Tag: 1960s

The Beach Boys | When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)

Because frequent contributor JB has sent in over a dozen tunes by this classic American band over the past few weeks — and because it’s now the depths of January AND the material is a harmonic feast — we bring you a week devoted entirely to The Beach Boys!

“When I Grow Up (To Be a Man),” written and composed by Brian Wilson and Mike Love (1965), reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has a lyric written from an adolescent’s POV. According to the book “Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece,” Wilson had a “fervent desire to reinvent himself as an individual, not as a boy.” The single, which is only two minutes long, modulates at 1:32.

Stevie Wonder | Sunny

Here’s a wonderful cover submitted by regular guest poster JB:

“Stevie Wonder‘s a pretty sophisticated songwriter, but as a performer — especially in his early days — he was not above laying down a yeomanlike rendering of a pop standard. Part of Barry Gordy’s genius was in treating even his star vocalists as, in some ways, just glorified studio musicians, working their shifts in the Motown Hitsville Hit Factory.

Still, it’s kinda novel to hear Wonder cover Bobby Hebb‘s ‘Sunny,’ which features not one, not two, but three mods (1:40, 2:25, 3:06). While this kind of modulation ladder would sound cheesy nowadays, the tune comes from the era (early 60s) when cheesy lounge music was charting right alongside the early Beatles and Stones. I miss the biodiversity that pop music had back in those protean days…”

McCoy Tyner | When Sunny Gets Blue

First recorded in 1956 by vocalist Johnny Mathis and bandleader Roy Conniff, “When Sunny Gets Blue” quickly became a jazz standard. This version was performed by piano legend McCoy Tyner and his trio in 1962, after his stint as sideman for John Coltrane. Tyner, a 4-time Grammy winner, was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2002; after 80 albums, he still continues to record.

The 32-bar form modulates at the start of the middle 8 (heard for the first time at 1:04), modulates halfway through the middle 8 at 1:20, then back to the original key at 1:36. The form starts again at 2:07, as we hear a solo from Tyner.

Jimmy Ruffin | What Becomes of the Broken Hearted

Today we’re focusing on “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” (1966) by Jimmy Ruffin. The website Overthinking It has a great writeup on the tune, which we won’t even try to improve on:

The tune “goes from Bb major to C major when it moves from the verse to the chorus, which is as cheesy a modulation as you could hope for. But damn if the songwriters don’t work for it.

The basic structure of the verse is ingenious enough to begin with: I->iii->vi->IV->V->I (notice how much time it spends hanging out on the minor chords of iii and vi. This is one of the saddest songs ever written in a major key.) As it moves towards the chorus, the pattern changes ever so slightly. After landing on vi, instead of going down a third to the subdominant, the harmony just reverses course and moves back to iii. This is a totally orthodox harmonic move (root motion by a fifth is pretty much always allowed) but it destabilizes the harmony enough for the new key in the chorus to seem like an arrival, and not merely an extravagance.”

from http://overthinkingit.com

In addition, quite a few of the chords have inverted voicings, only adding to the ambiguity. The track went top 10 in the US, UK, and France and has since been covered by a range of artists including The Supremes, Joan Osborne, Boy George, and Joe Cocker.

Neil Sedaka | Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

AllMusic reviewed “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” by songwriter and performer Neil Sedaka as “two minutes and sixteen seconds of pure pop magic.” The track hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1962 and #1 on the Hot R&B Sides chart. A worldwide hit, the single reached #7 in the UK. The song was translated into quite a few foreign languages; the Italian version was called “Tu non lo sai” (“You Don’t Know”), performed by Sedaka himself. Backing vocals were by a girl group called The Cookies.

Although the form is not a standard one, it’s at least clear that at 0:49 – 1:06 and 1:22 – 1:39, the tune pivots away from its primary key of C major.

Duke Ellington | In a Sentimental Mood

Duke Ellington’s ballad “In a Sentimental Mood” (1935) was recorded several times by its composer, including this version with saxophonist John Coltrane from 1963. The tune starts in Bb minor and ends in Db major, with a middle eight in A major (1:10 – 1:35). The tune saw prominent covers by Art Tatum, Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner, among others.

Of the recording session, Coltrane said: “(Duke) has set standards I haven’t caught up with yet. I would have liked to have worked over all those numbers again, but then I guess the performances wouldn’t have had the same spontaneity. And they mightn’t have been any better!”