Tag: 1960s

UB40 (feat. Chrissie Hynde) | I Got You Babe

“It is a testament either to reggae’s amazing elasticity, the sunny music’s universal appeal, or the efficacy of its modern pop co-option that UB40, a racially integrated octet from Birmingham, England, would — in the wake of Bob Marley — become reggae’s longest-running hit machine,” (TrouserPress). “Not to put too fine a point on it: Marley lived only eight years after making the landmark Catch a Fire album; UB40 is already in its third decade of successful employment.

Significantly, UB40 (the official name for a British unemployment form) has built its empire on laid-back covers of soul and pop classics and gentle love songs, not religion and revolution; there isn’t a single item in the UB40 archive with the international social significance of ‘Redemption Song’ or ‘Get Up Stand Up.’ Ultimately, UB40 is loyal not to a culture but to a beat … the band’s formula is mighty steady: recent albums sound enough like early ones that it would be impossible to guess their order of release.”

In 1985, UB40 and The Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde covered Sonny and Cher’s original 1965 original of “I Got You Babe.” The original was Sonny and Cher’s best-performing single, spending three weeks at #1 on the pop charts; the tune went on to become a worldwide smash hit, achieving top 10 chart positions in Europe, Canada, Africa, and Asia. The UB40 cover reached #1 in the UK, but only #28 in the US. It traded the original’s sturdy 12/8 for a effervescent reggae groove that focused on all of the 16th notes in a measure, shot through with electronic percussion. A half-step key change hits at 1:22.

Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!

Lamont Dozier | Reach Out, I’ll Be There (feat. Jo Harman)

Lamont Dozier, who died earlier this month at the age of 81, “played his part in many of the songs that built the Motown legend and which now seem as impervious to the ravages of time as those of Rodgers and Hart or Lennon and McCartney,” (The Guardian). As Dozier worked with the songwriting team of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, the “Holland-Dozier-Holland” catalog grew to include classics such as “‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’ (with Martha and the Vandellas), ‘Can I Get a Witness’ (Marvin Gaye), ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (Four Tops), ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ (Isley Brothers), ‘Take Me in Your Arms’ (Kim Weston) and a record-breaking string of #1 hits in the US charts for the Supremes, starting with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964 and including ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love,’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.'”

The Guardian continues: “Long after their original radio and chart success had faded away, many of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s million-sellers turned out to have embedded themselves so deeply in the public consciousness that they enjoyed second lives, reimagined for new audiences in cover versions by non-Motown artists. Rod Stewart’s ‘This Old Heart of Mine,’ Kim Wilde’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ and Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ were among the many reinterpretations that kept a smile on the faces of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s song publishers as the years went by … In later years he provided songs for Alison Moyet, Debbie Gibson, Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, wrote with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall … Phil Collins, and Kelly Rowland. Dozier and the Hollands were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.”

Dozier released the album Reimagination in 2018, “a collection of twelve tracks previously written for other artists while at Motown, but Dozier performs them in a way that will make you forget the original,” (BlackGrooves.org). For a rendition of the Four Tops’ uptempo 1967 hit, “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Dozier and British vocalist Jo Harman have transformed the up-tempo classic into a gospel-tinged ballad. After a start in E major, 1:59 brings a shift to C# major. At 2:40, we revert to the original key for a piano solo before the arrangement beautifully unfolds into a full gospel texture. The cover is so earnest and so self-assured that yes, the distinctive original is indeed forgotten, at least for a time!

For reference, here’s the original:

Connie Stevens | Hey, Good Lookin’

In the early 1960s, Connie Stevens was a superstar, playing
photographer and nightclub singer Cricket Blake on the TV series
“Hawaiian Eye” and scoring on the pop charts with songs like “Sixteen
Reasons.” Later on, she worked as an actual nightclub singer in Las
Vegas, and continued to work in TV and film well into the 2000s. In
the early 1970s, she recorded some sides with famed producer Thom
Bell, making the first version of “Betcha By Golly Wow” (released
under the more sensible title “Keep Growing Strong”), and covering the
Delfonics hit “La La Means I Love You” (which Bell had co-produced).

The country classic “Hey, Good Lookin'”, was the lead track on her 1962 Warner Bros. album, The Hank Williams Songbook. The big band arrangement chugs along merrily in G major until a cute, unexpected, just under-the-wire modulation to Ab major at 1:44 during the end tag/turnaround.

The Zombies | This Will Be Our Year

The Zombies were part of the early 1960s British Invasion with top hits like “She’s Not There”  (Billboard #2, 1964), and “Tell Her No” (Billboard #6, 1965). Their last hit recording was “Time of the Season” (Billboard #3, 1968), which appeared on the album Odessey and Oracle. The title of the album was an unintentional misspelling by the artist who created the LP cover art. Oh, well. Despite that orthographic sin, AllMusic calls the album “one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s.”

The song here, “This Will Be Our Year”, is taken from that album. It was written by bassist Chris White, one of two principal songwriters in the group, along with keyboard ace Rod Argent. It’s a neat, concise slice of British pop, featuring Argent’s piano, and the vocals of Colin Blunstone. There’s an half-step modulation from A to Bb at 0:59.

The Kinks | The Village Green Preservation Society

“A very reflective and nostalgic song written by lead singer Ray Davies, this is about the innocent times in small English towns, where the village green was the community center,” (Songfacts). “The entire album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968) was based on this theme.”

From Pitchfork‘s review of the album: “The problem facing The Kinks when they released (the album) wasn’t merely the competition– Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, Led Zeppelin’s debut, and the Rolling Stones’ Beggars’ Banquet offered plenty– but that this subtle, funny, surreal, and at times almost tender record could have been recorded on another planet. During the summer of 1968, stateside fans were hooked on a high-intensity diet that had them jonesing for aggressive, overstated fare like “Street Fighting Man” and “You Shook Me” and “Communication Breakdown.” The disconnect between The Kinks and the rock world’s rapidly narrowing palette could hardly have been more pronounced. Compare the Stones’ bombastic, urban “Sympathy for the Devil” with understated work like “Village Green”, bouncing along like a horse and buggy as Ray Davies paints the landscape: “Out in the country, far from all the soot and noise of the city … Though widely disregarded at the time of its release, The Kinks’ 1968 apex, The Village Green Preservation Society, has had a profound impact on the present state of indie rock.”

A whole-step modulation hits at 1:12.

Eddie Holman | This Can’t Be True

“Eddie Holman (born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1946), is an American singer who performs in several genres such as R&B, soul, pop and gospel, and best known for the now-oldies music classic hit ballad ‘Hey There Lonely Girl’ in 1970,” (MentalItch.com). He began his music career as a child, “performing at prestigious venues such as the Apollo Theater and even Carnegie Hall. Holman graduated with a degree in music at Cheyney State University (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) in Philadelphia. Part of the vibrant Philly soul scene, Holman eventually developed his signature vocal style.

In 1965, he released his first hit with ‘This Can’t Be True’ which peaked at #17 on the US R&B chart … ‘Hey There Lonely Girl’ (1969) was his biggest hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1970. (The release was) actually a remake of the Ruby and the Romantics’ 1963 hit ‘Hey There Lonely Boy.’”

After a first half that’s a funhouse mirror of compound chords, the tune modulates at 1:51. But throughout, the main course is certainly Holman’s stratospheric yet seemingly effortless falsetto, kicking in each time he sings the title line. Contributor JB adds that the track “sits right in the liminal area between 1950s Doo-Wop and 1960s Soul.”

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans | Undecided

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, “the Belgian-American musician who cut a singular path as a jazz harmonica player … began his professional career as a guitar player (and added the ability to whistle a line above it), but inspired by the mid-20th century innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he returned to the chromatic harmonica and developed a bebop-influenced technique on it,” (NPR). “He performed and recorded widely with his bebop heroes and many other stars of postwar jazz, and his tune ‘Bluesette’ quickly became a jazz standard. His work also graces many film and television scores.”

Later in his career, “Thielemans became a first-call studio musician for top arrangers like Quincy Jones. His harmonica graced the theme song for Sesame Street and the score for the movie Midnight Cowboy. And that’s his whistling in the commercial jingle for Old Spice toiletries. Jazz remained his first love; even toward the end of his career, he would begin every morning with practice on the complex changes to John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps.’ … He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in the U.S., and a baron by the king of Belgium. He only retired from performing at the age of 92.” He passed away in 2016 at the age of 94.

His performance on “Undecided,” a 1939 standard by Charles Shavers, would have been remarkable for any other harmonica player — but it was utterly routine for Thielemans. His technique on the instrument broke through to entirely new levels of speed and agility. The groove drops out for a break just before the half-step modulation at 1:18. As if that weren’t enough, the second half of the video showcases Toots’ famous guitar-and-whistling skills!

Lesley Gore | Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows

Lesley Gore is best known for the adolescent assertion of independence “It’s My Party” (Billboard #1 in 1963), produced by Quincy Jones, and recorded when she was 16. That song appeared on the album I’ll Cry If I Want To. She recorded her second album in 1963, Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts, which contained another, more grown-up hit, “You Don’t Own Me,” previously featured on MotD.

That same album featured “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows”, written by Marvin Hamlisch, who had yet to achieve the fame that awaited him. It wasn’t until 1965 that the song was released as a single, to accompany its appearance in the movie Ski Party, a trashy beach movie set on the ski slopes — but which still included a beach, somehow. Besides Lesley Gore, there were musical contributions from James Brown and surf band The Hondells. The stars were noted thespians Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, and Deborah Walley.

“Sunshine …” was a favorite of radio DJs at the time of its release, because its running time of just over 90 seconds made it perfect to fill short programming gaps. But there’s no debating its merits — it’s a short, fun blast! There’s a half-step modulation at 0:46.

Ella Fitzgerald | Old MacDonald Had a Farm

“Dubbed ‘The First Lady of Song,’ Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century,” according to Fitzgerald’s website. “In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.) She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common – they all loved her.”

Her relentlessly energetic rendition of the children’s song “Old MacDonald,” performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, begins in Eb major. Starting at 0:18, she skips effortlessly upward through a series of half-step modulations, ending in Ab major.

The Four Seasons | Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me)


Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons were a hit-making machine in the 1960s. Beginning with their #1 single “Sherry” in 1962 through 1968, with their version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” they were never far from the charts. In the 1970s, they had something of a comeback, with the disco-flavored “Who Loves You” in 1975, and another #1, “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” that same year. For more history, go see the musical Jersey Boys, playing in summer stock somewhere near you.

“Opus 17 (Don’t You Worry ‘Bout Me)” was their 17th single (titled perhaps to confuse fans of Antonio Vivaldi), released in 1966. It was written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, who wrote the other Four Seasons hits “Let’s Hang On!” and “Working My Way Back to You,” as well as the 1977 disco hit “Native New Yorker” by Odyssey.

The first two verses are in F♯. The third verse modulates up to G at 0:45. An instrumental verse, featuring a raunchy-for-1966 sax solo, remains in G. The fourth verse modulates another half-step to A♭ at 1:21; the fifth verse stays in that key. At 1:52, verse six moves up to A. Whew, we’re not done: verse seven modulates to B♭ at 2:08. Finally, verse eight goes up to B at 2:24 as the song fades out.

As this song demonstrates, it’s a mod, mod, mod, mod, mod world!