers, owing to the large number of other acts using it by then. They chose the Chuck-A-Lucks, and they began working around Texas and building a following for their mix of vocalizing and comedy, which made them very popular. The trio was working the area around Ft. Worth when they were discovered by Joe Leonard and signed to his Lin Records label out of Gainesville, TX. The Chuck-A-Lucks eventually evolved into a duo … and kept working a very lucrative string of gigs in clubs throughout the United States right up through 1972. Their act was much more oriented toward comedy than music, especially as time went by, being a kind of a country/right-wing version of the Smothers Brothers as satirists — their 1967 live album, cut for Shannon Records, the label owned by Mary Reeves, the widow of Jim Reeves, is notable today for its jokes at the expense of hippies, homosexuals, and others considered ‘alien’ to the southern/western audience they appealed to. The group reunited in 1996 for a 50th anniversary show in Texas.”
Their 1963 track, “Dingbat Diller,” was released on Motown Records. The tune shifts up a half step at 1:19 and 1:33, but the fast swing feel and the tight vocal harmonies are the main features.
Thanks to JB for finding this stunning 12-cello arrangement of Carol of the Bells. His words below:
“I love the way the arrangement uses a key change in the “inner” quotation of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (key change at 2:10; quotation starts at 1:44) to then change the key in the “outer” tune of Carol of the Bells.
It’s also uncanny how this specific combination — (a) pizzicato cellos (b) making a whole-tone upwards mod — so strongly evokes a particular cinematic trope: viz., Jason Bourne, or some other Cold-War-era spy, being chased across a plaza in some European city as the net closes in.”
“Cheap Thrills (1968) was the breakthrough album for Janis Joplin and Big Brother & The Holding Company,” (Daily Vault). “Topping the charts for eight weeks and spawning a top 20 single, this was the album that solidified the reputation that the band had spawned with their set at the Monterey Pop festival. It also marked the end of the band; not terribly long after the album’s release, Joplin left the band to pursue a solo career.
… Musically, (Big Brother co-founder, songwriter, and guitarist) Sam Andrew and crew had worked themselves into a tight musical unit by the time these tracks (some of which were recorded live at the Fillmore Auditorium) were cut. But on the other end of the spectrum, you can hear the strain on Joplin’s vocals … She had vocal power beyond many female blues singers; pity that she overused that power. ‘Piece of My Heart,’ the hit single from Cheap Thrills, remains a classic song that has lost little of its power over the course of three decades. Likewise, ‘Combination of the Two’ is an underrated classic that allows Joplin the fiery freedom to cut loose with her vocal abilities.”
After starting with an instrumental intro in A minor, “Combination of the Two” shifts up to B major for its first verse at 0:54. At 1:16, another verse falls into place, this time in G# major. 1:29 brings a whoa-only vocals section in E major which leads into a short chorus. At 2:00, we’ve returned to the B major verse; the sections repeat from there.
“Known as Zoom in the UK, the Commodores’ eponymous fifth LP … very much a transitional work, highlighting the greasy southern funk that the group so ably practiced before pianist and saxophonist Lionel Richie firmly took centre stage.” The album included the hits “Brick House” and “Easy” and “was a huge hit in the US, setting the Commodores fair for their chart-topping scene stealing as the 70s became the 80s,” (BBC). “In the UK, the reaction was a little more muted. However, ‘Easy’ paved the way for ‘Three Times a Lady’ and ‘Still,’ and Lionel Richie’s unshakeable place as a favourite artist of millions.”
“The fifth album by the first self-contained band signed by Motown at the start of the 1970s,” (Motown.com). “Commodores became the first of the Commodores’ three consecutive Top 3 albums on the pop charts during 1977-78 … (it) spent a year among the Billboard best-sellers, including eight weeks at Number One on the R&B rankings. The Commodores graduated into Motown’s biggest group during the second half of the ’70s, not least due to their creative collaboration with record producer James Anthony Carmichael, and the astute leadership of their manager, Benny Ashburn. ‘One reason we’ve been successful is that we treat it like a business,’ Ashburn once told Billboard. ‘After a show, people will come up and ask, Where’s the party? It’s all right to have fun, but every day when people go to work, do they party? The guys have to get rest to do it tomorrow in the next town. If you treat it as a business, it will treat you well.'”
“Won’t You Come Dance With Me,” adorned with plenty of shifts in texture and groove, pivots among several closely-related keys. After a short intro and a chorus-first section in E major, A major at 0:25 and F# minor at 0:58 are also visited before the pattern repeats at 1:19 with an intro-mirroring interlude and another chorus.
“The legacy of The Supremes is so firmly established today — from the group’s influence on fashion, to music, to Broadway musicals and films — that is seems impossible to imagine a time when it didn’t exist,” (Diana Ross Project). “From 1964 until the end of the decade, The Supremes would become the savior of American music, almost single-handedly defending a corner of the industry from the British Invasion while conquering the rest of the world through sell-out tours and hit singles. The group’s astounding string of a dozen number one singles (racked up in just five years) is something modern pop acts still struggle to match, and those hits continue to win over audiences though appearances in movies, commercials, and through radio airplay and album reissues.
But success wasn’t overnight for Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard (and, in the beginning, Barbara Martin) … after signing with Motown Records, the group suffered through eight lackluster singles before finally striking gold with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964. The earliest of those singles were collected and released as Meet The Supremes in late 1962, an album that’s basically a patchwork of songs recorded during various sessions at the beginning of the decade … Perhaps the most recognizable song on Meet The Supremes, ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ is a widely covered Smokey Robinson tune first recorded by The Miracles in 1960. This was one of the earliest songs recorded by The Supremes at Motown; it had been placed on the b-side of the group’s second single, “Buttered Popcorn,” released in 1961 on Tamla (the single failed to chart) … it’s raw and imperfect, dominated by a high, ‘go-for-broke’ lead vocal by Diana Ross over a bluesy, oil-smudged track … Diana was still a high school student when the song was recorded.”
Built in F major overall, the tune shifts briefly to the relative D minor during its bridge (1:20 – 1:50) before returning to the original key.
“Love is Blue,” originally composed by Andre Popp and Pierre Cour, started off its life as Luxembourg’s entry in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest,” (Stereogum). Several versions charted over the years, “but the version of the song that really hit … was the one that French easy listening composer Paul Mauriat released the following year.”
MotD regular contributor JB calls Paul Mauriat’s “Love is Blue” (1968) “… a perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the mid-60s. At the same time that the Rolling Stones were recording truly transgressive stuff like ‘Under My Thumb,’ there were still large and enthusiastic audiences for weekly variety shows like Lawrence Welk and The Grand Ole Opry. Mauriat’s arrangement manages to simultaneously include both a beautiful harpsichord melody and cheesy strings and horns.”
Starting in A minor, the tune’s progresses through two verses before reaching the chorus, which shifts to A major at 0:54 after a dynamic huge buildup previewing the major key at 0:51. The pattern continues from there.
“Ross hails from Linlithgow, West Lothian in central Scotland,” (artist website). “He is a member of the world famous Red Hot Chili Pipers. A world champion piper, Ross began piping aged 7 and was the Pipe Major of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. He is currently a member of the Grade 1 Inveraray and District Pipe Band.
He graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Traditional Music – Piping from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017. Ross was a finalist in the 2019 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition. Ross has performed in many countries such as: New Zealand, Australia, USA, Ghana, Russia, and all over central Europe, as well as appearing on BBC Hogmanay Live and performing solo on the roof of Murrayfield Stadium. In 2021, Ross performed along with a group of pipers on the soundtrack of the OSCAR & BAFTA award winning film Dune.“
“The Drunken Man from Kalabakan” (2025), combining traditional and rock influences, starts in Bb minor. At 1:18, accompanied by a completely new groove, the track shifts to Eb major via a common-tone modulation.
Psychologists say that contempt is the #1 indicator of a future divorce. For anyone wondering why Hall and Oates (the best-selling pop duo of all time) broke up a few years ago, here’s an excerpt from an Popdose interview (September 2009):
“Me (interviewer): You two have been making music together for nearly 40 years. What do you consider to be the secret to your success?
Oates: Well, Daryl and I have a healthy balance of give and—
Hall: (interrupting) Take one-fourth of John and three-fourths of me and you’ve got the winning formula. We’re the Beatles of the post-Woodstock generation, no question. It was the same with them in their day: three-fourths Lennon and McCartney, one-fourth George, and one-fourth Ringo.” …
The interview continued along these lines, with Oates walking out at one point. You do the math.
In any case, “Love You Like a Brother” from 1977’s No Goodbyes, was clearly released during better times. The intro (0:00 – 0:16), in D minor, repeats as an interlude (1:20 – 1:32). But the majority of the tune is in G major.
“Let’s go back to the end of the 60s. Motown needed to modernize their sound. The company had been showing its first hairline fractures as public mores shifted to albums rather than the singles on which it had built its reputation,” (BBC). “But then, the Jackson 5 came along and became the label’s big thing for the new decade. Well drilled in performance for several years previously, they burst on to the world stage with eagerness and vitality – and genuine youth.”
“‘Mama’s Pearl’ was the fifth single released by the Jackson 5 and the first release by the boys for 1971. 1970 proved to be the year of success for the Jackson 5.” (J5 Collector). “With four back-to-back number one hits, three top pop albums, numerous TV appearances, and a successful tour, what more could the boys ask for?” Here’s the most profoundly 70s pop trivia you’ll see today: “Mama’s Pearl” was kept from the #1 slot on the pop charts by the Osmonds’ “One Bad Apple”!
The intro is initially in F major, with a second section in Ab major, complete with an eighth-note walking bass pattern so compelling that it could drive the whole tune by itself. At 1:19, there’s a shift back to the original key as the verse starts. The alternating pattern continues from there.
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