“Take Me As I Am” is from the 1990 Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde, featuring a score by Frank Wildhord (music), Leslie Bricusse and Steve Cuden (lyrics). Wildhorn in particular is known for his ballads, most of which include a dramatic key change or two. This tune begins in Bb major and shifts up to B at 2:12.
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.
Boney M. | Brown Girl in the Ring
“Brown Girl in the Ring” is a traditional Jamaican children’s song that became an international recognized when it was recorded by the Euro-Caribbean group Boney M. in 1978. The track was originally released as the B-side to “Rivers of Babylon,” (the group’s #1 hit at the time) but crept its way up the charts and spent nine weeks in the UK Top 10.
The disco and reggae-infused tune begins in Db and modulates up to D at 2:19.
Joe Jackson | Real Men
“Joe Jackson is known for vibrant, emotional hits like ‘Is She Really Going Out with Him?,’ ‘Breaking Us in Two,’ and the new wave-ish ‘Steppin’ Out,’ the latter two songs from his 1982 hit album Night and Day,” (American Songwriter). “That seminal release also includes a piano-driven, violin-laced ballad that didn’t manage to get quite as much attention but was way ahead of its time.
… It has been said that the Night and Day album (1982) was a tribute to Cole Porter and his view of New York, and that ‘Real Men’ was referencing the city’s gay culture (which became more prominent in the wake of the six-day Stonewall Uprising in 1969) … Jackson’s debut single and video for Night and Day, ‘Real Men’ did not chart in America and barely charted in the UK, but it managed to go Top 10 in Australia and Top 20 in the Netherlands. The album fared well, becoming one of two Jackson releases to sell half a million copies.”
Built in E minor overall, the somber verses transition to soaring wordless choruses in B major (first heard from 1:04 – 1:26). The tune’s lyrics were edgy at the time — and remain so. But Jackson’s use of “the other F-word” is likely without malice, given his longtime status as an openly bisexual man. There’s plenty of broader commentary on gender overall: Now it’s all changed / It’s got to change more is a line which wouldn’t have been out of place in a Women’s Studies textbook of the era.
The Roches | I Love My Mom
“While just about every critic and fan has a favorite Roches album that was inexplicably ignored, most will probably agree that Speak (1989) was the one that really should have gone gold,” (AllMusic). “All of the ingredients for a huge album are here: emotional yet accessible songs, radio-friendly folk-pop arrangements, and the sisters’ usual mind-blowing vocal pyrotechnics … this album doesn’t have a dud track from end to end. Sure, fans of their early work will find ‘I Love My Mom’ a bit too conventional and poppy … The jazzy backups are well handled and subtle throughout the album, and it’s a classic. Alas, like all Roches albums, it was critically acclaimed but ignored by the public.”
At 0:40, the approach to the second verse gets a touch of The Roches’ trademark oddity factor with a time hiccup — the first of several extra 2/4 measures throughout. After a start in A major, the tune shifts up a whole step to B major at 2:39 in the middle of an instrumental bridge (2:19 – 2:43). Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this great catch!
Once Upon a Time (from “Brooklyn”)
“Once Upon a Time” is from the 2004 Broadway musical Brooklyn by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson. The story follows a group of five homeless musicians in New York City who put on a play about a singer named Brooklyn under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The original production ran for 284 performances.
The track, which features Eden Espinosa in the lead role, begins in Bb and shifts up a half step to B at 2:14.
Chicago | Just You ‘n’ Me
The second single released from Chicago VI (1973), “Just You ‘n’ Me” climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track “was written after a fight between Pankow and his future wife Karen: ‘We had had a huge fight, it was a nasty lovers’ quarrel, if you will. She locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn’t come out…Just You ‘n’ Me poured out of me in its entirety. Usually when I write songs, I come up with an idea for a chorus or a hook and fill in the blanks in stages. This was a moment of clarity I’ve never experienced before or after. It remains a special event in my songwriting experience,'” (Billboard).
“Just You ‘n’ Me” was the final song played by Chicago AM radio station WLS (known as “the Rock of Chicago”) before it changed to a talk radio format in 1989 (WLSHistory.com).
The track starts in Bb major, with the band’s famous brass section playing a strong role from the first measures. 1:04 brings a shift to Ab major before a swaggering brass break brings Bb major back at 1:33. A calmer instrumental break section starts at 2:00, this time in D minor, featuring solo soprano saxophone and keyboards. At 2:40, there’s a shift to the original Bb as the backup vocals return, leading back to a very overdue second verse and a surprising unresolved ending.
Celine Dion | All By Myself
Eric Carmen’s 1975 song “All By Myself” was made famous by the Canadian singer Celine Dion, who included her cover on the 1996 album Falling Into You. Producer David Foster also added a modulation to the song, which has become one of the most iconic key changes in pop music (it is at 2:48.) The track reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became one of Dion’s biggest hits.
In December 2023, Dion announced she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological condition that has made it difficult to sing. A documentary, I Am: Celine Dion, tracing Dion’s journey with the disease, was released on Prime Video last month.
The Impressions | People Get Ready
“Seldom does a song go down in history as not only one of the best popular songs ever written, but as a song that is so universal in composition and message that it can be effectively covered by almost anyone,” (American Songwriter). “But that’s the case with ‘People Get Ready,’ recorded in 1965 by The Impressions and written by the group’s lead singer, Curtis Mayfield. Nearly half a century later the song continues to be recorded and performed by a variety of acts in several genres.
From the album of the same name, (it) was released during a time of civil unrest in America, when the country was in turmoil over race relations and the Vietnam War just as Mayfield was beginning to infuse his work with social commentary. Influenced by the music of the church and his preacher grandmother, Mayfield began singing professionally as a teenager, and his work would go on to define what was the Chicago soul sound as opposed to what was coming out of Berry Gordy’s shop in Detroit at the time. In a 1993 interview with National Public Radio’s Terry Gross … Mayfield said. ‘This is a perfect example of what I believe has laid in my subconscious as to the preaching of my grandmother, and most ministers when they reflect from the Bible.'”
“People Get Ready” was awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998, its first year of eligibility. The song has been covered by literally dozens of other artists, including Bob Dylan, Alicia Keys, Exile and Matisyahu, and guitarist Jeff Beck obviously is a fan of the song, having recorded or performed it with Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Sting and Queen’s Roger Taylor.
A half-step modulation drops during a short, understated guitar feature at the track’s midpoint (1:21).
Frankie Valli + The Four Seasons | Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
“Once the Four Seasons became a consistent success, Frankie Valli established a side career doing solo recordings whose style hearkened back to pre-rock pop,” (AllMusic). “The best and most successful example of his solo work is ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ (1967), (which) would be perfectly at home on one of Frank Sinatra’s mid-1950s albums … The music skillfully blends ballad and pre-rock pop feels by wedding gentle, yearning verses that ebb and flow in a cocktail jazz style to a swinging chorus that bounds along on a series of surging, soaring melodic motifs.
(The track) starts in a ballad style with stately horns drifting a smooth, jazzy beat, undergoes a change midway through where the horns and the beat both start to swing in an uptempo, lounge music style and then shifts back and forth between these two feels for the rest of the song. Valli navigates this tricky set of tempo shifts with graceful style, using a silky tenor croon for the lighter moments and a swaggering baritone in the uptempo moments … (it) became a #2 smash hit and an instant standard that was extensively covered by … Andy Williams, Paul Anka and Englebert Humperdinck … (and has) become an oldies radio favorite and popped up in films as diverse as The Deer Hunter and Conspiracy Theory.“
After starting in E major, the verse features with plenty of harmonic motion over a tonic pedal-point bass. At 2:08, there’s a shift upward to G major for verse 2 — impressive enough that you won’t even mind when you hear verse 1’s lyrics are re-used wholesale. At 2:38, the boisterous instrumental hook returns, but drops back into the original key E major for the chorus, which repeats as the track fades.
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