Category: Rob

Archie Bell + the Drells | I Could Dance All Night

“While their funky Texas (and later Philadelphia) sound was often overshadowed by the music coming from Detroit and Memphis, (Archie Bell + the Drells’) contribution to the musical landscape of the time was significant … ” (SoulTracks).

In 1968, the band’s release ‘Tighten Up,’ … (reminiscent of the sound James Brown was popularizing at the time) … turned into an international smash.” Later, the band worked with “songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and became the an important foundation for Gamble & Huff’s fledgling production empire and, later, their Philadelphia International Records label. ” After a string of hits, “The Drells broke up in the early 80s, but Bell continued on as a solo artist and then with a reconstituted set of Drells, playing the oldies circuit.  By the mid-90s, Bell was solo again, singing his classic hits at venues in the U.S. and internationally.”

1975’s “I Could Dance All Night” is a good example of tunes that became popular during the Hustle dance craze, a prominent dance style within the Disco era. At 1:53, the groove falls away, returning as the key elevates by a whole step.

Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

For reference, here’s the band’s 1968 sadly modulation-free tune “Tighten Up” in a trippy-looking live performance. The backup singers didn’t have a chance to hit even one note, but still should have received overtime pay for the dance moves alone!

Tommy Boyce + Bobby Hart | Alice Long

“The 1960s has the duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to thank for some of the biggest pop-rock hits to come out of the decade,” (American Songwriter). “The hit songwriting duo is behind some of The Monkees’ greatest hits including ‘Last Train to Clarksville.’ But they had multiple claims to fame before and after they were topping the charts with The Monkees and were even singers in their own right.

Both born in 1939, Boyce was a native of Charlottesville, Virginia, while Hart was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Though they were from opposite ends of the country, the two came together through their mutual love of music and desire to make it a career that brought them to Los Angeles. After high school, Hart entered the Army, later moving to LA to pursue a career as a singer where Boyce was living and trying to make it as a songwriter.”

Along the way, the duo collaborated with Fats Domino, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Jay and the Americans, the aforementioned Monkees, etc. “Their success with The Monkees served as a launching pad for their own career as artists. From 1967 to 1969, Boyce and Hart released seven singles off three albums. Their most famous hit was ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight’ in 1967, which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

The duo released “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” in 1968. After starting in G major, the uptempo pop track jumps up chromatically and lands in Bb major at 2:00.

Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen, who has developed an uncanny ability to find half-forgotten ancient pop tracks on obscure AM radio stations!

Huey Lewis + The News | The Power of Love

“Back To The Future, the biggest hit at the 1985 box office, is a beautifully assembled Swiss watch of a movie, a perfect little machine full of subliminal clues that pay off much later,” (Stereogum). “Director Rob Zemeckis and his co-writer, producer Bob Gale, find small and clever little ways to convey information, and we get a lot of those in the film’s first few minutes. We also get the big, pumping jam that would become the first #1 hit for Huey Lewis And The News, a band that was already on fire …

‘The Power Of Love’ is a goofy song, but it’s a catchy one. Lewis mugs hard all through it, and he wails out nonsensical cocaine-logic philosophical nuggets about how love is tougher than diamonds, rich like cream, and stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream. When you’re making good bubblegum, you can get away with refusing to make sense, and ‘The Power Of Love’ is good bubblegum. The track has hooks on hooks on hooks, with all the keyboard stabs and shiny-bluesy riffs in the exact right places.”

The verses are in C minor, but the choruses (first heard from 3:12 – 3:30) shift to C major. Between 4:11 – 4:33, the bridge transitions to Eb major. True to HL+TN’s trademark sound, there’s plentiful helpings of everything: the generous guitar solo, the wall-to-wall huskiness of Lewis’ lead vocal, the up-in-the-mix drums, and synth kicks just about everywhere. The band might have been somewhat less delicate than a Swiss watch, but it was nonetheless one of the most perfect pop machines of its era, scoring 19 top ten hits overall. “Power of Love” reached #1 for two weeks in August 1985 and was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The Supremes | The Happening

“If the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations‘ was a ‘pocket symphony,’ as it was so masterfully marketed, then the Supremes’ classic singles were pocket melodramas,” (Stereogum). “Those songs were heavily and fascinatingly orchestrated in their own ways, but the arrangements, nimble and groundbreaking as they might’ve been, were there to serve the stories. The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team found simple, direct ways to write about complicated feelings — heartbreak, elation, faint embers of hope. And Diana Ross sang those songs with poise and sensitivity, maintaining her composure even as she subtly hinted at huge and overwhelming feelings.

For years, the Supremes were an absolute machine. They cranked these songs out with a terrifying efficiency, and almost all of them hit their marks. And maybe that’s why ‘The Happening’ stands out in the group’s catalog. It’s a rare miss, a song that deviates from the plan and goes all the way awry. It’s the moment where everything falls apart … ‘The Happening’ sounds like exactly what it is: a cynical tie-in with a bad movie. But it doesn’t sound like a Supremes song — even though, in some literal sense of the term, it’s the last Supremes song.” Nonetheless, the track hit #1 in 1967, if only for one week!

The tune modulates up a half-step while trying its darnedest to be a light-hearted and goofy part of its “crime/comedy” genre.

Little Anthony + The Imperials | Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop

New York City-based singer Jerome “Little Anthony” Gourdine joined a group called The Chesters in 1957 “as the lead vocalist. The group recorded ‘Tears on My Pillow,’ which became an instant success. The Chesters changed their name to Little Anthony + The Imperials in 1959, and released their second hit single, ‘Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop,’ which sold one million records,” (TheHistoryMakers.org).

The group went on to more success with songs including “‘I’m Outside Looking In,’ ‘Goin’ Out of My Head,’ and ‘Hurt So Bad.’ They appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show, the Kraft Music Hall Television Show, and Dick Clark’s television specials. In 1969, Little Anthony + The Imperials signed with United Artists and recorded several chart singles. Gourdine left the group in 1975 to begin a sixteen year long acting and solo singing career.”

“Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop” features several half-step key changes during its run time of less than two minutes.The first modulation hits at 0:58.

The Choir | It’s Cold Outside

“The Choir was a garage rock band largely active in the greater Cleveland (Ohio) area from the mid-1960s into the early 1970s. Originally called the Mods, their largest commercial success came with the release of their first single ‘It’s Cold Outside’ in December 1966. The song (is) considered to be a classic of the garage rock era … The Choir is well known for containing three of the four original members of The Raspberries (all except lead singer Eric Carmen).”

A Cleveland Scene interview with one of the band’s members, Randy Klawon, details the city’s surprisingly active music scene during the late 1960s: ” … We played a show with the Who at the Music Hall in 1967. It was Herman’s Hermits and the Who. We were on that bill. I was 12 feet in the wings from [guitarist] Pete Townshend. I saw [drummer] Keith Moon throw his kit into the orchestra pit. It was amazing. Everybody saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. As these bands toured America, the Choir was on a lot of those shows. We were on the same bill with the Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds and all kinds of bands.”

“It’s Cold Outside” starts in D major and shifts up to E major at 2:04.


The Mamas + The Papas | Monday, Monday

“While awaiting the release of ”California Dreamin’,’ band member Denny Doherty was prodding songwriter John Phillips to come up with some new material,” (Songfacts). “Phillips said he would come back in the morning with ‘a song with universal appeal.’ Ignoring the sarcastic comments from the group members, Phillips came up with ‘Monday, Monday’ (1966). It’s about the lousy feeling that comes with the end of the weekend and beginning of another workweek.

This was the first Hot 100 chart-topper with a day in the week in the title, and the only one with ‘Monday.’ (‘Manic Monday’ by the Bangles and “Rainy Days And Mondays” by the Carpenters both stalled at #2.) … Denny Doherty, who sang lead on this song, thought very little of ‘Monday Monday’ when they recorded it. ‘Nobody likes Monday, so I thought it was just a song about the working man,’ he said. ‘Nothing about it stood out to me; it was a dumb f–kin’ song about a day of the week.’ As you can imagine, he was taken by surprise when the song became a huge hit. Doherty wasn’t alone in his incredulity: Mama Cass and Michelle Phillips didn’t like the song either, and John Phillips claimed he had no idea what the song meant.”

Starting in F# major, the tune features some brief harmonic sidesteps along the way, but doesn’t modulate in earnest until 1:41, when it shifts up to G# major.

UB40 (feat. Chrissie Hynde) | I Got You Babe

“It is a testament either to reggae’s amazing elasticity, the sunny music’s universal appeal, or the efficacy of its modern pop co-option that UB40, a racially integrated octet from Birmingham, England, would — in the wake of Bob Marley — become reggae’s longest-running hit machine,” (TrouserPress). “Not to put too fine a point on it: Marley lived only eight years after making the landmark Catch a Fire album; UB40 is already in its third decade of successful employment.

Significantly, UB40 (the official name for a British unemployment form) has built its empire on laid-back covers of soul and pop classics and gentle love songs, not religion and revolution; there isn’t a single item in the UB40 archive with the international social significance of ‘Redemption Song’ or ‘Get Up Stand Up.’ Ultimately, UB40 is loyal not to a culture but to a beat … the band’s formula is mighty steady: recent albums sound enough like early ones that it would be impossible to guess their order of release.”

In 1985, UB40 and The Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde covered Sonny and Cher’s original 1965 original of “I Got You Babe.” The original was Sonny and Cher’s best-performing single, spending three weeks at #1 on the pop charts; the tune went on to become a worldwide smash hit, achieving top 10 chart positions in Europe, Canada, Africa, and Asia. The UB40 cover reached #1 in the UK, but only #28 in the US. It traded the original’s sturdy 12/8 for a effervescent reggae groove that focused on all of the 16th notes in a measure, shot through with electronic percussion. A half-step key change hits at 1:22.

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

Makin’ It | David Naughton

The 1979 disco tune “Makin’ It” is the only song actor/singer David Naughton ever released. Naughton’s career has been about acting, with music serving only as a sideline: “David Naughton made his professional debut in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Hamlet in Lincoln Center … he was cast as the lead singer/dancer in the ‘Be a Pepper’ advertising campaign for Dr. Pepper,” (IMDB). His film credits include An American Werewolf in London, Midnight Madness, and the American ski comedy Hot Dog. On TV, he was seen in 1986’s My Sister Sam.

Written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris (who also penned the #1 hit “I Will Survive”), “Makin’ It” was theme song for the 1979 sitcom of the same name, in which Naughton starred, and has been used in other shows and commercials in the decades since. There is a modulation from C to D at 1:33.

Thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

The Jam | English Rose

“In May 1977, a three-piece rock group from Woking appeared on Top of the Pops. You can see what happened on YouTube: the presenter announcing an ‘effervescent new 45 called In The City, and the 140 seconds of wonderment that followed,” recalls The Jam’s website. “The song fizzed with the energy and sense of purpose that was firing what had been called punk and was now mutating into New Wave, but it had a lot more: a melodic charge – as in the glorious opening riff – that betrayed its makers’ love of classic British pop, and the clear sense that the band’s main creative force was already thinking like an accomplished songwriter. Between 1977 and 1982, the band released an incredible array of music. In the UK, there were five albums and 17 singles, a stack of number 1s, and a journey which encompassed no end of influences, styles, and textures.”

The punk/New Wave/mod revivalist band was best known for hard-edged, uptempo rave-ups like the debut album title track, but also for more reserved, carefully constructed New Wave songsmithing like 1981’s “That’s Entertainment” (listed by BBC 2 radio as the 43rd best song ever released by any artist) and the UK #1 hit “A Town Called Malice.” But its spare acoustic ballad, “English Rose” (1978) shows a different side of the band, with the extra weight of invoking England’s national flower and one of the nation’s most venerated symbols. The tune was written by band member Paul Weller, who later continued his success with the soul-inflected band The Style Council, founded just as The Jam lost steam in 1982.

The track modulates up a half-step at 1:39, propelled by many unexpected inversions along the way. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for identifying this mod in the wild!