Category: JB

Debbie Dean | Itsy Bity Pity Love

“Debbie Dean, aka Reba Jeanette Smith, aka ‘Penny’ from Penny & The Ekos,” released “Itsy Bity Pity Love” in 1961 (Motown Junkies). “Motown had hoped to turn ‘Debbie’ – who differed from her labelmates in two ways seen as important at the time: by being in her early thirties, and by being white – into a major crossover star, but it never quite happened for her.

Ironically, the same month ‘Itsy Bity Pity Love’ came out, Motown also released their first massive commercial breakthrough, the Marvelettes’ unstoppable crossover hit ‘Please Mr. Postman,’ which teenage audiences both black and white couldn’t get enough of … Debbie gives it her all, giving a strong and charming performance, her white Southern accent (she was originally from Kentucky, and it really shows here) lending appropriate color to the song’s C&W stylings … but she’s simply not given enough to do.

The Country/pop tune moseys through several verses and choruses until an upward half-step shift at 2:00.

Mel + Tim | Starting All Over Again

“Cousins Melvin Hardin and Tim McPherson were from Mississippi, but they eventually moved to Chicago, where they were discovered by Gene Chandler,” (Popdose). “He … co-produced the smash hit ‘Backfield in Motion’ for them. Stax Records, as they often did, sent (Mel + Tim) to Muscle Shoals to record with the Swampers, two of whom, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins, produced the next Mel + Tim hit. ‘Starting All Over Again’ was written by Phillip Mitchell and released on Stax in 1972. The record, with its production modeled on the Chi-Lites hit ‘Have You Seen Her’ (including the use of the electric sitar), was a Top 20 hit on the Pop chart and reached #4 on the R&B chart. It remained on the charts for 20 weeks, and became Mel & Tim’s second million-seller.

It’s hard to know why some talented artists have long lasting careers while others fade away. Mel + Tim performed at the fabled Wattstax concert in 1972, but even that highly visible appearance didn’t help them find any real chart success with their subsequent releases. ‘I May Not Be What You Want’ (1973), ‘That’s the Way I Want to Live My Life’ (1974), and ‘Forever and a Day’ (1974) all found a place in the Top 100 on the R&B chart, but unlike Mel + Tim’s earlier hits, did not have much in the way of crossover success … ” In 1991, a nearly note-for-note cover of ‘Starting All Over Again’ by Daryl Hall and John Oates “became a Top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary chart.”

At 2:41, an unprepared half-step key change hits during an instrumental section leading into the extended outro.

The Offspring | Americana

“In 2015, The Offspring auctioned off the rights for their Columbia Records catalogue to Round Hill Music, a $35 million deal that included a total of six studio albums and a greatest hits LP — all released after 1994’s Smash, the group’s Epitaph breakthrough and still the best selling independent album of all time … (but) Round Hill was interested primarily in the crown jewel of (1998’s) Americana,” (Stereogum). The album’s lead single, “Pretty Fly for a White Guy,” is almost certainly the band’s best known track.

” … The Offspring’s transgressions in the ’90s did not exactly mirror those of their fellow radio-rockers; they did not hold as explicit a strain of toxic misogyny that saddled so many of their pop-punk peers and later descendants … As a whole, Americana practices a sort of ‘respectability politics’ against people in poverty — criticizing junkies, criminals, and the unemployed for not owning up and dealing with their problems, all the while conveniently neglecting any structural factors that may be at the root. Basically, it re-imagines punk rock as Fox News.” The Album reached #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart before being certified gold and then platinum.

As if “Americana” didn’t have enough energy to begin with, the band adds a half-step key change just before the track’s end (2:35).

The Miracles | Broken Hearted

“If there was a Mount Rushmore for songwriters, the poetic Smokey Robinson would be permanently etched in stone alongside the illustrious likes of Lennon–McCartney, Bob Dylan and all the key standards composers,” (ChicagoConcertReviews). “The Temptations’ ‘My Girl,’ Mary Wells’ ‘My Guy,’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ are a just a few of the more than 4,000 credits, in addition to fellow timeless tunes ‘You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me,’ ‘The Tracks of My Tears,’ ‘Ooo Baby Baby,’ ‘I Second That Emotion’ and ‘The Tears of a Clown” while fronting The Miracles throughout the 1960s and early ‘70s.”

Robinson on his early career: “‘We were the first group at Motown when Berry [Gordy] started Motown. We were there before he even started Motown, so it was just the beginning, man. A lot of energy going on. A lot of young people coming by to audition, to be signed up, hustle and bustle, and music.'”

Sticking to the preferred radio airplay runtime of that era — three minutes or less (2:58) — “Broken Hearted,” a non-single track from the Miracles sophomore album Cookin’ With the Miracles (1961), shifts up a half-step at 1:54.

Rob Harbron | Besinox

“Rob Harbron is a uniquely skilled player of the English concertina, described by The Guardian as a ‘concertina wizard’ and renowned for his highly individual and harmonic style of playing,” (artist website). “He is a member of Leveret (alongside Sam Sweeney and Andy Cutting), with whom he has toured extensively and released six landmark albums.

Known for his work with a wide range of artists including Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings, Emily Portman, Emma Reid, and The Full English, he has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His debut solo album Meanders was released in 2019 and was followed by a tunebook of original compositions.”

“Besinox,” from As the Days Begin to Lengthen (2024), begins in Bb major. At 1:20, a less stable middle section is announced by a prominent F minor chord. 1:53 brings a resounding shift to G major, which then falls in and out of focus a few times via compelling but fleeting harmonic sidesteps. The tune ends on a D major chord, with the key of G major clearly in effect.

Stevie Wonder | For Once In My Life

“Stevie Wonder turned 18 years old during 1968. Since the age of 12 he had been producing hits and had become one of the most commercially successful artists for the Motown label,” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). “Motown was known for the control of its artists and their output. Wonder, however, was beginning to establish his own identity and take control of his career. His contract with the label was coming to an end and Motown desperately wanted to sign him to a new one and so began giving him leeway in the producing and recording of his albums.

Wonder co-wrote or wrote eight of the 12 tracks on For Once In My Life, plus took production credit for the first time … It was one of the four compositions credited to other songwriters that became the album’s title track and biggest hit. Ron Miller and Orlando Murden wrote ‘For Once In My Life’ for the label and not specifically for Wonder. His version, however, would become the definitive one. Artists such as The Temptations and Tony Bennett would record the song in a ballad style. Wonder would change it into an exuberant, up-tempo, and soulful classic. It reached #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #1 on the Rhythm and Blues chart.”

“Wonder and his producer, Hank Cosby … sped it up, gave it a string arrangement, complete with an animated piccolo motif, and turned it into his biggest hit to date, kept from the US #1 spot only by his fellow Motowner, Marvin Gaye,” (Yahoo). “Wonder’s probable lack of enthusiasm at singing someone else’s song is concealed by his exuberant performance.” The grand scale of the tune’s arrangement, coupled with Stevie’s overflowing energy, would never hint at its short run time of only 2:49. But with apparently astounding precision, the tune’s half-step key change is situated at almost exactly the half-way mark (1:25).

Alanis Morissette | Joining You

“Once you’ve scaled the heights of pop music, where else can you go? In Alanis Morissette’s case, the answer is trading altitude for depth — digging deeply into yourself, unearthing all manner of neuroses, questions and thorny realities in the process,” (Dallas Observer). “It’s saying something that Morissette followed up 1995’s seismic, multiplatinum Jagged Little Pill with a record even more psychologically and emotionally bracing, but she did just that with 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.

… Robert Christgau offered backhanded praise in the Village Voice: ‘The mammoth riffs, diaristic self-analysis, and pretentious Middle Eastern sonorities of this music mark it as ‘rock,’ albeit rock with tunes. And in this context I suck it up, feeling privileged to listen along with all the young women whose struggles Morissette blows up to such a scale.'”

“Joining You,” a single from the 1998 album, wasn’t the same level of smash hit as “Thank You,” its predecessor from the same release. But it cracked the top twenty in Morissette’s native Canada and the US, as well as Italy and the Netherlands. Following a start in C minor, the chorus shifts to E minor (0:58 – 1:37) before reverting to the original key.

Saint Motel | Save Me

“Saint Motel are a Brit-indie band trapped in the bodies of four svelte, stylish Californians,” (The Guardian). “Although when we say Brit-indie – and add that they specialise in Brit-indie-ish anthems – we’re not talking Kaiser Chiefs or Oasis as influences but rather groups like Pulp, Divine Comedy and the long-forgotten My Life Story, with a soupçon of the Smiths: indie with some glam pizzazz featuring a singer not averse to flamboyance, a suave croon and lyrics that verge on the literary.

We’re wondering how we missed them. Each of their songs announces itself with a flourish and no little élan, and there’s a light sprinkling of Caribbean rhythms, tropical flavours and lounge-jazziness throughout … their music has featured in HBO series Boardwalk Empire as well as an advert for Dewars Scotch Whiskey. Where were we? Truly, we are ashamed. To make amends, some facts: the band met in film school in Southern California, they recently played something called a Zombie Prom, and they write about everything from plastic surgery to ‘the taboo bonds of friendship within the Heaven’s Gate cult’. As frontman A/J Jackson says: ‘Many of the songs have various levels of subtext that I hope the listener will decipher with repeated listens.'”

“From 2007 to 2021, dream-pop band Saint Motel has been making listeners move and groove to the soothing beats of their soft funk, both in person and on TikTok, where 2014 hit “My Type” went viral last year,” (Riff Magazine). “While their first album in 2012 didn’t grant them much popularity, “My Type” worked its way up various Top 40 charts around the world … An album, saintmotelvision, followed in 2016, and Saint Motel is now onto its third, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.” The video for each of the album’s tracks has the look and feel of being part of a film soundtrack, but in this case the film doesn’t exist. After an ethereal intro and a substantial pause, “Save Me” (2021) begins in earnest at 0:28 in C major, then shifts into C minor for a brief bridge from 3:10 – 3:28.

Gentle Giant | Proclamation (fan version)

“The Power and the Glory (1974) is, like Three Friends before it, a concept album featuring intricately woven arrangements … ” (Progrography.com). “You’ll also find quite a few ‘classic’ Gentle Giant songs … (including ‘Proclamation’) … Alternating between soft and harsh sounds, it’s an album of dreams and nightmares.

At this stage, there’s no denying that the band’s music had become, if not formulaic, at least idiosyncratic. There are the dizzying arrangements, classical excursions, heady subject matter and heavy rock all intertwined into four- and six-minute musical puzzles that are unique to Gentle Giant. I’d recommend you start with Octopus and Three Friends first, as they arrived earlier and achieved the same (or higher) highs … As the years have shown, albums about corrupt, power-hungry politicians are never out of fashion for long.”

The tune is built in D dorian until 2:07, when a huge unprepared shift to a Ab major chord drops like an anvil. But it’s not until 2:16 that we settle properly into the new key of F dorian. A few more harmonic shifts follow, but are often dwarfed by unexpected changes in meter, sudden instrumental/textural changes, imposing walls of tightly clustered vocal parts (3:25, for example), etc. As the extensive end credits of the video show, it took scores of fans of the storied UK-based prog rock band to create a cover version (2020) of this densely complex track!

From the video’s description: “This video marks the first time in 40 years that all members of Gentle Giant appear on screen and play together in a ‘virtual reunion’. Some notable contributors also make an appearance such as Jakko Jakszyk of King Crimson, Billy Sherwood of Yes, E.L.O. bassist Lee Pomeroy, Dan Reed of the Dan Reed Network, Richard Hilton of Chic, and Mikey Heppner of Priestess.”

Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | Out on the Coast

“Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, from San Diego, is one of the most talented new bands on the West Coast. Mixing funk, soul, jazz, and Latin & African influences to create unique, exciting music… their ‘cinematic soul’ is like a cross between the music from Jim Jarmusch movies & Blacksploitation films of the 1970s,” (AllAboutJazz). “If you like Snarky Puppy, The Beastie Boys’ instrumentals, Quantic, The New Mastersounds, Karl Denson and Greyboy Allstars… then you’ll love Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.

The title track (of the band’s 2016 release), ‘Out on the Coast,’ is a cover version of a rare-groove classic by Larry Willis from 1973 — one of the very finest examples of electrifying jazz-funk from the ’70s. Sure Fire Soul Ensemble updates it to become a contemporary jazz funk jam you can’t resist. It’s a little meaner than the original—Peter “D” Williams attacks the drums & Tim Felten takes a brief, yet nasty organ solo on this one. The horn section plays the refrain spot-on and tremendous tone on the guitar all make this tune sound more modern and stimulating than the original.”

The track starts in C minor, but then the emphasis flips over to the parallel Eb major for the off-kilter chorus, first heard at 0:41-0:48. The contrast between the two sections is magnified further by a shift in groove from the verse’s gritty, syncopated funk to a sophisticated swing on the chorus.