Culture Club | Time (Clock of the Heart)

“Time (Clock of the Heart)” wasn’t released on the debut Culture Club album Kissing to be Clever; “it was a stand-alone single that proved another smash hit and was later added to the album in America.” (Diffuser.FM) “In the process, Culture Club pulled off a pretty amazing feat, becoming the first UK band since the Beatles to have three singles from a debut album make the Top 10 in America. Despite the grand success of the music, for many the look often overtook the sound as the media began a love affair with the band, and George in particular. ‘People felt there was something really happening,’ said Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. ‘I think that was the main thing. People would look and say, Blimey, what is this?‘”

In a GQ interview, George recalls he “was obsessed with music as a little kid, that was where I escaped to. I shared a room with my four brothers and most of the time I didn’t have the room to myself, so whenever I could I would have the record player on. I’d listen to everything from Irish show tunes to early Bowie, T. Rex and disco. Discovering Bowie was the ‘Whoa, that’s what I want to be’ moment. I was 11 and somehow my dad got me a ticket to see Ziggy Stardust.”

“It was kind of almost overnight for us,” he said in a 2015 interview. “You know, one minute we were an unknown band that literally couldn’t get signed, but once we got on TV, it was the public, more than anything, that decided they liked us and I think that’s always been the case.”

Starting in G minor, the 1982 single features a short instrumental bridge at 2:26 in Bb minor before settling into the next chorus at 2:43.

See What I Wanna See (from “See What I Wanna See”)

“See What I Wanna See” is the title song from the 2005 Off-Broadway musical by composer Michael John LaChiusa. Based on three short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, the show has had an extensive life in university and regional productions, and a second NYC production was mounted in 2013. Idina Menzel performs the track featured here, which modulates up a half step from A to Bb at 2:04.

Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong | Dream a Little Dream of Me 

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded a duet cover of this 1931 Ozzie Nelson tune in the 1950s. Originally released as a single, the track has subsequently been included on many compilation albums featuring the two singers. Starting in C, the tune modulates up a half step to Db at 1:57.

Various Artists | Expo 2020 Dubai Theme Song: This Is Our Time

ShareAmerica explains that “world Expos are global gatherings of nations that welcome tens of millions of visitors and include country pavilions that transform their host cities for years. The Dubai Expo will be the first held in the Middle East … The six-month event will open this month, following a one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The USA Pavilion’s exhibits will include “moon rocks, a Mars rover and Thomas Jefferson’s Quran.”

Written by Joseph Dickinson and Lucy Torchia, the Expo’s expansive, anthemic theme “This Is Our Time” was recorded in on several continents: Las Vegas, Dubai, Macedonia, Egypt, and the UK. The primary performers were Emeratis Hussain Al Jassmi and Almas, as well as Mayssa Karaa, an American born in Beirut, Lebanon. The tune modulates up a whole step at 3:37.

Many thanks to our busy contributor Ziyad, who is from the UAE.

The Jags | Back of My Hand

“Record labels and radio in the U.K. were grudgingly forced to allow new-wave and punk sounds to edge onto the airwaves in the late-’70s, long before their U.S. big brothers would even consider such an experiment. The Jags were perfectly suited to seize that moment.” (Magnet Magazine)

“The Jags’ sound in 1979 was jangly and based around clean, ringing guitar, with slashing rhythms, quick musical changes and expertly precise three-minute arrangements. Their original songs were upbeat, full of hooks, elegant melodies and guttural rock energy: a perfect model of power-pop/new-wave fun. (The UK press) quickly tagged the band as ‘Elvis Costello imitators,'” a comparison which the band wasn’t able to transcend.

After a start in E major, “Back of My Hand” (1979) features a downward shift to G major during an instrumental break (2:03), then a return to E major at 2:14 for a bridge that pivots about as if it might modulate to F# major at 2:29 — but doesn’t. According to AllMusic, the tune had “a chart life of 10 weeks and peaked at #17 in the UK. In the US, the song peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

Eva Cassidy | Time Is a Healer

“Time Is A Healer” was featured on American singer Eva Cassidy’s first studio album, Eva By Heart, released one year after Cassidy’s death from melanoma at age 33. The track, with music by Diane Scanlon and Greg Smith and lyrics by Cassidy, is characteristic of Cassidy’s style — a full-throated soprano infused with bluesy soul and passion. Her work has been met with posthumous success, charting in the top 10 across Europe.

The tune starts in E major and modulates up to F# for the final chorus at 3:22.

Gladys Knight + The Pips | Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me

Vocalist Gladys Knight, according to IMDB, won the Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour talent show (1948) at age of seven. She later built a lasting career with her longtime backup singers/dancers, “The Pips,” comprised of her brother and two of her cousins. Perhaps best known for the tracks “Midnight Train to Georgia (1973) and 1985’s “That’s What Friends Are For,” Knight was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. She’s won seven Grammy Awards out of her total of 22 nominations.

All of the Pips have now retired. But The Guardian reviewed one of Knight’s 2019 concerts, remarking on her extraordinary energy and enduring appeal: “Uplifting anthems came laden with poignant nostalgia on a night where the vivacious veteran showed no sign of stopping … an astonishing 58 years after ‘Every Beat of My Heart’ hit the US charts … she is still clearly having fun, telling her euphoric audience: ‘We’ve been hanging out for, errrr … many, many years’ to ripples of laughter. Moments later, she quips, ‘I feel it coming on. Be careful not to hurt yourself.’”

“Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” written by Jim Weatherly, was released during the very heart of Knight’s prominence (1974); it became a huge hit in the US (#3, Pop; #10, Adult Contemporary; #1, R&B) and also went into the top ten in the UK and Canada. Knight sails a high tonic note from the new key over the transition into the modulation at 1:43 — along with her warm and slightly raspy tone, a true trademark.

Sheena Easton | Morning Train (9 to 5)

The 1980 hit “Morning Train (9 to 5),” written by Florrie Palmer and recorded by Scottish singer Sheena Easton, rose to the top of the U.S. adult and contemporary charts and was certified gold. Originally released in the UK with the title “9 to 5,” it was re-named “Morning Train” upon its US release to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton hit, which was released that same year. The track has since been featured in numerous TV shows including Will & Grace, Good Girls, and South Park.

Characterized by a driving, insistent quarter note pulse, the tune begins in G major before smoothly transitioning to C for the opening verse at 0:18, and subsequently alternating between C and G for the verses and choruses respectively.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Piano Concerto #1, 2nd movement (Tedd Joselson, piano)

From the CBC’s feature on Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto (1866): “It’s among the most popular works in the entire classical repertoire, a favorite of concert pianists headlining with symphony orchestras the world over … The concerto was an immediate success and has been a staple of the repertoire ever since, its penetration into pop culture later being confirmed by its use on The Simpsons, Mad Men and numerous films. Its most famous performance happened at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 — the height of the Cold War — when pianist Van Cliburn played it in the final round. It took approval by then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev for the jury to award the first prize to an American.”

Radio Free Europe reports that after Russia’s name, flag, and anthem were banned from all major sporting competitions from 2021 to 2023 by the World Anti-Doping Agency due to violations, Russian nationals competing in the Olympics instead heard a fragment of the Concerto when Russian athletes at those events won a gold medal.

After pizzicato strings and a soaring flute begin the piece gently in Db major, the piano states the theme. After an early transition section starts at 1:08 with a mischievous sense of mystery, we land in D major at 1:24 for a full feature by the woodwinds. Thereafter, plenty of other dramatic shifts continue, with the orchestra refusing to take a back seat to the piano in most sections.

Nancy Sinatra | Highway Song

“Best known for the empowering 1966 chart-topper ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,’ Nancy Sinatra managed to create a sound and style all her own, fully separate from that of her famous father” (AllMusic). “She returned to the singles chart with her fusion of rock, country, and pop over a dozen more times … Though Sinatra last reached the U.S. Hot 100 in 1969, her strong-willed, go-go boots-wearing persona endured through acting roles alongside Elvis Presley and Peter Fonda, a 1981 country album with Mel Tillis (Mel and Nancy) (and) a memoir (1985’s Frank Sinatra, My Father) …”

In the late 60s, she worked with Lee Hazlewood on what became a string of hits — most notably ‘These Boots,’ which garnered three Grammy nominations and went gold. Hazlewood is said to have suggested to Nancy, “‘You can’t sing like Nancy Nice Lady anymore. You have to sing for the truckers.’ She later described him as ‘part Henry Higgins and part Sigmund Freud,'” (Financial Times).

Certainly representative of Sinatra’s sound but not a single until 1970, “Highway Song” (originally released in 1967) charted only in the UK, where it reached #21. The tune modulates up a half step at 2:01. Many thanks to Jamie for this contribution!