Julianna

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾) | Hotchpotch

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾) is a well-known seiyuu and Japanese pop singer-songwriter … Maaya got her break at the age of 15 when she lent her voice to Hitomi Kanzaki in the anime series Tenkuu no Escaflowne,” (Sputnik Music). “Her debut single, ‘Yakusoku wa Iranai,’ was the opening theme for the same anime. The release was a beginning of a longtime collaboration between her and composer Yoko Kanno. In that time, she also started to write lyrics for her songs. Sakamoto also appears in a television drama and musicals; she is known for her role as Éponine in the Japanese adaptation of the musical Les Misérables.“

Sakamoto’s 2010 release “Hotchpotch” features an intro and verse which are predominantly in D major, but which make brief steps outside of the key nearly constantly. The chorus (heard for the first time at 0:47) limits itself more closely to the boundaries of F# major. The pattern continues from there.

Many thanks to regular contributor Julianna A. for submitting this tune to MotD!

Twennynine (feat. Lenny White) | Morning Sunrise

“Lenny White was 20 years old when he appeared on Miles Davis’ breakthrough fusion album, Bitches Brew,” (Progrography). “Yet it was in a different setting with Chick Corea, Return to Forever, where White would make his greatest impact as the drummer in RTF’s classic quartet lineup alongside Stanley Clarke and Al DiMeola. In the 70s, White released a steady flow of solo albums and brought his distinctively crisp drumming (and wide-brimmed hat) to various sessions. Venusian Summer (1975) and The Adventures of Astral Pirates (1978) are highly recommended to fans of prog/fusion.

In the 80s, Lenny White formed the funk band Twennynine, which released three albums: Best of Friends (1979), Twennynine with Lenny White (1980) and Just Like Dreamin’ (1981). He also recorded a few jazz albums with his Miles Davis alums, including Echoes of An Era (1982) with vocalist Chaka Khan. In the 90s, White recorded hip-hop/funk records on the Hip Bop Essence label. He continues to release occasional albums, including Anomaly (2010).”

White’s Twennynine project is now remembered by only the most ardent fans, but it’s remembered fondly! The intro and verse of the R&B ballad “Morning Sunrise,” from the 1979 album Best of Friends, are built in A minor. The chorus shifts to D major at 0:55. At 1:22, the cycle repeats. Many thanks to our Brazilian contributor Julianna A. for this submission!

Bo Cooper (Ron Dante) | Don’t Call It Love

Ron Dante, a native of NYC’s Staten Island, isn’t quite a household name — but you’ve almost certainly heard his work at some point. “Ron Dante has had a long and distinguished career in the music industry as a singer, songwriter, and producer,” (Medium.com). “In 1969, his vocals helped catapult The Archies’ hit, ‘Sugar, Sugar,’ to the top of the charts where it became the #1 single of the year. In addition to writing songs for a variety of artists, Dante came to prominence as a record producer, most notably with Barry Manilow.”

Along the way, Dante sang the “You Deserve a Break Today” McDonald’s jingle; provided backup vocals for Barry Manilow’s first hit, “Mandy” (and other Manilow tunes); worked with John Denver, Cher, Dionne Warwick, and Ray Charles; and more recently toured with The Turtles, filling in for an ailing Howard Kaylan.

Using the assumed name Bo Cooper, Dante released “Don’t Call It Love” in 1975. Very little information is available about this track, but it could have been a hit! Mixing elements of pop and R&B, Dante’s bubblegum “Archies” vocal timbre is barely detectable on this track. Built in a slightly up-tuned Ab major initially, the tune shifts to A major at 2:42.

Many thanks to our longtime Brazilian contributor Julianna A. for sending in this find!

Tavito | Tua Ramalhete

“One of the members of Som Imaginário, a band organized to back Milton Nascimento in the ’70s and which also accompanied Gal Costa and other artists, Tavito had his song ‘Hey Man’ (with Zé Rodrix) successfully recorded by the group on its first LP. In 1973 he became a music producer,” (AllMusic). “In 1979 he recorded his first solo album, Tavito, followed by two others recorded before 1982. His biggest hit was ‘Casa no Campo’ (with Zé Rodrix), recorded by Elis Regina in 1971, and ‘Rua Ramalhete’ (with Ney Azambuja)” in 1979.

In the central Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte is a street called Rua Ramalhete (Bouquet Street). The area is well known for its romantic setting, where couples often stroll in the evenings. Tavito lived nearby; a plaque recognizing his work has been placed on a wall overlooking the street.

Online information about Tavito is sparse, but the same can’t be said for his arrangements! After “Tua Ramalhete” starts in E minor, 0:37 brings a pre-chorus leading to a chorus at 0:56 in C# major and a harmonically meandering interlude. At 1:36, E minor returns for another verse. The pattern continues from there. Many thanks to our frequent contributor, Julianna A. from Brazil, for submitting this beautiful tune!

The Archies | Time for Love

” … A real rocker wouldn’t be caught dead with his picture in magazines like Teen Beat, and it goes without saying that a band can’t be anything like The Archies,” (Spectropop) “A cartoon studio group with its own Saturday-morning TV show is just about as uncool an image as you could ever want. So it comes as no surprise that rock critics have been trashing Archies records for 30 years now.

Wouldn’t they be surprised, though, if they ever took the time to really listen to Archies records? They’d discover that this ‘bubblegum’ band cut more than a few great songs. Between September of 1968 and September of 1971, The Archies gave Saturday-morning TV its best rock ‘n’ roll since the animated Beatles crashed the kiddie airwaves three years earlier. Adults never realized how good it was . . . or so it seemed, until a song called ‘Sugar, Sugar’ was released, and rocketed into the stratosphere.”

Another track by this fictitious yet also real band was “Time for Love” (1968). Anyone who’s heard the smash hit “Sugar, Sugar” will recognize the lead vocal (Ron Dante) and the band’s distinctive overall sound. The first key change, up a minor third, hits at 0:14 — the first of many packed into the track’s compact 2.25-minute runtime! Many thanks to our regular contributor, Julianna A. from Brazil, for this delightful submission — her ninth in total for MotD.

Rita Lee | Lança Perfume

Rita Lee’s “Lanca Perfume” was a 1980 smash hit in Brazil. Lee was the granddaughter of an American citizen living in Brazil. Her father, Charles Fenley Jones, was a dentist born in Brazil who was the son of an American. Her mother, of Italian origin, was born in Brazil as well. Lee was born on December 31st, 1947, and passed away in 2023 at the age of 75.

Lee was a pioneer female rocker in Brazil; she was one of the original members of the famous Brazilian psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes. Later she went solo, married and formed a performance duo with another musician (Roberto de Carvalho), and wrote many soap opera theme songs for Globo TV.

“Lança Perfume” features the same keyboard-driven pop sound which was so popular in the US during the same era. The track shifts up a whole step at 2:24.

Many thanks to one of our Brazilian readers/listeners, Julianna A., for this submission to MotD — her eighth!

Elis Regina | O Cantador

“To really appreciate Elis Regina, start with the lowly half-step,” (NPR). “It’s the penny of the music world — the smallest interval on the piano. Some vocalists treat half-steps as annoying afterthoughts. They smush them together into a blur. Regina’s art happens inside the half-steps, in the tiny increments that make up a melody. When Regina sings, half-steps seem to expand. Partly, that’s a reflection of her exacting technique: When she wants to, she can nail the most challenging intervals. At the same time, she’s not at all fussy. Her lazy, endlessly sloping phrases magnify the sometimes hidden shades of meaning in a lyric. She’s the rare singer who can conjure an ocean of love trouble in the space between C and C-sharp.

Like so many Brazilians, she learned her craft by interpreting the intricate, half-step-rich songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim. One of her career milestones, recorded in the early ’70s, is an intimate duo recording with the great composer — Jobim backs Regina on piano — titled Elis and Tom … Regina brought a mischievous streak and a jazz singer’s taste for adventure to everything she did. She reimagined samba and bossa nova classics. And in the late ’60s, she became a champion of the young Brazilian songwriters who were integrating elements of British and American rock. Her interpretations of songs such as ‘Nada Sera Como Antes,’ by Milton Nascimento, helped bring attention to this new generation of talents — the movement known as Tropicalia.”

Regina’s version of “O Cantador” by Nelson Motta and Dori Caymmi, was first released in 1967. At 2:59, the key is raised by a half-step with a syncopated kick, only to come back down again at 3:06. But as the tune fades, the higher key prevails (3:13). Many thanks to our regular Brazilian contributor Julianna A. for this tune — her seventh wonderful MotD submission!

Off Course | Yes-No

“Off Course … enjoyed a 25-year career run … but its influence is still felt in later acts such as Yuzu or Kobukuro. The group was formed in 1964 by a bunch of high schoolers … who teamed up to play at a local festival,” (AllMusic). They continued playing on the festival circuit during their college years, debuted live as headliners in 1972, and released their first LP in 1973. They released several Japanese top ten singles in 1980 and 1981; “We Are (1980), their eighth album, was the band’s first full-length to top the Oricon charts, followed by three more in the next two years. The group played in Los Angeles and Japanese TV featured them in documentaries.” The band played at Live Aid in 1986 and broke up in 1989.

A track from We Are, “Yes-No,” is now considered something of a classic within the distinctive Japanese “City Pop” genre. Beginning in Ab minor, the track makes an early shift to A minor before the vocal makes its appearance (0:34).

Many thanks to our Brazilian listener/reader Julianna A. for suggesting this track — her sixth submission to MotD!

Claudia Telles | Eu Preciso Te Esquecer

“Daughter of one of the most important female singers of the bossa nova (Sylvia Telles), Claudia Telles recorded for the first time in 1976 (the ballad “Fim de Tarde” by Robson Jorge/Maura Motta), which scored a hit,” (AllMusic). “After recording other singles, she recorded her first LP, Claudia Telles, in 1977. Along with her bossa nova interpretations (covering her mother’s hits), she also dedicated a CD to the samba masters Cartola and Nelson Cavaquinho.

She passed away due to complications from endocarditis at age 62 in 2020. “‘Each of the fans who made her career, her life the way it was: she had immense affection for each one of you’, said Bruno Telles, the singer’s son, to the newspaper O Dia.” (uol.com).

Built primarily in A major, 1978’s “Eu Preciso Te Esquecer” (I Need to Forget You) features a late downward key change to Ab major (3:32 – 3:47) before reverting to the original key. Many thanks to our Brazilian reader and contributor Julianna A. for this submission!

Mike Batt | Better Than a Dream

“Yes … his has been something of an unconventional career. ‘The mystery man who jumps around from lily pad to lily pad without really explaining himself … My career has been like hitting a wall with a rubber hammer a thousand times, rather than just getting a bulldozer and knocking a way through in one go.’ (The Guardian). In the popular imagination, his name is linked with discovering Katie Melua, writing Art Garfunkel’s 1979 smash hit ‘Bright Eyes,'” and the Wombles, a British novelty pop group whose members dressed as fuzzy animal characters from the children’s TV show of the same name. “That barely does justice to his oeuvre, however: four decades of albums, film scores and projects … (that) have never been less than fascinating.”

Indeed, Batt’s career seems to have been nearly uncategorizable: “… One minute he’s knocking out a global soft-rock smash for Garfunkel, the next he’s taken off on a round-the-world yachting trip and is proffering a concept album about it … he protests that he’s not taken seriously as an orchestral conductor. ‘Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between my version of the Planets suite and Simon Rattle’s.'” Had the Wombles’ tunes “not been performed by himself and sundry cohorts in vast, furry costumes made by (Batt’s) mother, it’s hard not to feel they would be widely hailed as classic bubblegum pop – as indeed they were by the late Dee Dee Ramone, who unexpectedly outed himself as a fan of their keep-fit-themed 1974 album track ‘Exercise Is Good for You (Laziness Is Not)‘ in Legs McNeil’s oral history of US punk, Please Kill Me.”

1992’s “Better Than a Dream,” which starts as a piano ballad but evolves into a full orchestral accompaniment, begins in C major. But at 2:20, the dense texture of a brass fanfare shifts the tune to Eb major. Many thanks to our contributor Julianna A. for this submission!