“Goodnight My Someone” is from Meredith Willson’s classic 1957 musical The Music Man. The song is our first glimpse in Marian Paroo’s desire to find love. MotD favorite Voctave featured a cover of it on their lullaby album, Goodnight, My Someone, which was released last year.
The track, which features soprano Kate Lott, begins in C and gorgeously modulates up a third to E leading into the last A section at 2:03.
Blood, Sweat and Tears, a jazz/rock 10-piece band from New York City, has curiously avoided a MotD debut to date — but that ends now! From Rolling Stone‘s 1969 review of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ eponymous second album by John Landau: “… a perfect example of the rock record that ‘tries harder.’ While at some points on the record the basic style of the group resembles rock and roll, more often the listener is being bombarded with non-rock arranging devices, non-rock solos, and non-rock material, all of which tells him that ‘something else’ is going. The obvious response is that we are hearing something new: rock being mixed with jazz, rock being mixed with soul, etc. Ultimately, someone at Columbia will come up with a name for it: ‘jazz-folk-soul-baroque-C&W-latin-show-tune-rock.’ And for once the hyphenated labeling would be appropriate because BS+T play hyphenated music: first they play folk, then they play jazz, then they play latin, etc. Styles exist in tangent on their record, but never merge into one.”
Landau continues his cutting criticisms of the band’s ambitious sound throughout the review. A criticism that can’t be made about the band, however, is that they were following any kind of well-established trend whatsoever. Instead, they seemed to be putting out feelers to see where the edges of stylistic possibility were — an exercise which can easily get awkward, and fast. But the very idea of the musical genre hyphenate was very much in the air during the late 1960s and early 1970s; in addition to jazz musicians adding rock elements to their sound, why shouldn’t a rock group work with some jazz elements? Perhaps further bolstering the band’s experimental nature: during its existence, no fewer than 160 musicians were part of the lineup!
“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,”written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Motown head Berry Gordy, was initially released in 1967 by Brenda Holloway. Re-released by BS+T, “it became one of BS+T’s biggest hits, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in April 1969,” (Billboard). “The song was kept from the number 1 spot by ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In’ by The 5th Dimension.” The tune was later covered by Cher, Liza Minnelli, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley Bassey, Gloria Estefan, and many others. After starting in Db major, a brief interlude (1:48-2:08) is in Gb major, followed by a multi-key instrumental journey of a bridge (2:08-2:48) and a return to the chorus (this time in D major). At 3:22, an outro with a much gentler groove and tempo ends the tune in G major.
“During the ’70s, Dan Hartman was a member of the Edgar Winter Group and was also in Johnny Winter’s band for a time,” (AllMusic). “Hartman was also a session musician who supported artists as diverse as Ian Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, and Ronnie Montrose. After releasing one undistinguished solo pop/rock album in 1976, he hit the big time with the fine disco album, Instant Replay,” which featured a hit single of the same name.
“Its follow-up, Relight My Fire, wasn’t as successful and Hartman retreated to the studio, producing .38 Special, the Average White Band, and James Brown; he (wrote and) was behind the board for Brown’s comeback (and final) hit, “Living in America,” in 1986. Hartman had one more hit in 1985 with the pop-soul “I Can Dream About You.” Again, his follow-ups weren’t successful and he returned to producing. He was preparing a new album at the time of his death in March of 1994.” Hartman had lived with HIV for several years when he passed away.
Certainly, Hartman’s was an iceberg of a career: it seems that only the top fraction was visible, with the rest of his work submerged beneath the surface as he worked with other artists. Neil Sedaka, a friend and a one-time neighbor, spoke of Hartman after his passing: “I loved working with him. He played, sang, wrote, mixed, mastered … he did it all!” (DanHartman.com). “I would call him a genius. I think of him often and smile!”
“The Love In Your Eyes,” one of Hartman’s final singles released posthumously on 1995’s Keep the Fire Burnin’, starts in D minor. At 0:55, the chorus shifts to Eb major. The pattern continues from there, other than a brief bridge which provides additional variety from 2:50-3:12. Hartman’s material was known for varied textures and complex grooves, but this track features a broader harmonic vocabulary than most. Hartman’s writing, phrasing, and string-embellished arrangement on this track often conjure up a tenor version of soul legend Barry White. “Wrapped in warm romance, [the] tune has a retro-soul quality (Billboard) … it shows that he was still among the best writers and producers in pop music.”
Written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein in 1950, “Orange Colored Sky” has been covered by Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Lady Gaga, Doris Day and others. Michael Bible included the song as a bonus track on his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible.
The track begins in Bb with a slow intro before moving into double time. There is a subtle key change up to C at 2:42.
“While Lou Christie’s shrieking falsetto was among the most distinctive voices in all of pop music, he was also one of the first solo performers of the rock era to compose his own material, generating some of the biggest and most memorable hits of the mid-’60s,” (AllMusic). Born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco in the Pittsburgh suburb of Glenwillard, PA in 1943, he relocated after high school to New York and “landed session work as a backing vocalist. Christie wrote and recorded ‘Two Faces Have I;’ it landed in the Top Ten…” In 1966, he released “the lush, chart-topping ‘Lightnin’ Strikes.'”
“Christie’s next smash, 1966’s ‘Rhapsody in the Rain,’ was notorious for being among the more sexually explicit efforts of the period.” Songfacts reports: “The Catholic Church helped get this banned on many radio stations, which only made people want to hear it more. Christie (in Goldmine magazine): ‘I had priests and nuns calling to complain. Even Time magazine did an article on it, saying I was corrupting the youth.'”
After starting in Eb major, an otherwise nearly featureless bridge (2:04-2:19) brings a brief whole-step modulation to F before returning to the original key. But at 2:34, a late shift to E major kicks in just as the tune begins to fade.
Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!
Bookwriter Winnie Holtzman and composer Stephen Schwartz’s blockbuster 2003 musical Wicked celebrated its 20 year anniversary on Broadway last night. The show, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, has played in sixteen countries and is one of only three Broadway shows to pass $1 billion in revenue.
“As Long As You’re Mine” is performed here by Jennifer Nettles and Annaleigh Ashford in a slower, reharmonized arrangement that is part of the “Out of Oz” series the show produced for YouTube. The song begins in Db and deceptively modulates down a half step to C at 1:38.
Clifford Brown was a “shortlived but massively influential hard-bop trumpeter – whose gleaming sound … remains clear in the work of Wynton Marsalis, Guy Barker and many others,” (The Guardian). “Brown was polished without sounding glib, his phrasing was immaculately shaped and packed with fresh ideas, and he sounded relaxed at any tempo.” Brown died in a car accident in 1956 at the age of only 25; he was “a genius whose impact on jazz could have been immense.”
It’s not surprising, then, that one of the most enduring standard ballads is “I Remember Clifford,” written as a memorial to Brown by tenor saxophonist Benny Golson (video below). The tune has been notably covered by dozens of artists, including Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Brown was a founding member), Donald Byrd, Ray Charles, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, and Arturo Sandoval.
The uptempo “Joy Spring,” written in 1954, borrows its title from Brown’s pet name for his wife, Emma Larue Anderson. After the intro, the buoyant melody begins at 0:11 in F major, moving up to Gb major for a re-statement. The B section of the AABA form starts in G major at 0:34 before pivoting all over the place; the final A section is in F major at 0:46.
“Released during the famous ‘summer of love’ in 1967, Vanilla Fudge’s (self-titled) debut offering was undoubtedly one of the more seminal psychedelic albums coming from America during the late sixties,” (ProgArchive). “The heavy, jam-oriented atmosphere … and the group’s original twist on well-known compositions grabbed the attention of fans and critics alike. Consisting solely of cover tunes and a few short interludes thrown in for good measure, Vanilla Fudge did not captivate listeners with original works of their own, but instead showed what they could do within the limits of famous pop songs from years past.
Musically, we’re dealing with psychedelic rock that isn’t too far away from what most bands in the genre were doing in 1966 and 1967. Although sidelong jams and increased experimentation hadn’t yet become the norm, heavy use of the Hammond organ and Beatles-influenced vocal melodies are plentiful here; Vanilla Fudge were also at the forefront of early hard rock, and some of the organ sections here clearly paved the way for heavy acts like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep.”
This live performance of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1968) may have broken all known records for grandstanding by an entire group: every member of the band is thrashing about as if he’s the lead player. But once you get past the overwrought visuals, this cover of The Supremes’ 1966 single is a quite a new re-interpretation of the original. The tune is largely in E minor, but shifts to the closely related key of C major during the short bridge (1:28 – 1:50) before reverting to the original key.
The original:
“I’m Totally Fine With It” is the lead track on Norwegian singer Billie Van’s 2017 album Pure Emotions. An emerging artist, Van released her first album, 1 2 3 4 Radio Star, in 2013. The tune begins in G and shifts up a whole step to A at 2:54.
“In popular culture, the term ‘renaissance man’ can often be overused or even misused, but in the case of Thomas Dolby, the term has a lot more validity than the casual fan could ever imagine,” (PopMatters).”His (2016) memoir, Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology, goes a long way in making a case for Dolby to adopt this title.
In the early ‘80s, Dolby was an inescapable fixture of MTV’s playlists, with his novelty techno-pop hit ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ ruling the video airwaves and pop charts.” Setting the scene for his later career, the UK native saw early gigs by “everyone from the Clash to Elvis Costello to XTC” as a teen. He later played keyboards with the Camera Club, Lene Lovich, Herbie Hancock, and George Clinton; co-wrote and produced the first platinum 12” hip hop single, “Magic’s Wand” by Whodini; was chosen by David Bowie as the keyboardist at the UK half of Live Aid; created original music for feature films produced by George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Ken Russell; and his keyboard work was a central feature of Foreigner’s smash hit album IV (most notably the single ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’).
Illustrating Dolby’s bleeding-edge vantage point in terms of 1980s tech, “while riding his tour bus through the Nevada desert, (he was) forced to pull over and use a gas station phone booth as a primitive modem for uploading demo files to Michael Jackson.” Dolby was “an ‘80s pop culture Zelig, dropped into the zeitgeist with a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights attitude.” After retiring from the pop music business, he founded a company which was pivotal in the early days of the development of cell phone ringtones; served as the Music Director for TED Talks for over a decade; and is now a professor of Music for New Media at Johns Hopkins University.
“Radio Silence,” a track from The Golden Age of Wireless (1982), pivots around in terms of its tonality throughout. Meanwhile, the video treats us to a neighborhood tour of decades-old radios as we hear synthesis that was state-of-the-art for its time: retrofuturism sets Dolby’s stage here as usual. The harmonic shifts are perhaps the clearest during the outro, when the panoply of shiny synth textures has settled down a bit. 2:59 is in F# mixolydian, shifting at 3:12 to D mixolydian; the two keys alternate as the track fades.
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