The Beach Boys‘ first charting single, 1964’s “I Get Around,” was co-written by band members Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Starting in G major, the tune transitions to Ab major at 1:06.
Rolling Stone magazine’s Anthony DeCurtis praised Wilson’s tendency to be “very complex and have every single thing you do have an emotional impact, and have the hearer not even be aware of it — just hear it the first time and get it. That’s hard.”
“King of the Road” by Roger Miller (1965) is yet another submission by mod scout JB. The key change at 1:13 is routine, he notes, but “it’s an iconic song from the very end of the epoch when Folk and Pop were still on speaking terms with one another (e.g., Kingston Trio, etc.).”
1968’s “La La Means I Love You” was a #4 Billboard pop hit and a #2 R&B hit for Philly Sound mainstays The Delfonics. After two verses and choruses, a brief instrumental bridge starts at 2:25, bringing a modulation with it. This R&B standard was later covered by The Jackson 5, Todd Rundgren, Swing Out Sister, The Manhattan Transfer, and Prince, among others.
“Gee, Officer Krupke” is from Leonard Bernstein‘s seminal 1957 musical West Side Story. Eb major is tonicized in the chorus before a return to C major in the verses, and the song modulates briefly to Eb major at 3:46 for the very end.
The Turtles, an American band led by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (later known as Flo and Eddie), released “Elenore” in 1968. Unhappy with its record label, the band intentionally delivered a single with off-kilter lyrics. According to the liner notes for the band’s compilation album Solid Zinc: “‘Elenore’ was a parody of ‘Happy Together’…I gave them a very skewed version…with all these bizarre words. It was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone. But they didn’t get the joke.”
Nobody else got the joke, either: the two-and-a-half minute “sunshine pop” single packed a huge punch, shooting into the top 10 in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Following the same pattern as “Happy Together,” one of the band’s other big singles, the E minor verses transition to E major and back again throughout the tune, starting at 0:43.
“Respect,” originally released by Otis Redding in 1965, was later a huge 1967 hit for Lady Soul, Aretha Franklin. Franklin’s cover became a feminist battle cry as well as one of the best-known American R&B tunes, winning Recording Academy / GRAMMYs, entry into the Grammy Hall, honor by The Library of Congress, a #5 perch on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and a place on the “Songs of the Century” list by the The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The tune modulates on the brief instrumental bridge at 1:17 and is back to its original key at 1:34.
MotD member Mark Mahoney contributes today’s mod: the 1961 album Genius + Soul = Jazz by the legendary Ray Charles featured this simple blues-based tune, dressed up by a no-hold-barred big band arrangement by Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns. The band was comprised of members of The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra and a group of NYC session players. In 2011, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The tune features several modulations; the first is at 2:27. Happy weekend to all!
An American performer named Keith (yes, just Keith) released the single “98.6” in 1967. The song reached #7 on the Billboard chart and #24 on the UK Singles Chart in 1967. The Tokens, the Brooklyn-based doo-wop group better known for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” provided back-up vocals.
The tune features a few instrumental breaks featuring key-of-the-moment glimpses. But the actual modulation is at 2:47 as the instrumental outro begins.
We’ve posted this song before, but it is high time Eydie Gorme made her debut on MotD. They don’t make them like this anymore. From the musical Oliver (1960), written by Lionel Bart. This 1969 performance features a key change at 2:16.
Here’s Sam Cooke’s rendition of the spiritual “This Little Light of Mine” (1964), which played a prominent role throughout the Civil Rights movement. Key changes at 1:09 and 1:43.
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