Tanya Tucker | The Jamestown Ferry

“Long before teenagers like LeAnn Rimes and Taylor Swift were taking over the country charts, a 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was mixing it up with all the heavyweights,” (Holler Country). “Included on her debut album in 1972, “The Jamestown Ferry,” (a) funky little slice of countrypolitan, was everything the 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was becoming synonymous with in the early 70s.

With a lyric presumably way beyond her experience and a deep soulful vocal that belied her age, ‘The Jamestown Ferry’ tells the story of a woman wandering the honky tonks and bars and sadly reminiscing about how her lover used to treat her before he left her to catch a ferry.”

Tucker’s solo vocal verses alternate with a multi-part vocal arrangement for the choruses. 1:38 brings a half-step key change. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Paul Revere + The Raiders | Kicks

“The songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were two of the most successful in pop music in the early ’60s, having written such hits as ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin Feelin,’ ‘Uptown,’ and ‘On Broadway’ to name a few,” (AllMusic). “Likewise, Paul Revere and the Raiders were also at the pinnacle of their existence with a hit AM radio rocker and a featured spot on the TV show Where the Action Is.

In March of 1966, the Mann/Weil-penned anti-drug song ‘Kicks’ peaked at number four, the highest position to date on the Billboard charts for Paul Revere and the Raiders.” The US band’s clearly anti-drug single was not exactly in tune with the zeitgeist of its era: “For better or worse, mind expansion was in the air, and it was about to be embraced by an audience ready to turn in its Beatlemania wigs for a future paved by the creative revelations of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. It would only be a matter of months before weirdo bands from places like experimental San Francisco would preach the exact opposite message delivered in ‘Kicks.’ … (It) is one of the handful of overtly anti-’60s pop songs recorded in its own time.”

A brief bridge (1:43 – 1:59) shifts the tonality from F minor to the parallel major key of F major. That would normally qualify for quite an early bridge, but in this case, the entire the track is only 2:32!

Serendipity Singers | Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)

“The folk boom of the early 1960s spawned numerous purveyors of well-scrubbed folk pop, and one of the most popular ensembles to emerge was The Serendipity Singers, founded at the University of Colorado … (they) signed with Philips Records in 1964 and released their debut single, ‘Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man),’ which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated at the 7th Grammy Awards in 1965 for Best Performance by a Chorus,” (Colorado Music Hall of Fame).

“… The group had numerous appearances on popular TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show, Shindig! and Hullabaloo. One of the most notable performances was at the White House in front of President Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1964 Democratic National Convention … The Serendipity Singers came onto the nationwide music scene right before the longstanding reign of The Beatles and the British Invasion exploded onto U.S. soil.” The college newspaper The Missouri Miner wrote in a 1969 review: ‘They’re not hippies and they don’t wear flowers, but the sound of The Serendipity Singers is as contemporary as Pop Art … ‘”

The whimsical track “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)” shifts up a whole-step at the 2:22 mark. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this tune!

At the Club Savoy (from “Panama Hattie”)

“Panama Hattie is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with both romantic and military intrigue. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat,” (SondheimGuide.com).

The musical was adapted for a 1942 film of the same name. With World War II underway and recently augmented by the addition of US troops, Hollywood was honing the craft of releasing films which were often short on budgeting, plot, or both. It seems that Panama Hattie was lacking only in the latter of the two factors. The film’s script “was quite witty, full of sight gags, yes, but tasteful sight gags, the non-Porter songs were not crap; Ann Sothern is a competent vocalist (nothing compared to Merman, who originated the part, but really, who is anything compared to Merman?), and Lena Horne’s in it,” (IMDB). “… But I suggest watching this movie for more than just Lena Horne … Virginia O’Brian is rather fun to watch with her deadpan singing … the plot is slim to none, but the movie really wasn’t about plot, it was about fun and peddling war bonds.”

The tune runs in A major overall, with a few temporary diversions. But the most noticeable shift, up a half-step to Bb, hits at 2:13 in advance of the number’s final wind-up.

Thanks as always to regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission!

Sandie Shaw | Wight is Wight

Sandie Shaw, the “Barefoot Pop Princess,” had three UK number one hits, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” (1964),  “Long Live Love” (1965), and “Puppet On a String” (1967), as well as several other charting singles from the 1960s through the 1990s. Her version of “Your Time Is Gonna Come” from the album Reviewing the Situation (1969) was the first-ever Led Zeppelin cover. She was the first-ever British winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, when “Puppet On a String” topped the UK charts made her the first British female singer ever to have three number one records (Express.co.uk).

“Wight is Wight” was a French-language hit (1969), written and performed by Michel Delpech. The song title alludes to the Isle of Wight music festival, and makes a sly reference to “Black Is Black,” the 1966 hit by the Spanish beat group Los Bravos.

Sandie Shaw sang the song with its original lyrics and, using the same backing track, the English-language version here was released as a single in 1970, and included as a bonus track on a CD reissue of Reviewing the Situation. We’re unable to find the source of the English lyrics; they may well have been written by Sandie Shaw. Shaw’s tightly-controlled vibrato is on full display here. A whole-step bump awaits at 2:08.

Errol Garner | Misty

“In 1954, the Erroll Garner Trio introduced the instrumental ‘Misty.’ A year later Johnny Burke penned the lyrics, creating the song we know today,” (JazzStandards.com). “‘Misty’ remained relatively unknown until Johnny Mathis popularized the vocal version with his million-selling recording in 1959. Although it was never a number one hit, ‘Misty’ has been performed by hundreds of instrumentalists and vocalists … the melody soars over a range of nearly two octaves with many pitches falling on color tones or chord extensions (mainly the major seventh, the ninth and the eleventh).”

Built with a classic AABA form, the tune’s B section ” … begins with a fairly orthodox harmonic progression- v -I7 -iv, in which the I7 functions as a V7 of the new subdominant key (in the original key, Eb modulating to Ab). But then the IV chord (Ab) is followed by a minor 7th chord a half step higher. Aural experience tells our ears to expect this Am7, which is followed by a D7, to be a ii7 -V7 sequence to G major or G minor. Instead, Garner surprises us once again by a deceptive resolution to Cm, the vi of the original tonic of Eb. From there, it’s an easy modulation back to the tonic (but what a fascinating detour!)”

In this 1961 live performance on TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, Garner presents the tune in a single chorus, which ranges from a staid left-hand stride style to a gently shimmering right hand technique. There are no subsequent choruses to host a formal solo, but Garner’s interpretation of the melody is so whimsically ornamented that the single chorus gets the job done all on its own. The legendary B section’s first few notes begin at 0:47, with the section starting in earnest at 0:50. The closing A section begins at 1:14.

For a more straightforward treatment of the melody, it would be difficult to improve on Johnny Mathis’ 1959 rendition:

Humble Pie | Sweet Peace and Time

“There was a lot riding on this album (Smokin‘, 1972). After the general economical failure of (UK band Humble Pie’s) first two albums released in the States, Humble Pie and Rock On, their live album, Rockin’ the Filmore shot them up to top-billing across the country and into a major name,” (TheUncool). “So, when Smokin’ hit the racks it would provide exposure of the studio side to a band that became famous on their live side. The reception would be significant …

Actually there is nothing extremely original about the band. They play a brand of rock ‘n roll that is definitely not unique to them. So…just what is it about Humble Pie, or for that matter Smokin’, that in actuality puts them in a class above so many others? … Humble Pie is a confident band. They don’t bashfully kick around a number of styles and techniques … Humble Pie is a band that works with the bare essentials of rock ‘n roll. Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore proved them as a great live band. Smokin’ proves them as a great band. Anywhere.” (Courtesy of the Door [aka San Diego Door] – Cameron Crowe)

After beginning in A minor, “Sweet Peace and Time” shifts up to B minor at 0:45, then hangs out in E minor for an instrumental section from 1:09 – 1:39. At 1:39, the same A minor pattern from the intro and first verse is once again in effect. The pattern continues from there.

Roy Orbison | Dream

“Dream,” written by Johnny Mercer, was a hit for June Hutton and The Pied Pipers in 1945. That version, on Mercer’s label Capitol Records, featured lush multi-part harmonies atop a languid strings-and-celeste backdrop provided by Paul Weston and his orchestra.

Roy Orbison’s cover was recorded for his 1963 Monument album In Dreams. Besides the title song and the current track, the album featured dream-themed songs “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “Beautiful Dreamer” and one of Orbison’s signature songs, “Blue Bayou.” This version later surfaced in the soundtrack for the 1998 dot-com-era movie You’ve Got Mail.

There’s a half-step upward modulation at 1:27.

Bon Jovi | I’ll Be There For You

“I like the whole expansive vastness of the song — the rising drone on the intro, the whispery opening line, the way it builds to massed heartbroken shouting,” (Stereogum). “‘I’ll Be There For You’ (1989) isn’t as clean and sharp as Bon Jovi’s best songs, but it still has a chorus that lands like a grand piano falling off a sixth-floor roof. As a band, Bon Jovi’s single greatest strength is the power to trigger arena-wide communal yelling. From that perspective, ‘I’ll Be There For You’ is a roaring success. It’s over-the-top even before the key change comes screaming in at the end.

… ‘I’ll Be There For You’ does give Jon a chance to do some of his most effective vocal work. Jon Bon Jovi is a famously limited singer, but he puts a whole lot of force and emotion into everything. The chorus … is mostly half-drunk shouting, but if you’re trying to get a whole arena to sing along, then half-drunk shouting is a good means to that end … Bon Jovi weathered the grunge-era storm, shed their big-hair trappings, and became a venerated staple on the arena rock circuit. ‘I’ll Be There For You’ was Bon Jovi’s last #1 hit.”

You’d expect a key change as the guitar solo wraps up at 3:37, or perhaps as the bridge ends at 4:03. Nope! There’s yet another chorus before the whole-step modulation finally hits at 4:30. All in all, quite the power ballad stadium anthem specimen, with a total run time of close to six minutes.

Dionne Warwick | You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)

“Vocalist Dionne Warwick had already established something of a reputation as a chanteuse of unrequited love by the time ‘You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)’ was released in 1964,” (JazzIz). “The song evokes the wit and delight of Great American Songbook standards. It also benefits from the contrast created by the dream-pop orchestration, complete with tinkling chimes and bells, and the lyrics, where Warwick essentially threatens her loved one with eternal damnation should he wrong or hurt her.

(The tune) was another collaboration between Warwick and the legendary songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It also marked a departure from their previous, bossa nova-influenced hits, although subtle yet significant Latin influences are still heard throughout. In addition, the song is noted for solidifying her fame and status in Europe, where it was particularly successful. In fact, shortly after the single’s release, Warwick would embark on a four-month tour of the Old Continent.”

The track features a half-step key change at 1:56, which hits at an unexpected spot just before the start of a verse.

Special mention must also be made of the Stylistics’ 1972 cover of the tune, which is arguably the better known of the two versions (also posted below). While different from the original, its arrangement also managed to sound thoroughly Bacharach-ian. Its modulation hits at 2:10.