“Caruso,” written by Italian singer/songwriter Lucio Dalla, is featured on the 2006 album Siempre by the classical crossover group Il Divo. “Their phrasing on…Caruso is excellent, drawn out to pull as much emotion as possible,” AllMusic said in their review of the record. The album sold over a million copies in the United States, and was the #2 classical crossover album on the Billboard charts for the year.
The track begins in C minor, modulates up a half step to C# minor for the second verse at 1:26, and then dramatically rises up another half step to D minor for the final chorus at 2:44.
“Franz von Chossy was a Munich native who began playing the piano when he was 6,” (JazzInfo). “His mother introduced him to classical music and encouraged him to learn folk music. Franz went to Amsterdam to study at The Conservatoire of Amsterdam. He then moved to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Kenny Barron and Garry Dial, Dave Liebman and John Taylor. He also studied film composition with Edward Green in New York.
Franz has released numerous critically acclaimed CDs under his own name, as well as his quintet and his trio. Franz has played in Europe, America, Canada, Asia, India, Jordan, and Syria as well as Africa (Tunisia and Morocco) and Asia. Franz is a valuable member of jazz groups such as the Pascal Schumacher Quartet or Arifa. His ability to improvise … allows him seamlessly switch between styles …”
“The new suite from the Franz von Chossy Quintet, When the World Comes Home, is a musical interpretation of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise,” (JazzSick Records). “Von Chossy’s evocative piano playing moves between jazz and classical music and infused with fresh, contemporary accents by his band. Inspired by his collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra, he composed a cinema-like suite with Adam, Eve, and the fall of man as its points of departure … When the World Comes Home features an extraordinary line-up of piano, drums, cello, violin and clarinet.”
“Perpetual Lights,” the album’s opening track, is an ambitious piece of more than eight minutes in length. One of the few through-lines from start to finish is a restless subdivision of each beat into 16th notes — softly stated by the percussion or carried only by the piano. At other times, the 16ths grow into an overlay for something close to a straight-ahead rock groove, all the more noticeable because the melody often features sustained notes and phrases. The unusual instrumentation jumps out here and there: we hear a cello where we’d expect a bass; the violin and clarinet speak as one at first, then jump into dialogue. The piece starts in Eb, shifts to Bb minor at 1:09, then changes to C minor at 1:28. More changes in tonality follow.
“(Rick Astley is the) British baritone behind some of the most impeccably crafted pop hits of the ’80s, including ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and ‘Together Forever.’ Wielding a rich, deep voice, Rick Astley became an overnight sensation in the late ’80s with his well-crafted dance-pop,” (AllMusic). “… (While) Astley’s often captivating debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody (1987) … (featured) high-tech production (that) is very ’80s, Astley’s soul/pop/dance music approach is very much a production of the ’70s — sort of the Average White Band meets Philly soul/disco meets Tom Jones … this CD proved Astley to be a welcome addition to the British R&B scene.”
“Whenever You Need Somebody” is the second track on Astley’s 1987 debut album of the same name; it was the album’s second track, appearing after the smash hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the song that much later launched a thousand “RickRolls.” The track wasn’t released as a single in the US, but went top 10 through much of Europe and reached #1 in Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. However, on the importance of the US to his career, Astley reports ” …a lot of my favorite singers came from America, and I use the term ‘taught me to sing.’ But I think I’m not alone in saying a lot of R&B and soul records,like Luther Vandross, James Ingram, those records were what I was trying to emulate in my way. I was doing it in a northern English, red-haired, freckly sort of way,” (USAToday).
After a intro in Bb, the verse follows a mini-AABA format, dividing its time between B minor and Db minor (for the “B” section, 0:35 – 0:43). The chorus moves back up to Bb major at 0:52 and stays there during the bridge. The pattern continues from there. Astley’s towering, nearly vibrato-free vocal is utterly unmistakable from the first few notes.
The Moffats are a Canadian pop/rock country band comprised of 4 brothers: three triplets — Bob, Clint, and Dave — and Scott, who is a year older. In 1994, they became the youngest band to ever sing a major label recording contracts, and went on to release five studio albums.
“Miss You Like Crazy” is featured on their 1998 album Chapter I: A New Beginning. “Chapter 1 shows a lot of promise,” Allmusic wrote in their review of the record. “And the Moffatts give the term teen idol some credibility.”
The track begins in G and modulates up to A leading into the instrumental bridge at 2:22.
“Ariel” is the only US hit for singer and multi-instrumentalist Dean Friedman (Billboard #26, 1977). His song “Lucky Stars” made to #3 on the UK charts the following year. Although he hasn’t been scoring hits since then, Friedman has toured and recorded consistently over the years, releasing the album American Lullaby in 2021.
“Ariel” is about a romance between a guy from New York City and a girl from the other side of the Hudson, Paramus, New Jersey, who likes to sing “Tears on My Pillow” (the Little Anthony and Imperials hit) and “Ave Maria” (a hit across the ages). It’s a song designed to be a radio hit, with its erudite lyrics, infectious chorus, retro yakkety sax solo, and clean production.
A repeat of the chorus goes up a step at 3:42, landing back at the original key for the final verse at 3:57.
“Maybe It’s My Turn Now” is featured in the fifth episode of the second season of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, which aired this summer.
The musical comedy series blends satire of and homage to the musical theater catalog, with this season focusing on the Post-Golden Age musicals of the 1960s-1980s.
Written by Cinco Paul and performed by Cecily Strong, this track is a pastiche of the Kander and Ebb anthem “Maybe This Time,” written for the movie adaptation of their 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. It begins in G major and modulates up a half step to Ab at 2:03.
“Early on, critics griped about Mariah’s reliance on vocal acrobatics, which, they claimed, kept audiences at a remove from her actual songs,” (SlantMagazine.com). “Indeed, the title track of her sophomore effort, 1991’s Emotions, and the album’s bombastic uptempo centerpiece, ‘You’re So Cold,’ are lessons in fabulous excess, showcases for Mariah’s famous five octaves. But the album’s second single, ‘Can’t Let Go,’ is one of her most understated hits, her downcast verses floating ephemerally atop the song’s pointillistic percussion … With Emotions, she managed to strike a balance of soul and pop that’s not just technically impressive, but filled with undeniable, honest-to-god feeling.”
Co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, “Can’t Let Go” was the second single from Emotions.Cashbox‘s review of the single included strong praise: “This time Carey is slowing down the pace from the first single ‘Emotions.’ In our opinion, this should have been the first single taken off the album. Her voice still has that crystal-clear sound that has hypnotized listeners of all sorts.” Although Carey’s first five American singles had reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Can’t Let Go” fell just short of that mark, reaching #2 and spending 17 weeks in the top 40 (Billboard).
Compared to much of the rest of her early material, where vocal fireworks were the rule, “Can’t Let Go” found Carey showing great restraint — showcasing her stratospheric whistle tone vocals only as a faint whisper during the intro (0:20 – 0:25). After several wistful verses and choruses, the bridge builds from its starting point (2:18), ascending through fluid layers of Carey’s own backing vocals to a shimmering half-step key change at 2:45. After one more chorus, the now wordless vocal of the outro cycles back to the melodic shape of the first line of the verse — suggesting that the sorrow from this unrequited love is nowhere near a resolution.
In the late 1960s, talk of revolution may have seemed credible. The antiwar movement, the Civil Rights movement, and of course, popular music were changing society in significant ways. The Beatles could sing “Revolution,” even if you could “count them out.” But here we are in 2023, where, as journalist George Monbiot points out, paraphrasing Rousseau, “man is born free, and is everywhere in chain stores.” At least we got some cool tunes out of the era.
One such tune is 1969’s “Something in the Air” by the short-lived English band Thunderclap Newman. The members were drummer “Speedy” Keen, who wrote the song, guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, later of Paul McCartney’s Wings, and the eponymous Andy Newman on piano. The group released one studio album Hollywood Dream, produced by Pete Townsend, who also played bass guitar on the recording. “Something in the Air” was a #1 hit in the UK, and reached a respectable #37 on the US Billboard chart. It’s been included in the soundtracks for several movies, including The Magic Christian, also released in 1969, and Almost Famous. The lyrics asserted “you know it’s right”, and in those times, you may not have detected any irony.
There’s a whole step modulation from the original key E major to F# major at 1:04; the saloon-style piano bridge starting at 1:58 passes through a few tonalities; lastly, when we land at the final verse at 2:55, we’re in G# major, two steps up from the original key.
“Peter Foley (1967-2021) was an award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. His musical theater works include The Hidden Sky, The Names We Gave Him, I Capture the Castle, Bloom, Whitechapel, and The Bear …” (Peter Foley Music Project). “Peter’s songs have been performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below …
Peter also composed scores and themes for numerous television shows and documentaries, including Listening to America with Bill Moyers … An accomplished pianist and expert in music notation, he served as musical director/keyboardist for the premieres of Rinde Eckert’s Highway Ulysses, Kenneth Vega’s Heartfield, and concert performances with Manoel Felciano. He was the music assistant for the Broadway production of Sting’s The Last Ship, associate music director for the developmental workshop of Elvis Costello’s A Face in the Crowd, and music preparation supervisor for the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit …
Loosely based on a true story, The Names We Gave Him is about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. With a richly textured, dramatic score and riveting choral music, this new musical explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind, the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?”
The duet “Yellow Field” from The Names We Gave Him (music by Peter Foley / lyrics by Ellen McLaughlin, 2021) begins with a spare accompaniment, with the voices occupying separate, alternating spaces as the narrative begins to unfold. But the first appearance of the refrain in E major (0:46) provides a solid platform for the duo to join in unison and octave unison. As the characters’ memories tumble forth, the sonic intensity grows. 2:41 brings another refrain, this time in Bb major. A gentle yet insistent repeated Bb from the piano provides connection into a final pass of the refrain at 4:20, this time in Eb major.
“Opening hearts has been my secret agenda in my entire musical life, really. I know it sounds pretentious, but I’m not afraid to say it. I just want to change how you feel for a couple of minutes, and maybe put you back in touch with some feeling that you haven’t felt in a while. That really was my whole goal.”
— Peter Foley
for Scobie
This live performance, featuring Briana Carlson-Goodman and Jason Gotay, has somewhat lower sound quality:
“They began as a bunch of faceless, veteran session musicians playing soulful pop, but the Grass Roots were no mere bubblegum band—they developed a mix of blue-eyed soul and big, brassy rock that would one day morph into the power-pop phenomenon,” (Liveabout).
“Formed in 1966 in Los Angeles, the Grass Roots may have made songs that are familiar to you even if you don’t know the band. ‘Let’s Live for Today’ and ‘Midnight Confessions’ remain the most likely candidates for Grass Roots songs you might have heard on radio, movies, or TV. The former was featured in Season 2 of American Horror Story, while the latter is heard in a Season 4 episode of The West Wing and on the radio in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.“
Full of kicks delivered by horns and organ, “Sooner or Later” (1971) is relatively repetitive, particularly in the simple lyrics of its chorus. But it somehow doesn’t feel that way due to the tune’s syncopation; every line of the chorus starts on an off-beat. At 1:47, a half-step key change kicks in unexpectedly as part of a tag at the end of a chorus.
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