Rob

Ronnie Milsap | It Was Almost Like a Song

“Listen closely to Ronnie Milsap’s golden voice and you’ll hear a singer as close to the heart of American music as anyone who’s ever made the charts,” (Soul Country). ” He wound through the R&B nightclubs of Memphis and Atlanta, where he sang straight-up Southern soul and rock ‘n’ roll, before moving to Nashville at the urging of Charley Pride.

‘Today, the coolest building in the world is cooler for the presence of Ronnie Milsap,’ (interviewer) Peter Cooper said, introducing the singer for the joyful, wide-ranging conversation in 2015. ‘He is the piano-playing, country-soul singing, Braille-reading, radio listening, native North Carolinian and 42-year Nashvillian who is — along with Hank Cochran and Mac Wiseman — among the three newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.’ The singer’s accomplishments in popular music are staggering. He had 12 No. 1 singles in his first five years in country music, Cooper said. Then came the 1980s. ‘He sang 35 No. 1 Billboard country singles between June 1973 to March of ’92,’ Cooper continued. ‘Every song he released was a Top 20 country hit. All but two were Top 10. All but six were Top Five.'”

Co-written by Burt Bacharach’s favorite lyricist collaborator Hal David and Archie Jordan and released in 1977 on an album of the same name, Milsap’s “It Was Almost Like a Song” begins in C major. At 2:31, a key change up to Db major takes effect through to the end of the tune, accompanying Milsap’s soaring vocal and leading up to a quieter piano feature for the short outro. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!

Journey | Girl Can’t Help It

Journey was so ubiquitous in the 1980s that its “best of” album was ranked the #10 best selling album of that decade. Their sound was right down the fairway, defining mainstream 80s rock/pop for all time. But by 1986, the band’s fortunes began to level off. “Following the most commercially successful era for (Journey), lead singer Steve Perry firmly took control over Journey‘s musical direction,” (Classic Rock Review). “The ultimate result of this new direction was this 1986 album Raised On Radio, an album which would (at least initially) become just about as popular as their biggest earlier albums, but ultimately would symbolize the decline and fall of Journey’s successful run in through the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“‘Girl Can’t Help It’ is the best song on the album, with a direct and crisp sound … a simple but memorable piano riff, and some counter-harmonic guitars to accent it all … Following the release of Raised On Radio, Journey embarked on a tour which was initially very successful, but in early 1987 Perry suddenly and unexpectedly pulled the plug and the band was forced to cancel the rest of the tour … They would not again reconvene as a band for nearly a decade, when (they) had a short-lived comeback. But the classic band was never again the same.”

“Girl Can’t Help It” doesn’t even begin to approach the band’s top five singles list (by contrast, “Don’t Stop Believin'” has reached 2.9 billion streams on Spotify and has 13.1 million downloads and ringtone purchases). But although the former top sellers were starting to see their longtime popularity slip, their stage presence and musicality were undimmed for this 1986 performance. The band’s exquisitely blended stacked vocals (perhaps best heard at 2:40 and again at 4:04 for the a cappella outro) somehow all sounded like frontman Steve Perry. Built in A minor overall, the track shifts to C minor at 1:07 for the pre-chorus, transitioning to C major for the chorus (1:19 – 1:34) before flipping over to the relative A minor and onward from there.

Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this track!

Dolly Parton | Baby, I’m Burnin’

“’Baby, I’m Burnin” is a killer disco track that still sounds great today,” (Country Universe). “Very much of the era, but not overwhelmed by it. A big reason that it works is that Parton’s jubilant persona is a good fit for dance music in its late 1970s form. When the genre moved toward synthesized sounds in the 1980s, her natural warmth would often sound out of place. But she sounds great here. She knows she’s singing a silly song for people to dance to, and she commits to it wholeheartedly.

And don’t let the cotton candy substance of the song fool you. A great disco song isn’t any easier to write than a great country song, and having a talent for the latter doesn’t necessarily translate to having one for the former. It’s a keeper, and one that’s proven timeless enough for her to still open her shows with it today.”

There’s a disco-infused country version of “Baby, I’m Burnin'” (1978) and a country-infused disco version; this video is from the latter category. At 3:41, after what sounds like both an electronic and acoustic percussion break, the tune moves up a half step.

Almond Joy + Mounds Jingle | Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

“If a commercial comes up on TV and it involves a candy bar and a tropical island, you can quickly guess that it’s an ad for Almond Joy or Mounds,” (The Daily Meal). “Since 2010, the coconut-filled chocolate candy brand has leaned on the island vacation theme for advertising its products, with commercials featuring the tagline ‘Unwrap Paradise’ and more recently, ‘Almond Joy is Tropi-Calling.’ In the background of these commercials you can also hear calypso music playing, but what some people fail to realize is that it’s actually to the tune of Almond Joy’s original slogan and jingle.

Nowadays the jingle is instrumental, but in commercials pre-dating 2010, the lyrics ‘Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t’ were also sung. In a throwback of sorts, Almond Joy and Mounds released a 2021 commercial featuring the full song, and judging by the comments on YouTube, the older slogan is much more iconic, at least among the candy brand’s older fans.” The pre-2010 ads “would usually showcase different types of ‘nutty’ behavior, such as riding a horse backwards or flying a plane upside down. This concept was first introduced to TV in 1977, but the jingle and slogan was actually written seven years prior when Peter Paul Candy Company, the manufacturer of Almond Joy and Mounds, hired American composer Leon Carr … in 2003, the lyric ‘Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t’ was inducted into the Advertising Slogan Hall of Fame for the success it brought to the company.”

You’d think that a sprightly ad jingle clocking in at only 30 seconds wouldn’t need extra gas in the tank. But the Almond Joy/Mounds spot manages it, with a half-step upward shift in key at the 0:16 mark. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this sweet little tune!

The Beau Brummels | Laugh Laugh

Hard to believe, but an American band at the heart of the Beatles sound-alike trend of the mid-60s received a substantial favor from Sly Stone (later the frontman of the Sly and the Family Stone band). “Sly Stone’s first taste of national notoriety began at the tender age of 19 when he produced the moody 1965 pop single, ‘Laugh, Laugh,’ for the San Mateo folk-rock band the Beau Brummels.” (Rolling Stone Australia). “As a teen guitarist, Stone’s various gigs around San Francisco lead him to cross paths with Autumn Records’ Tom Donahue, who gave the budding talent a shot at producing. ‘Laugh, Laugh’ was one of Sly’s first efforts; by early 1965, it had climbed into the Top 20.

As Ben Fong-Torres said of the single in 1970: ‘Sly had produced the very first rock & roll hits out of … a city then known for little more than Johnny Mathis and Vince Guaraldi.’ The ‘San Francisco Sound’ would soon be in full bloom, but here Sly was planting the seeds early on.”

“Laugh Laugh,” which Sly co-wrote with Ron Elliott, begins with a verse in G# minor. At 0:45, the pre-chorus works its way through a segment of the circle of fifths, landing in E major for the very short chorus (1:00). The pattern continues with another verse at 1:07. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this music time capsule!

Survivor | The Search is Over

“Where did Survivor’s soaring power ballad ‘The Search Is Over’ come from? It’s partly a mystery,” (The Tennessean). “The group’s Jim Peterik — who penned the tune with bandmate Frankie Sullivan — believes the title came from something he heard on a news broadcast. But as for that daring key change, which turns every chorus on its ear? Thirty-five years later, Peterik still doesn’t know how he came up with it, or why it works so well. But it did: ‘The Search Is Over’ became one of Survivor’s biggest hits, and a staple of its concerts.”

Peterik: “‘The Search is Over’ is still on the radio partly because it really has a message that sometimes you take for granted what’s right in front of your eyes, and you have to go full circle around the world to come back to where you started … one of my favorite royalties, and it’s not money — It’s the stories. ‘I got married to that song, and that’s our song.’ I get, ‘It was at my father’s funeral.’ Even Alcoholics Anonymous meetings use that song. ‘The search is over.’ You’ve got it right here.”

Built in a slightly de-tuned Eb major overall, the beginning of the chorus shifts to C major at 0:55. But partway through the chorus, the tonality returns to the original key (1:10). The pattern continues from there. Be forewarned: the video is 100% industrial-grade ’80s! Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune.

Neil Diamond | Hello Again

“If 1980’s Bob Gaudio-produced The Jazz Singer marks the point at which Diamond crossed over from respected, rugged torch balladeer to schmaltzy cabaret act, he could take solace in phenomenal sales,” (BBC). “His biggest in the States, it shifted over six million. This despite the fact that the film which it soundtracked, in which Diamond starred as a Jewish singer opposite one Laurence Olivier, was generally panned. (It was a conceptually bizarre remake of the Al Jolson classic.) Still, it spawned songs as emotionally domineering as ‘Love on the Rocks,’ ‘Hello Again,’ and the patriotic (and therefore enormously commercial) ‘America.’

Neil’s acting gained him nominations for both a Golden Globe and the first ever Razzie Award for Worst Actor (he won the latter). To add painful injury to insult, he’d recently been wheelchair-bound for months, having had a tumour removed from his spine. So for all its gaudy sentimentality, The Jazz Singer was a personal triumph over adversity. If he now traded in the tingling presence of his earlier, rawer recordings, he hit on a polished soft-rock sound that even today is being rehabilitated by hungry ironists. ‘Hello Again’ is a Lionel Richie-style weepie, the lady in question awkwardly addressed as ‘my friend.’ It became Diamond’s calling card for the next few years.”

‘Hello Again,’ released as a single in 1981, was co-written by Diamond and Alan Lindgren, hit #70 on Billboard’s year-end singles chart. After a cinematic intro whose sustained chords at first seem to be written in G major, 0:17 brings an apparent shift to F major. But at 0:25, C major takes over. Neil’s voice is beyond center-stage — it’s absolutely primary, with a gentle piano-and-strings ensemble backing him up. At 3:11, a half-step shift up to Db major unfolds. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Pet Shop Boys | In Suburbia

Reviewing a 2022 Pet Shop Boys concert, The Guardian described the distinctive culture surrounding the band: “Judging from the demographic here, the audience stretches from 18-year-old girls to middle aged men in suits, hen parties to arty intellectuals. Their vast constituency reflects the electro-pop pair’s status as British pop’s biggest-selling duo, and a musical reach that stretches from Italian house to Tchaikovsky samples.

… Their songs are like miniature kitchen sink dramas – the couple struggling with fidelity in ‘It’s Hard,’ the painful reminders of a break-up in ‘Losing My Mind,’ or the power imbalances in ‘Rent.’ Tennant, unfeasibly now 67, brings delicate thespian touches – a shrug of the shoulder or wagging finger (in ‘It’s a Sin’) – and is one of our most unmistakable vocalists, his inimitable tones somehow capable of expressing excitement and yearning at the same time.”

Tennant viewed the 1986 track “In Suburbia” as a pivotal moment for the UK band (Classic Pop): “I thought Pet Shop Boys were very likely going to be one-hit wonders… We were on a classic trajectory. Our first single: No. 1 everywhere around the world. Next single: No. 19 in the UK. Now, the logical trajectory is that the next record goes to No. 29, the one after doesn’t make the Top 50, and then you’re dropped … “ The intro and choruses are in C major; the verses (first heard between 1:31 – 2:03) are in C minor.

Many thanks to one of our veterans, mod-spotter Rob P., for this wonderful submission!

Freddy Weller | The Roadmaster

” … a solid traditional country release from the often overlooked career of Freddy Weller: ‘The Roadmaster’ (1972),” (IfThatAintCountry.net). “As a member of popular rock/pop act Paul Revere & The Raiders in the late 60s, it was his version of Joe South’s ‘Games People Play’ which shot him to country stardom. Weller never recaptured that level of fame, but spent most of the 70s recording country to mixed commercial results.

His hits dropped off completely after 1980, but as a writer he kept an iron in the fire and scored considerable success with a BMI one-million spinner in Reba McEntire’s ‘They Asked About You’ as well as ‘Lonely Women Make Good Lovers’ for Bob Luman. Freddy Weller also co-wrote every single one of the tracks on The Roadmaster (frequently collaborating with Muscle Shoals session staple Spooner Oldham) and solid gold country cuts like ‘Bars Have Made a Prisoner of Me,’ the dark but humorous ‘Ballad of a Hillbilly Singer,’ some wonderful trembling steel in ‘An Oldie But a Goodie’ and the kicking title track warrant a revisiting of Freddy Weller’s underrated but extremely worthy place in country music history.”

After two verses, the track shifts up a half step (0:56), again at 1:26, and lastly just in time for the turnaround at 1:50. Written by Weller and Spooner Oldham, the tune hit #17 on the Country charts in 1972. The lyrics are definitely … vintage(?) but the groove is undeniable! Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this tune!

Theme from “WKRP in Cincinnati”

“Today, TV shows feature all sorts of contemporary Rock and Pop songs. It has become a way to break new music,” (CityBeat). “But WKRP in Cincinnati (1978 – 1982) was one of the first shows to have the songs on its soundtrack (usually snippets of what the station’s DJs were playing) drawn primarily from current FM Rock hits … And it was always fun to spot some weird new band on the many posters decorating the fake radio station.

The quirky little sitcom that many outsiders still bring up any time ‘Cincinnati’ is mentioned … was on for three years before MTV debuted, but in many ways it reflected that cable channel’s spirit in its infancy, integrating Rock music with an entertaining visual component and whacky personalities (DJs/VJs) and helping to bring some relatively cutting edge sounds into America’s living rooms.

The show’s theme song, given the catchy title ‘WKRP In Cincinnati Main Theme,’ was a breezy Soft Rock ditty that earned a singer named Steve Carlisle one-hit wonder status (if you even consider peaking at No. 65 on Billboard a ‘hit’).” The FM single was quite a bit longer, with several key changes back and forth between D major and Eb major — until E major and F major make their appearances at 2:02 and 2:27, respectively. The shorter version that aired as the actual show intro featured only one upward shift in key (0:38). Both are posted below. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

The TV show’s intro/theme: