The Platt Brothers | Ahavat Olam

Broadway Buzz reports that “Ben Platt won a 2017 Tony Award for his breakout performance in Dear Evan Hansen. He got his start in a national tour of Caroline, or Change at age 11 before snagging the breakout role of Benji in Pitch Perfect and its sequel. After starring in the national tour of The Book of Mormon, Platt made his Broadway debut as Elder Cunningham in 2014. His solo album, Sing To Me Instead, was released in March of 2019. He currently stars on the Netflix’s The Politician.”

Turns out that Ben is not the only musically inclined member of his family. Here, he performs the Ahavat Olam with his brothers Jonah and Henry; this setting is by Gabe Mann and Piper Rutman. The Ahavat Olam is the second prayer of Maariv, a prayer service held in the evening or during night time in the Jewish tradition.

Starting in an uncomplicated, peaceful Bb major, a spirited bridge brings a huge change at 2:07: the text shifts from Hebrew to English and Bb minor chords ring out before the section ends in what turns out to be a false modulation to Eb major. But Bb major returns, as does the original Hebrew, at 2:42. Many thanks to our Facebook follower Elizabeth Moore 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.

Waiting in the Wings (from “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure”)

Thanks to new MotD contributor Taylor Hutchinson for this song. “Waiting in the Wings,” from the Disney animated series Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, was awarded a Daytime Emmy this past June, completing Alan Menken’s EGOT set (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards). Performed here by Eden Espinosa, who voices Cassandra in the series who sings this number. Key change is at 1:58.

Celso Fonseca | Sem Resposta

Time Out Sao Paolo defines Música Popular Brasileira (Popular Brazilian Music or MPB), as “a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as Samba … and other Brazilian regional music, combining them with foreign influences, such as jazz and rock … The term is often also used to describe any kind of music with Brazilian origins and ‘voice and guitar style’ that arose in the late 1960s.”

Celso Fonseca, a Brazilian composer, producer, guitarist and singer, has been active within MPB since the 1980s. Starting as an accompanist, composer, and producer, he added solo artist to his resume in the 1990s. The BBC praises Fonseca: “although (he) has played a significant part in producing much of what is good in contemporary Brazilian music, he is hardly a household name abroad.”

“Sem Resposta” (1999), which roughly translates to “No Response,” features an intro (through 0:20) in D major; a verse in D minor (heard for the first time 0:20); and a chorus in D major (0:40). The pattern continues from there.

Roomie | Numb

Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Joel Berghult (aka Roomie) started his YouTube channel in 2010, and has since become a sensation, amassing more than six million subscribers. His content includes original songs, covers, musical commentary and vocal imitations. “Numb,” released in 2014, is one of his originals, and features a key change at 1:36.

The Turtles | She’d Rather Be With Me

“Indebted to the harmony-heavy sound of the British Invasion,” AllMusic summarizes, “The Turtles were the quirkiest mainstream guitar pop group Los Angeles produced in the ’60s.” Of 1967’s “She’d Rather Be With Me,” one of the band’s biggest hits, Songfacts reports that “this bright and brassy pop song was written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, the same songwriting duo that were responsible for The Turtles’ previous hit, ‘Happy Together‘. Joe Wissert’s production features an entire orchestra and a prominent clanging cowbell.”

Songfacts continues: “The band was ‘disappointed with the choice of follow-up to Happy Together,'” according to vocalist Howard Kaylan. “‘We were kind of distraught, because it was such a 1920s razzmatazz kind of a song compared to this mysterious and glorious record we had just bought out. It was like following up Good Vibrations with Barbara Ann. I can’t explain it, but it got higher on the (UK) charts than ‘Happy Together’ did, and on the strength of that record we went over to England.'” The tune title was frequently mistaken as “Some Girls,” including on the cover of a few vinyl releases, as well as this video!

The Turtles’ co-lead vocalists Mark Volman and Kaylan later “joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention for two years, billing themselves as the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (later Flo and Eddie). Their handiwork is found on the Zappa LPs Chunga’s Revenge, 200 Motels, Live At The Fillmore, and Just Another Band From L.A.“

Starting in B major, a sub-V intrudes for a moment at 1:08, giving the impression of the start of a modulation, but it’s a false alarm. Immediately thereafter, a crazy new instrumental double-time groove takes center stage, punctuated by enough syncopated kicks to provide a “where’s 1?” moment to the casual listener. At 1:17, the tune modulates for real, up a half-step, before a new verse starts at 1:24.

The Cars | Got a Lot On My Head

Pitchfork describes the eponymous debut album by The Cars: “It’s a tale as old as time. A band arrives on the scene with an album so fully formed, it seems impossible that they could improve upon it, let alone escape its gravitational pull. The Cars would seem to define this trope. The 1978 debut contains so many classic rock staples, a modern listener could mistake it for a greatest hits collection. But the band is the exception that proves the rule: They managed to move forward from The Cars with a pair of albums that both refined and expanded their tightly wound new wave.”

1979’s Candy-O was an album of equal ambition. AllMusic reports that “the group were a little unhappy with how slick their debut sounded, so they asked (producer) Roy Thomas Baker to dial back the stacked vocals and make sure there was a little dirt in the machine … Candy-O is the rare follow-up to a classic debut that almost reaches the same rarified air … it may be one of the best second albums ever made, full of great songs, inspired performances, and sporting a still-perfect sound …”

Serving as something of a fulcrum for the American branch of New Wave, The Cars were known for “classic-rock riffs and melodies, synthy new-wave cool, wry, often deadpan vocals … a sound unlike any other in 1978,” according to Guitar World. But perhaps the most consistently memorable ingredient which the Boston-based quintet brought to the table was its massive hooks, which were frequently performed by keyboardist Greg Hawkes. In the case of Candy-O’s “Got a Lot on My Head,” lead guitarist Elliot Easton serves up the hook, bursting brashly out of the gates at the very top of the tune over a four-measure A major –> C major loop. The chorus (0:13) oddly appears before the verse, featuring a ii-bVII-I progression in C; 0:31 brings a verse in A major.

Michael Buble | Cry Me A River

Canadian singer Michael Buble recorded the standard “Cry Me A River” for his 2009 album Crazy Love, which was certified five times Platinum and awarded the Best Traditional Pop Vocal album Grammy Award. The BBC used Buble’s dramatic cover of the tune for its advertising of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Key change at 2:57.

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.

Diana Krall | But Beautiful

Canadian jazz vocalist Diana Krall makes her MotD debut today with the jazz standard “But Beautiful,” the first track on her fifteenth studio album, This Dream of You, which was released last Friday. Krall, a three-time Grammy winner and one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz chart. Her unique, smoky vocal style and understated arrangements have led to 15 million albums sold worldwide. There’s a key change at 2:17, with a return to the original key at 3:22.