“Just Look Up” is an original single written and performed by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi for the Oscar-nominated 2021 movie Don’t Look Up. The songwriters and other members of the film’s creative team, including director Adam McKay and Nicholas Brittell, who is also nominated for his score, discussed the song a behind-the-scenes video.
The tune starts out in A and shifts up to Bb major in a standard direct modulation at 2:42.
Composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes in 1958, “‘Chega de Saudade’ is widely regarded as the first recorded bossa nova song,” (Songfacts). Bossa nova translates approximately to “new tendency” from the original Brazilian Portuguese. “(It was) first recorded by Joao Gilberto on guitar with singer Elizete Cardoso in 1957. Two years later, Gilberto re-recorded the song with a simpler arrangement for his debut album, Chega de Saudade, causing a sensation when the melodic, samba-influenced groove hit Brazilian radio. The Portuguese-language love tune finds the lonely narrator desperately hoping his lover will return. Vinícius de Moraes admitted he struggled writing the lyrics because of ‘the arduousness of trying to fit the words into a melodic structure with so many comings and goings.’
Frank Sinatra, accompanied by Jobim, recorded the tune for his 1967 album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. The bossa nova-influenced pop album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, but lost to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” But Gilberto’s version became part of the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.
The tune is equally balanced between sections in D minor and D major, with the first transition at 0:49 before the form repeats at 1:37. The guitar accompaniment is working overtime to cover the fast chord changes while providing a bass line as well. But Gilberto’s casual vocal delivery obscures the highly syncopated nature of the melody line.
We usually feature an up-tempo track on Fridays. But in light of this week’s invasion of Ukraine, focusing on music’s ability to bolster our common humanity seemed like the best choice for today.
“Finlandia is probably the most widely known of all the compositions of Jean Sibelius,” (This is Finland). “Most people with even a superficial knowledge of classical music recognise the melody immediately. The penultimate hymn-like section is particularly familiar; soon after it was published, the ‘Finlandia Hymn’ was performed with various words as far afield as the USA.”
In 1899, Sibelius composed the music “for a series of tableaux illustrating episodes in Finland´s past … a contribution towards the resistance (against) Russian influence … While Finland was still a Grand Duchy under Russia, performances within the empire had to take place under the covert title of “Impromptu” … In Finland, the ‘Finlandia Hymn’ was not sung until Finnish words for it were written by the opera singer Wäinö Sola in 1937. After the Russian aggression against Finland in 1939 (the Winter War), the Finnish poet V.A. Koskenniemi supplied a new text, the one that has been used ever since. Sibelius arranged the Hymn for mixed choir as late as 1948.”
Keith Bosley’s English translation of Koskenniemi´s text:
Finland, behold, thy daylight now is dawning,
the threat of night has now been driven away.
The skylark calls across the light of morning,
the blue of heaven lets it have its way,
and now the day the powers of night is scorning:
thy daylight dawns, O Finland of ours!Finland, arise, and raise towards the highest
thy head now crowned with mighty memory.
Finland, arise, for to the world thou criest
that thou hast thrown off thy slavery,
beneath oppression´s yoke thou never liest.
Thy morning´s come, O Finland of ours!
The lyrics most frequently used in modern-day protest and worship settings were updated yet again by Lloyd Stone. The third verse is attributed to Georgia Harkness:
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.
May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together,
a world united, righting every wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song*
This contemporary arrangement of the piece (2021), performed by British vocal octet ensemble VOCES8, is by the group’s tenor, Blake Morgan. VOCES8 “is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertoire both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos.” The Guardian describes the ensemble’s sound as “the beauty of perfectly blended unblemished voices.”
After beginning in G# major, there is a modulation up to B major at 2:36. Many thanks to Jackie D. for bringing this arrangement to our attention!
Cascada is a German eurodance band whose music has been viewed over a billion times on Youtube. They have released four studio albums, most recently in 2011, and are one of the most successful dance music acts ever. “Could It Be You” is featured on the 2009 album Perfect Day. The track begins in C# minor and dramatically modulates up a half step to D minor at 2:55.
RareSoulMan.com describes Harold Hopkins as “a mysterious artist with a sublime vocal style … Texas Northern Soul offering not one but two sides of slick finger-snapping … showcasing an expressive vocal … only recording this one record under the name Harold Hopkins.”
“Where most soul genres are named for either the region that the music where the music was created, or for the sound of the music, Northern Soul is named after where the music was played — in dance clubs in northern Britain,” (AllMusic). “During the early ’70s, once the Mods had run out of steam and prog rock was ruling the landscape, there were a handful of underground dance clubs that played nothing but ’60s soul records, and they weren’t any ordinary oldies. Instead, the DJs at these clubs were obsessive collectors, finding the most obscure American soul singles. Usually, these records sounded like Motown, Chicago soul, or New York soul, but they were records by unknown or underappreciated performers.”
“Glamour Girl” (1965) might not have received much notice, but it is quintessential mid-1960s soul nonetheless. The key change is at 1:40.
American singer Grace Potter released her third solo album, Daylight, in 2019, featuring “Love Is Love” as the first track. “Daylight is an incredibly unfiltered musical expression of who I want to be,” Potter said in an interview with Billboard. “It’s a journal. It’s really personal. It’s a very powerful feeling to become a mother, to fall in love and also to watch and experience love falling apart and say goodbye to an entire era of your life.”
The tune begins in Ab and shifts up a step to Bb following the second chorus at 1:54.
“Play with Fire is The Reign of Kindo’s third full length record,” (CandyRat Records). “… music that pinpoints the middle ground between a respect for past greats and a boldness to pave tomorrow. This is, quite modestly, the definition of The Reign of Kindo. Citing influences from Dave Brubeck to Ben Folds to Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to John Mayer, there’s not a degree of pomposity in this sound, just an honesty in the group’s craft to blend such diverse influences into an identity.”
Perhaps some of the highest possible praise for this eclectic indie/prog/jazz/rock/etc. band comes from Sputnik Music: “… me and my dad can listen together in the car without one of us saying ‘God, this sucks.'”
Starting in A minor, “The Man, the Wood and the Stone” (2013) is full of harmonic pivots. At 2:01, we’ve shifted to Db major; 2:19, C major; 2:30, A major … accelerating and building from there. Other than a difference in meter, the final melodic phrases of the album-closing track (3:24) mirror the first phrases of the opening track, “The Hero, The Saint, The Tyrant, & The Terrorist” — weighty bookends for a wide-ranging album.
Belinda Carlisle, lead singer of the girl group synonymous with early 1980s pop, The Go-Go’s, later left for a solo career. Stereogum reports that in December 1987, “Carlisle had the #1 single in America, and she had it with a fiercely, fervently, almost defiantly mainstream song. Carlisle’s big hit is a simple, straightforward love song built around terms so overstated that they cross over into actual religious territory. In the video, Carlisle makes out with her husband, a Hollywood scion who was once part of the Republican political machine … (In the decade proceeding the hit), Belinda Carlisle went full normie. Along the way, though, she made a hell of an impact.”
“‘Heaven Is a Place on Earth’ is a glimmering, expensive-sounding pop record, with that shiny-synth/big-drum thing that you hear on practically every successful record of the era … On his Hit Parade podcast a couple of years ago, Chris Molanphy points out that (songwriters Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley) took that trick from Bon Jovi, who’d used it on ‘You Give Love A Bad Name.’ Later on, that chorus-up-front move became a go-to trick for late-’90s boy-band producers. It’s some effective shit! When a chorus is big enough, there’s no need to be subtle about it. You can just bludgeon it directly into somebody’s brain before the song even starts.” Songwriter Ellen Shipley sang backup on the song, as did Diane Warren and Michelle Phillips (of The Mamas and The Papas fame); synth-driven songwriter and music tech groundbreaker Thomas Dolby served as a session keyboardist for the track. Stereogum continues: “You almost certainly can’t pick out those individual voices or keyboard tones … but you can definitely hear that there’s money in the song … it’s the sound of ’80s blockbuster pop cranked all the way up to full power. It sounds like Top Gun.”
After a start in E major, 3:23 brings an unprepared shift upward to F# major — if “unprepared” is a broad enough term to include a bombastic instrumental chorus (starting at 3:09), plenty of percussion pyrotechnics, an insistent re-statement of the keyboard hook, and a 2/4 bar thrown into the 4/4 mix to bring us to the key change with the g-force of a hairpin rollercoaster turn.
“Through It All” is the last track on American singer Charlie Puth’s 2018 album Voicenotes. In an interview with Billboard, Puth described the sound of the album as “like walking down a dirt road and listening to New Edition in 1989 — and being heartbroken, of course.” The album was nominated for a Grammy and reached the #4 spot on the Billboard 200.
The track begins in A and has a standard direct modulation up to B at 2:39.
The May 14, 2020 installment of the Chicago Tribune’s “Coronavirus Overdue Film Festival“ featured a review of the now-obscure 1954 film “Athena”:
“The phrase ‘MGM musical’ shimmers with nostalgia, but what does it evoke, exactly? Technicolor dreams of tuneful romance? Backlot depictions of Times Square, Paris or the Scottish Highlands, along with occasional bursts of realism, as when the 1949 “On the Town” managed to sneak in a few days’ location filming in New York City? Yes, all that. Also, orchestral swells and mile-wide Gene Kelly and Judy Garland smiles, and a deathless handful of triple threats who really could sing, act and dance. But the ‘MGM musical’ label misleads. So many MGM musicals, the famous ones, were treated to royal budgets and top talent, while so many others had to settle for smaller budgets, mismatched contract players and lesser material. For every ‘Singin’ in the Rain‘ or ‘The Band Wagon‘ there’s a lesser-known commodity — or outright oddity — revealing a different story, more about the musical genre’s struggles to remain vital than the onscreen romantic complications taxing our patience in between numbers.
One of the strangest is ‘Athena,’ … a contemporary riff on MGM’s big musical draw that year, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers‘ … Crooner and sometime actor Vic Damone, a diffident MGM staple of the day, paired off in ‘Athena’ with Debbie Reynolds. They’re treated to the duet “Imagine,” a melodically unpredictable standout in the Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane score … There are compensations, as there are in other offbeat, youth-craze MGM titles of the era … Damone may have been a mite bland, but he could sing.”
According to the trailer, the film was categorized as a romantic comedy — but not quite like the rom-coms viewers became accustomed to in the 1990s! Apparently much of the action took place in the family home of Reynolds’ character; the family were health and wellness enthusiasts. The movie took that premise and ran with it, dropping a Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest into the film (see trailer, below) … as one does.
Jamie A., the former host of Cinema Songbook on Martha’s Vineyard’s WVVY FM, submitted the tune. He adds more detail: “This movie actually started out as an idea for a film with Esther Williams, about a goddess come to life on Earth. But studio bosses were trying to force her out because her films were too high budget, and they sabotaged her last film at MGM, ‘Jupiter’s Darling’ (worth a view—a musical about Hannibal’s march on Rome with elephants!). The concept changed drastically when Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds took over.”
Damone’s feature is in A major, transitioning to Reynolds’ section in Gb major at 1:12.
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