Category: Steck

Keely Smith | I Want to Hold Your Hand

Singer Keely Smith was an active recording artist during the 1950s and 60s, though she recorded occasionally in later years. Her stage partner in the 1950s was her perhaps more famous then-husband, bandleader Louis Prima. Together, they recorded a hit version of “That Old Black Magic,”  which earned them an award at the very first Grammy Awards in 1959

After her divorce from Prima, Keely Smith established a solo career, garnering a contract with Sinatra’s Reprise Records. In 1965, she released Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon-Paul McCartney Songbook on Reprise. Most of the songs had been recorded by The Beatles, though McCartney’s “A World Without Love” had been made famous by Peter and Gordon. The big band and string arrangements on the album were decidedly not rock, offering new interpretations of the songs.

The verses in Smith’s cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” are in waltz time, while the bridge reverts to the more familiar 4/4. There are some cringeworthy moments when she bends notes to the point of breaking on the tune’s highest melodic point and then rhymes “girl” with “hand.” But she manages to turn in one of the most distinctive Beatles covers ever! There’s a half-step upward modulation at 2:09.

The Mindbenders | A Groovy Kind of Love

By the time “A Groovy Kind of Love” became a Billboard #2 hit for Manchester UK’s Mindbenders in 1966, original lead singer Wayne Fontana had moved on to a solo career. The vocal for the song was provided by Eric Stewart, later a member of 10cc.

Carol Bayer Sager and Toni Wine wrote the song, which was originally recorded by the duo Diane and Annita. Their record used the title “A Groovey Kind of Love”, suggesting that popular culture had not yet settled on an orthography for the word. It was a very short historical period during which one could use the word “groovy” without a hint of irony, sarcasm, or condescension. Nonetheless, Phil Collins managed to rack up a #1 with his languorous recording of the song in 1988. Let’s suppose that everyone had forgotten about the word by that time, or its overtones had simply faded.

In the Mindbenders’ version, there’s a half-step modulation at 1:14, just before an instrumental verse.

Stan Freberg | The Yellow Rose of Texas

Bandleader Mitch Miller (“follow the bouncing ball!”) scored a #1 hit with “The Yellow Rose of Texas” in 1955. Actor and comedian Stan Freberg couldn’t resist taking aim at such a plump and corny target and released his own parody version soon thereafter. Freberg wrote many such goofy song parodies, and recorded comedy albums lampooning American culture. To this writer, his crowning achievement was the “Great American Soups” commercial for Heinz, done up as a Busby Berkeley-styled extravaganza, featuring dancer Ann Miller.

In Freberg’s parody, also released in 1955, the “Yankee drummer” drowns out the rest of the band and his singing. In fact, the session drummer was Alvin Stoller, who played on Mitch Miller’s hit version. Stoller was primarily a jazz drummer, playing with many prominent artists during his career; in particular, he backed Frank Sinatra for much of the 1950s. The session banjo player also gets in on the overplaying. There is a half-step upward modulation at 0:40.

Zager + Evans | In the Year 2525

It’s 2025, and our AI overlords have just begun their domination of the human species. What will life be like five hundred years hence?

Zager and Evans, a duo who met as students at Nebraska Wesleyan University, explained the consequences of technological change run amok with their only hit, “In the Year 2525 (Exordium + Terminus),” a Billboard #1 hit in 1969. Each verse increments the year described by 1010 years, so we have the sequence 2525, 3535, 4545, and so on, up to 9595. 1010 is not necessarily the most logical interval, but makes for a handy piece of songwriting.

There are upward half-step modulations at 1:34 and 2:12. The fan-made video is cut together from excerpts derived from Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic film Metropolis, in all of its retro-futuristic splendor.

Sharon Tandy | The Way She Looks At You

In 1964, Sharon Tandy moved from her native South Africa to the UK to pursue her musical career. Through the end of the 1960s, she released a string of UK singles, mostly on Atlantic, achieving moderate success. A few of the Atlantic sides were recorded at the Stax studio (à la Dusty in Memphis). Her material spans the gamut of the popular music of the period, with songs that fit into the “pop”. “soul”, and “rock” categories.

Her cover of “Our Day Will Come” is notable: Originally performed as a bossa nova by Ruby and The Romantics, the song is turned into a raw Janis/Big Brother-flavored uptempo rocker, with backup provided by Southampton band Fleur de Lys.

“The Way She Looks At You” (1968) falls neatly into the pop category. The song was written by Brian Potter and Graham Dee. Potter is best known for his collaborations with Dennis Lambert, with hits like “Don’t Pull Your Love” (by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) and “Two Divided By Love” (by The Grass Roots). The swinging horn arrangement shouts “1960s London,” doesn’t it? The groove falls away for a harmonically dynamic instrumental transition begins at 1:39. The tune settles into a new key one half-step up at 1:50.

Anne Murray + Céline Dion | When I Fall in Love

What’s Canadian and sweet? A Tim Horton’s doughnut? Yes, that, and the
voices of Anne Murray and Céline Dion harmonizing on the standard
“When I Fall in Love”.

The song, written by Victor Young and Edward Heyman for the 1952 movie
One Minute to Zero, has become a jazz standard ballad over the years. The tune has had myriad interpretations: Doris Day had a hit version that same year, and Nat “King” Cole recorded his well-known version in 1956. Céline Dion did a version with Clive Griffin for the movie Sleepless in Seattle in 1993, which was also released as a charting single. In 1996, Natalie Cole recorded the song as a virtual duet with her late father, winning a Grammy for her effort.

This live version, appeared on Anne Murray’s 2007 album Duets: Friends & Legends, although it was recorded in 1998 for a DVD release. Murray takes the opening verse in the key of A major. After a climb to D major at 0:54, Dion takes the next verse. The song continues in D, featuring both voices in sweet harmony. At 3:13, there’s a flirtation with F before a return to D at 3:20.

The Searchers | Needles and Pins

Jackie DeShannon was the first to record “Needles and Pins,” credited to Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono, in 1963. She has claimed co-authorship of the song. But the song’s big hit was scored by the British Invasion group The Searchers, released early the next year. That was their second UK #1, after “Sweets For My Sweet” from 1963. In the US, the song reached a respectable #13 on the Billboard charts. Later in 1964, their cover of The Clovers’ “Love Potion No. 9” became their best-charting song in America (#3).

According to Songfacts, “two 6-string guitars are playing in unison on the intro — it sounds like a 12-string guitar because an engineer accidentally left the echo switch on but liked the result.”

After the bridge, the third verse (1:24) lands a third up from the starting key.

Frank Sinatra | Strangers In the Night

In the midst of rock’s mid-60s domination of the pop music charts, Frank Sinatra’s treacly 1966 rendition of “Strangers in the Night” was a major hit. The music was written by Bert Kaempfert, with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. In the US, the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and on the Easy Listening chart. The same-named album containing the single, with arrangements by long-time collaborator Nelson Riddle, was also a US #1 release. That album also contained “Summer Wind,” another Sinatra staple, though that song fared less well as a single.

Sinatra disliked the song, and wasn’t shy about mentioning it. See this dedicated Sinatra fan page for some of his very colorful commentary about the tune!

The scat-singing that starts at 2:20 gave rise to innumerable sophomoric bathroom graffiti quoting Sinatra’s do-be-do-be-do and the pithy wisdom of various philosophers.

There’s a whole-step modulation, from F major to G major, for the final verse at 2:01. According to the Wikipedia page for the song, referencing The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits, Sinatra had trouble nailing the modulation, so the two sections were recorded separately and spliced together.

The Duprees | You Belong to Me

In 1952, “You Belong to Me” was a #1 hit for singer Jo Stafford backed by the orchestra led by her husband, pianist Paul Weston. That arrangement features distinctive marimba rolls and ensemble saxophone phrases. The song was written by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, and Redd Stewart, and first recorded by Joni James earlier in 1952. King and Stewart are best known as the writers of the country standard “Tennessee Waltz.” Stafford was known for her perfect pitch and vocal accuracy, perhaps adding to the comedic value of the talentless musicians act she and Weston later created, “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.” The song has since been widely recorded; there are versions by Patti Page, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan, among others.

The Duprees were a doo-wop group from New Jersey, who recorded for the independent Coed label beginning starting in the early 1960s, and later for Columbia. The tune here was from their 1962 debut album of the same name. The single peaked at #7 on Billboard. In 1970, the group changed their name to The Italian Asphalt & Pavement Co. (ed. note: shudder), with a change in sound to match; they recorded one album under that moniker. As with many groups from the doo-wop period, there is an extant group carrying on with the name, though none of the original Duprees is in it.

The song starts out in C♯ major. Coming out of the bridge, there’s a modulation to D at 1:41 for the final verse. There’s an unmistakable doo-wop cliché vocal cadenza at 2:12 to settle into the outro.

Sandie Shaw | Wight is Wight

Sandie Shaw, the “Barefoot Pop Princess,” had three UK number one hits, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” (1964),  “Long Live Love” (1965), and “Puppet On a String” (1967), as well as several other charting singles from the 1960s through the 1990s. Her version of “Your Time Is Gonna Come” from the album Reviewing the Situation (1969) was the first-ever Led Zeppelin cover. She was the first-ever British winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, when “Puppet On a String” topped the UK charts made her the first British female singer ever to have three number one records (Express.co.uk).

“Wight is Wight” was a French-language hit (1969), written and performed by Michel Delpech. The song title alludes to the Isle of Wight music festival, and makes a sly reference to “Black Is Black,” the 1966 hit by the Spanish beat group Los Bravos.

Sandie Shaw sang the song with its original lyrics and, using the same backing track, the English-language version here was released as a single in 1970, and included as a bonus track on a CD reissue of Reviewing the Situation. We’re unable to find the source of the English lyrics; they may well have been written by Sandie Shaw. Shaw’s tightly-controlled vibrato is on full display here. A whole-step bump awaits at 2:08.