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Special Series | Legally Blonde

Here at MotD, we take pride in featuring music from all genres, in the hopes of appealing to the tastes of all our fans while also introducing most to something new. And while key changes play a vital part in every style of song, from a Doobie Brothers hit to a Chopin ballad, perhaps nowhere is their dramatic effect as pronounced as in the musical theatre repertoire. Within the musical theatre canon, I think it is fair to say that no show boasts more key changes than Legally Blonde. So this week, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the release of the Legally Blonde film, we are featuring five songs from Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin’s score for the Broadway musical.

As the week progresses, I encourage you to think about how the modulations contribute to and enhance the arc of each song. At first glance, it can appear that having so many key changes is somewhat gratuitous; I would argue that each one has a purpose in communicating the story, and together, they define the sound of the show.

Hope you enjoy this five-part series. Off to Harvard University!

Henry Lewers

Founder, Modulation of the Day

Garbage | Breaking Up the Girl

“The voice and mind behind 90s alt-rock anthems ‘Happy When it Rains’, ‘Stupid Girl’ and ‘Supervixen’ hates talking about individual songs, or the meaning of lyrics, or what makes this or that tune a good single,” The Guardian reports.

Despite becoming a “tough-talking, smart-mouthed, big-boot-wearing icon to a generation,” Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson, an Edinburgh native, has often had trouble with the business side of the music business. ‘When we first started out, we were signed to an indie label. We had a lot of freedom. Then we got sold like a commodity to a record label that did not give a flying fuck about our music or our career or us as people. And it was a nightmare. They had all these corporate expectations about us. We didn’t care if we weren’t the biggest band in the world! But to this record label, if you’re not the biggest band in the world, then you’re worthless. I just do not adhere to that principle.’ All the artists she loves, from Patti Smith to Siouxsie Sioux, ‘didn’t sell anything.'”

2001’s “Breaking Up the Girl” features plenty of the pristine, highly-produced wall-of-sound textures for which the band is famous. The video — which looks to have been shot in a computer chip manufacturer’s clean room with the aid of a robotic arm — is also standard fare for the band’s singularly stark visual aesthetic. At 2:33, the dense groove falls entirely away, clearing the stage for a whole-step modulation before rebuilding itself for a final iteration of the hook at 3:08.

Stephen Christopher Anthony | Capable Of

“Capable Of” is from a new musical, Chaining Zero, that is currently in development. The show has had multiple readings and workshops, including a recent one in New York. The writers, Jeffrey James and Justin Halpin, have been releasing musical numbers on various social media platforms in a series, Chaining Zero Sessions, featuring notable Broadway performers such as Christopher Jackson, Jackie Burns, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Stephen Christopher Anthony. Key change from A to B at 2:56.

Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra | Star Eyes

Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul, “Star Eyes” was initially recorded by Stephane Grappelli, praised by NPR as “one of the jazz world’s greatest violinists. Grappelli first found fame in France with Django Reinhart’s Quintette du Hot Club. He went on to an illustrious career playing with everyone from Oscar Peterson to Paul Simon to Yo-Yo Ma.”

In 1943, the tune became part of the soundtrack for the movie I Dood It. IMDB summarizes the plot of the wartime film: “A bumbling pants presser at an upscale hotel’s valet service nurses an unrequited crush on a Broadway star. He gets more than he bargained for when she agrees to marry him, to spite her womanizing fiance, and encounters Nazi saboteurs.” Variety gave the film a tepid review: “Metro has wrapped Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, among other names, around a popular Skelton radio phrase that’s used for the film’s title, and the net result is moderate entertainment. I Dood It is, by Metro’s usual standards, not one of its best musicals, but that’s due mostly to the screenplay. While the plot of a musical can generally be accepted only as a cue for the song-and-dance, the failing is particularly apparent in Dood It.”

Other than the soundtrack, a redeeming facet of the film is that it managed to feature jazz pianist Hazel Scott and triple-threat Lena Horne, two pillars of the African-American arts community (though Scott was born in Trinidad). Both women later became known for their civil rights activism.

After the tune starts in Db major with Bob Elberly on vocals, 1:32 brings a quickening tempo and a harmonically unsettled transition. At 1:52, the big band’s conductor, the one and only Jimmy Dorsey, stops keeping time and delivers an all-too-short alto sax solo in G major. At 2:19, it’s Helen O’Connor’s turn to shine, with a section in Bb major.

A big thanks to Jamie A. for another wonderful submission!

Toussaint McCall | If I Had a Hammer

Toussaint McCall, born in 1934 in Monroe, Louisiana, is an American R&B singer and organist. “At times a stirring soul balladeer, organist, and vocalist, Toussaint McCall doesn’t have a lengthy string of hits,” AllMusic reports. “But his 1967 version of ‘Nothing Takes the Place of You’ was among that year’s finest performances. It gave McCall his lone R&B hit, reaching number five … He continued performing and recording for Southern independent labels, and made a cameo in the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray.”

The seminal folk song “If I Had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. According to the site Hymn Wiki, the tune “was written in 1949 in support of the progressive movement, and was first recorded by The Weavers, a folk music quartet composed of Seeger, Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, and then by Peter, Paul and Mary.”

McCall’s cover of the tune (date unknown, likely the 1960s) adds an mid-tempo R&B feel to the classic, featuring what is likely his B3 organ playing as well. Half-step modulations hit at 0:44, 1:14, and 1:45. Thanks to our champion guest poster JB for this find!

Young Rascals | How Can I Be Sure

The Young Rascals’ “How Can I Be Sure” was a 1967 follow-up to “Groovin‘” and was influenced by The Beatles, for whom The Young Rascals opened their landmark 1965 Shea Stadium concert, the Montgomery News reports: “The only reason we were brave enough to do that (release a ballad in ¾ time as a single) was The Beatles did ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday.’” remembers co-writer Felix Cavaliere.

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die puts the band in context with its era: “Though The Young Rascals started as a down-and-dirty garage-rock band with an R&B fringe, by 1967, bandleaders Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brigati, and Gene Cornish—like the rest of their songwriting generation—were looking to push pop into the psychedelic era, while loading it up with some of the sophisticated elements that had charmed their parents decades earlier.”

The tune reached #4 on the US pop charts and #1 in Canada and is certainly a departure from the band’s harder-edged origins. According to Songfacts, “The Young Rascals’ original version didn’t hit in the UK and the first time it charted was in 1970 when a revival by Dusty Springfield scraped into the charts at #36. Two years later David Cassidy, who was at the time along with The Osmonds the most popular teen idol in the UK, went all the way to the top of the British singles chart with his cover.”

The tune flips back and forth between D major and D minor throughout and pivots to C major briefly at the end of the chorus (for the first time at 0:47 – 0:51).

Sweet Dreams | I’m Never Giving Up

According to SongsforEurope.com, the group Sweet Dreams was convened specifically to perform “I’m Never Giving Up” in A Song for Europe 1983, the United Kingdom’s preliminary round to the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. The BBC reported that “on the night of Eurovision 1983, held at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, Sweet Dreams performed third in a field of twenty. They finished the contest in sixth place.”

From Eurovision.tv: “The host for the evening was Marlene Charell, who presented the show in three languages: German, French and English. Due to the trilingual presentation, the contest lasted more than three hours for the first time ever.”

One of MotD’s earliest supporters, HC from Copenhagen, submitted this track years ago. But the message unfortunately got stuck in the bottom of the clunky inbox system for Facebook pages and was essentially lost for nearly a decade. HC’s take on the tune: “Here’s one I particularly like, complete with bar stool choreography. Everything about this song is awesome: jogging costumes, catchy chorus, full orchestra in 144 bpm shuffle, inside-a-toaster scenography, the ass-shake ending … Only Great Britain in the 80s!”

The tune starts at the 0:40 mark. After plenty of reiterations of a sprightly hook from the flute and piccolo, an upward whole-step modulation hits (3:04) after colliding with a downward synth glissando, the aforementioned bar stool move, and a two-beat suspension of the frenetic groove. Many thanks to HC for this submission — and for his supreme patience!

Los Saviñón | Ciudad Hermosa

With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, a composer known for his works Pippin, Working, and Wicked (among many others), “Beautiful City” was featured in Schwartz’s Godspell (1971). From the synopsis of the production on Schwartz’s site: “Based on the New Testament gospels, mostly St. Matthew, Godspell uses the parables and passion story of Jesus for an inventively theatrical and interactive show about the formation of a community.” To call the show a national phenomenon isn’t an overstatement. In an interview with Broadway World, Schwartz recalled: “I think there were … 10 productions running at the same time and they were like sit down in various cities. So, I spent about a year of my life traveling around the country working on productions of Godspell.”

JewSchool.com describes Schwartz’s apparent focus on “biblical- and religious-themed” work: “In addition to Godspell, he’s the songwriter behind Prince of Egypt (the animated musical retelling of the Exodus story) and Children of Eden (a musical rethinking of the first nine chapters of Genesis). He wrote the lyrics to Bernstein’s Mass … ” However, “the song is surprisingly humanistic. The rallying cry is to build ‘not a city of angels, but finally a city of man.’”

Mexican a cappella sextet Los Saviñón‘s web presence is long on music and short on descriptions, but here’s an excerpt from its bio, translated from Spanish: “We are an a cappella vocal group formed at the end of 2013. (We explore) popular music from different times and places, focusing mainly on a repertoire in Spanish. We have performed in important venues in Mexico City and in the interior of the republic.”

The group’s rendition of “Beautiful City,” arranged by David Pineda, includes the familiar key changes of some other renditions — but adds a few more for good measure. This effect is most noticeable towards the end of verse 1, which wraps up at 0:35. Recorded “en casa” (in the performers’ respective homes) at the start of the COVID pandemic (April 2020), the video demonstrates the resourcefulness and cohesion-at-a-distance which were required of so many musical ensembles during the worst of the pandemic.

Tower of Power | Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground

“A renowned horn-driven outfit, Tower of Power emerged in the late ’60s playing a dynamic blend of R&B, soul, funk, and AM pop,” according to AllMusic’s collective bio. “Along with the similarly inclined Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power helped push the sound of brass-infused music into the rock era. Led by Detroit-born tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo, the Oakland, California-based group scored hits like ‘You’re Still a Young Man’ and ‘What Is Hip?’ throughout the ’70s. They also became one of the most sought-after backing ensembles in pop, playing on recordings by Elton John, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Little Feat, David Sanborn, Michelle Shocked, Paula Abdul, Aaron Neville, Aerosmith, Public Image Ltd., and many others.”

The band’s origins date back to 1967, Oakland, CA, and a different name, “The Motowns.” In an interview with American Highways, Castillo discussed his relationship to the funk sound that is the foundation of ToP: “Ever since I was a teenager, I have always liked to mess with the rhythm of the music. I used to make up these weird percolator kind of beats and dictate them to my brother, who was the drummer at the time, and make him learn them.” The same process applied to the bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist: “So it’s kind of like when it comes to music, I try to build a little building and make a fabric that breathes.”

From ToP’s self-titled third album (1973) comes “Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground.” This multi-tiered funk romp was not a single (unlike “What is Hip” and “So Very Hard to Go” from the same album), yet qualifies as far more than filler. A very late modulation shifts the key up a half-step at 4:26.

Edge of the World, feat. Yvonne Elliman (from “War Games”)

The 1983 film War Games targeted a teen demographic, but was well-reviewed as a thriller for general audiences. The film captured the Cold War zeitgeist of the US completely: nearly half of the country (100 million TV viewers) had just lived through the airing of the The Day After, a film about the dire consequences of nuclear war. From a review by the renowned film critic Roger Ebert: “Sooner or later, one of these self-satisfied, sublimely confident thinking machines is going to blow us all off the face of the planet. That is the message of War Games, a scary and intelligent new thriller … The movie stars Matthew Broderick as David, a bright high school senior who spends a lot of time locked in his bedroom with his home computer. He speaks computerese well enough to dial by telephone into the computer at his school and change his grades. But he’s ready for bigger game.”

David interacts with a supercomputer which just happens to belong to the United States Department of Defense; he unwillingly triggers it to play a “game” which leads DoD personnel to think that an actual nuclear attack on the US is underway. MovieThemeSong.com explains that the supercomputer “begins simulating endless nuclear war scenarios, every one ending with the result ‘WINNER: NONE.’ Eventually (it) comes to the film’s famous conclusion about nuclear war: The only winning move is not to play.”

The film’s score, written by busy film/TV composer Arthur B. Rubinstein (not to be confused with the noted classical pianist), included an instrumental closing credit entitled “Edge of the World.” This shorter version features vocalist Yvonne Elliman, perhaps most known for “If I Can’t Have You” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977). The video features scenes of the nascent romance between David and his classmate Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), complicated by the very real risk that their world might soon disappear. Modulations are more the rule than the exception on this short track, starting at 0:28.

Variety reports that Rubinstein, who died in 2018 at age 80, reflecting on his career, said: “In classical music and jazz there is a constant, living swirl of wonder and discovery — both sensual and intellectual. As a composer and conductor, I’ve always tried, in some way, to be part of that swirl.”