Category: Rob

Ronny + The Daytonas | Little G.T.O.

“Nashville’s greatest contribution to the hot rod and surfing craze of the early ’60s came in the form of Ronny + the Daytonas,” AllMusic reports. The band was “centered around singer-guitarist-songwriter John ‘Bucky’ Wilkin … After writing (“GTO”) in physics class as a senior in high school, Wilkin’s mom pulled a few strings, landed him a publishing deal, and had a session set up with (a) Nashville producer … The record sprang to number four on the national charts.” Nashville session musicians backed Wilkins up on the recording of the track, and he quickly came up with a name for the “band,” which initially was anything but a stable list of personnel.

The band’s accelerated breakthrough story might have been very much of its era. But ClassicCarHistory.com categorizes the 1964 track as timeless, placing the tune on its Top Ten Car Songs list. “The song reached #4 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and sold over one million copies.”

1:46 brings a half-step key change to this classic three-chord surf rocker. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob Penttinen for this submission!

The Specials | Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)

“The Specials were the fulcrum of the ska revival of the late ’70s, kick-starting the 2-Tone movement that spurred a ska-punk revolution lasting for decades,” AllMusic reports. “As influential as they were within the realm of ska, the group and its impact can’t be reduced to that genre alone. The Specials were one of the defining British bands of new wave, expanding the musical and political parameters of rock & roll … (the) 2-Tone label (was) named for its multiracial agenda and after the two-tone tonic suits favored by the like-minded mods of the ’60s.” Originally performed by Guy Lombardo, the big band leader made famous by his multi-year televised New Year’s Eve gig, the tune was later covered by Jamaican singer Prince Buster before it reached The Specials’ repertoire in 1980.

This party tune isn’t entirely representative of the band’s full repertoire, which also includes a marked focus on social justice. The Guardian describes the 21st century version of The Specials at a reunion tour show in 2019: “Their ranks diminished by death and fallings out, the trio are part nostalgia act, part wrathful fighters for fairness, who walk on to a stage decorated with signs reading ‘Vote’, ‘Resist’, ‘Think’ and, incongruously, ‘Listen to Sly and the Family Stone’ … this highly influential group have found their feet again in an era that encourages activism and increasingly reviles apathy … The Specials’ 40-year campaign against injustice resounds down the generations.”

A whole-step modulation appears at 2:22. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob Penttinen for this tune!

Teena Marie | I Need Your Lovin’

“No white artist sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie,” notes AllMusic. “Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed ‘Venice Harlem’ because of its heavy black population. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records.”

Pitchfork notes that “despite earning (Motown boss) Berry Gordy’s approval, she worked with an assortment of songwriters over nearly three years with no luck. While rehearsing at the label’s L.A. studio one day, Marie finally got the right person’s attention: Rick James, fresh off 1978’s Come Get It!, his debut Top-10 R&B album that would launch his outrageous, sequin-studded ‘Super Freak’ era. The funk-rock svengali took an instant shine to Marie. ‘I expected to see a writer-producer … and instead I found this short, tiny white body sitting at the piano, singing like the gods had come into her spirit.’ Her production and songwriting prowess has been instructive for generations of musicians Marie has influenced over the years … Mary J. Blige, another powerhouse of R&B, cites her as a formative influence constantly. ‘It bugs me out that only 1 out of 20 people knows about Teena Marie.'”

Released in 1980 in a post-Disco era when roller rinks thrived (and, unlike dance clubs, were open to all ages on some nights of the week), “I Need Your Lovin'” clearly bears Rick James’ signature percolating bassline style. The tune’s saturated instrumentation is in high gear from its first measures, but reaches a pinnacle as it transitions from B minor to C minor at 4:11. The strings, horns, and backing vocals duel it out thereafter — both before and after a false ending at 6:11. The track reached #37 (US Pop), #9 (US R&B), and #2 (US Dance). Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

The Ramones | I Wanna Be Sedated

Bob Boilen wrote an NPR review of “I Wanna Be Sedated,” the 1978 punk single-turned-classic, to accompany the song’s inclusion in the NPR 100. “I love The Ramones. I think The Ramones took rock ‘n’ roll back to its soul. In the mid-’70s, rock had grown into something big, fat, bloated. Bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes and Kansas were touring huge arenas. Large truck convoys followed them, filled with light towers and smoke machines and other things that had little to do with music … Along came Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee, four guys from Queens with a passion for short, loud and fast songs with great hooks … The Ramones’ music was a call to brandish guitars, shift music back to the clubs and sing from the heart and the gut. And don’t forget: This is supposed to be fun … The Ramones’ vision never changed: Make fast, loud, fun music. No solos. Keep it short. Play to your audience, not to each other.”

Time Magazine recognized the tune as part of its All-Time Best 100. “The Ramones’ buzz-saw bubblegum was a spitball of opposition to nearly everything else happening in pop in the mid-’70s … (it’s) hilarious where it could have been self-indulgent, mostly because nobody had ever sung so earnestly about longing for tranquilizers. And they were famously averse to rock-‘n’-roll frippery like guitar solos, so Johnny Ramone’s ultra-minimalist solo here is both an upraised middle finger and a brilliant show of compositional chutzpah.”

The band’s trademark three-chord harmonic vocabulary instantaneously doubled when a whole-step modulation hits at 1:11. The tune has become a persistent pop culture ingredient, including the 1980 movie Times Square; TV’s My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Beavis + Butthead; the video games Guitar Hero, Jam Sessions, and Rock Band 3; and many others. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission.

Helen Reddy | Delta Dawn

“Every social movement has its definitive song,” The Guardian reports, “and feminism got its anthem in 1972, when the Australian singer Helen Reddy released the single ‘I Am Woman.’ In three elegant minutes, it hewed a portal through which schoolgirls and their mothers saw an empowered future. Reaching No 1 in the US and selling one million copies there, it also established Reddy, who has died aged 78, as one of the top-selling female vocalists of the decade.” News of Reddy’s passing spread today.

The Guardian continues: “Accepting the 1973 Grammy award in the best female pop vocal category, Reddy rubbed salt into the wound by saying: ‘I would like to thank God, because she makes everything possible.’”

While “I Am Woman” was certainly Reddy’s most prominent release, 1973’s “Delta Dawn” was a clear crossover hit, reaching #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 but climbing all the way to #6 on the Hot Country Songs chart, following another top 10 Country hit rendition of the song by Tanya Tucker just a year earlier.

There’s a whole-step modulation at 1:14. But an additional modulation (2:27) is only a half-step. The combination of these two key changes in one tune is quite unusual! Many thanks to our regular Rob Penttinen for this submission.

O.C. Smith | Little Green Apples

“O.C. Smith began as a jazz vocalist and later moved into country and R&B,” reports AllMusic. After singing in Count Basie‘s band in the early ’60s, Smith then moved into into a unique soul/country mix, scoring a hit with “Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp.”

Smith then went deeper into the soul genre. “Little Green Apples,” released in 1968, went to #2 on both the pop and R&B charts. Later in life, he became a pastor of a Los Angeles church while also continuing to perform and record until his passing in 2001.

The unusual modulation, up a minor third, hits at 2:07. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

https://youtu.be/B6UJOb4oVfU

The Blues Brothers | Rawhide

“Rawhide” was written by Ned Washington (lyrics) and Dimitri Tiomkin (music) in 1958. “The song was used as the theme to Rawhide, a western television series that ran from 1959 until 1966. According to the Western Writers of America, it was one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

The tune has been covered by Johnny Cash, The Jackson 5, The Dead Kennedys, Liza Minnelli, Oingo Boingo, Sublime, and many other artists. It was featured prominently in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, where it saved the day as as a last-second substitute opener for an R&B/Blues band haplessly booked into a Country/Western bar. Fortunately, the band had a lot more chops than luck …

The half-step modulation is at 2:13 at the start of a short guitar feature. The tune itself doesn’t begin until the 1:25 mark. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

Buzzcocks | I Don’t Mind

“With their crisp melodies, biting lyrics, and driving guitars, the UK’s Buzzcocks were one of most influential bands to emerge in the initial wave of punk rock,” AllMusic reports. “Buzzcocks were inspired by the Sex Pistols‘ energy, but they didn’t copy the Pistols‘ angry political stance. Instead, they brought that intense, brilliant energy to the three-minute pop song.”

Buzzcocks’ album Another Music In A Different Kitchen (1977) featured the single “I Don’t Mind,” which reached #55 on the UK Singles charts. The tune features a bridge at 1:16 — unusual for the punk genre. But at the end of the bridge, another rarity arrives: a half-step modulation (1:50), making this 2:20 track quite unusual within its genre.

Many thanks to Rob Penttinen for this contribution!

Mariah Carey | Always Be My Baby

The fourth single released from Mariah Carey’s fifth studio album, Daydream, “Always Be My Baby” was the most played song on the radio in 1996, and the first single to debut at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The lyrics describes the lingering attachment the singer retains towards her former lover, even as they both go their separate ways. The track is one of Carey’s most successful, reaching Triple Platinum status with well over 2 million sales.

The key change is at 3:01. Many thanks to MotD fan Rob Penttinen for this submission!

Rolling Stones | Dear Doctor

Not a band normally known for modulations, the Stones produced a tune with a key change in “Dear Doctor” from 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet. The tune is a country/blues waltz — a classic story song about an ill-fated romantic pairing.

According to AllMusic, “Jagger may be poking fun a little, but he could not nail the parlance of the characters so precisely if he had not studied it closely as a fan of the music…in a sense, they have been musicologists, interpreting musical forms that were in danger of dying out.”

At 1:38, there’s a big key change (up a major fourth). Many thanks to mod scout Rob Penttinen for this contribution!