Tag: 1960s

Skeeter Davis | The End of the World

“Although she was a mainstay on the country charts for decades, Skeeter Davis’ crossover success on the pop charts was mostly limited to a pair of Top-10 singles,” (American Songwriter). “But one of those songs, her 1962 hit ‘The End of the World,’ stands as one of the greatest songs ever about the aftermath of a devastating loss.

… ‘The End of the World’ was written by the songwriting pair of Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee. Dee, the lyricist, was inspired to write the song by the death of her father, although the lyrics keep the loss general enough to make it seem like it could be a breakup. In any case, Davis’ performance, understated and vulnerable, took it to another level. Instead of remaining within country music circles, ‘The End of the World’ took off when New York DJs started spinning it on the regular. Not only did it work its way into the pop charts, hitting #2 in 1962, but it also hit the Top 5 on the Hot R&B, Easy Listening, and Country charts, an unprecedented feat.”

After a start in Bb major, a shift up to B major at 1:56 is followed by a partially spoken verse, leading up to a sung rubato for the balance of the verse as the tune draws to its end. Although it feels far from rushed, the 12/8 ballad has a run time of under 2:45.

Lou Christie | Lightnin’ Strikes

“’Listen to me, baby, you gotta understand / You’re old enough to know the makings of a man.’ That’s how Lou Christie opens ‘Lightnin’ Strikes,’ his one #1 hit,” (Stereogum). “He sounds like an early-’60s teenybopper crooner, slick and composed. But as the song builds and unfurls, he comes more and more unhinged before jumping into a wild Frankie Valli falsetto on the chorus.

… Christie, born Lugee Sacco in Pittsburgh, was a gifted classical musician and singer when he was a teenager. When he was 15, he met the 37-year-old classical concert pianist Twyla Herbert, and the two of them started a long and presumably pretty unconventional songwriting partnership. Just out of high school, Christie recorded a few singles that he’d written with Herbert, and one of them, 1963’s ‘Two Faces Have I,’ made it to #6 in 1963. Soon afterward, he was drafted into the Army. After being discharged, he signed with MGM Records, but the label didn’t like ‘Lightnin’ Strikes,’ so Christie paid out of his pocket to get radio DJs to play it. The scheme worked out, and ‘Lightnin’ Strikes,’ another Christie/Herbert collaboration, made it to #1 a couple of months after it came out.

… The producer, Four Seasons member Charles Callelo, used New York session musicians to chase the Phil Spector sound. It’s full of pounding pianos and stabbing guitars and howling backing singers, and there’s a wild and borderline avant-garde bass solo in there, too.”

After the gentle verse starts in Eb major, the tune shifts to C major for the first pre-chorus section at 0:22, intensifies through another pre-chorus section at 0:36, and then opens into the huge chorus in F minor at 0:44. After all of that, the second cycle through the form starts at only 0:58! The pattern continues from there. The lyrics were bordering on NSFW for the era, but the novelty of the wildly contrasting sections seemed to carry the day.

Elis Regina | O Cantador

“To really appreciate Elis Regina, start with the lowly half-step,” (NPR). “It’s the penny of the music world — the smallest interval on the piano. Some vocalists treat half-steps as annoying afterthoughts. They smush them together into a blur. Regina’s art happens inside the half-steps, in the tiny increments that make up a melody. When Regina sings, half-steps seem to expand. Partly, that’s a reflection of her exacting technique: When she wants to, she can nail the most challenging intervals. At the same time, she’s not at all fussy. Her lazy, endlessly sloping phrases magnify the sometimes hidden shades of meaning in a lyric. She’s the rare singer who can conjure an ocean of love trouble in the space between C and C-sharp.

Like so many Brazilians, she learned her craft by interpreting the intricate, half-step-rich songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim. One of her career milestones, recorded in the early ’70s, is an intimate duo recording with the great composer — Jobim backs Regina on piano — titled Elis and Tom … Regina brought a mischievous streak and a jazz singer’s taste for adventure to everything she did. She reimagined samba and bossa nova classics. And in the late ’60s, she became a champion of the young Brazilian songwriters who were integrating elements of British and American rock. Her interpretations of songs such as ‘Nada Sera Como Antes,’ by Milton Nascimento, helped bring attention to this new generation of talents — the movement known as Tropicalia.”

Regina’s version of “O Cantador” by Nelson Motta and Dori Caymmi, was first released in 1967. At 2:59, the key is raised by a half-step with a syncopated kick, only to come back down again at 3:06. But as the tune fades, the higher key prevails (3:13). Many thanks to our regular Brazilian contributor Julianna A. for this tune — her seventh wonderful MotD submission!

Nick Allen | Hard Way to Go

“William ‘Nick’ Allen, Sr. was a Durham (NC) barber who often styled the hair of musical celebrities traveling through Durham,” (BullCitySoul.org). “Allen launched his own singing career with the gospel group the Interns. Later he recorded the soul song ‘Hard Way to Go’ as a soloist. He was also the father of Nick Allen, Jr., the lead vocalist of the Modulations.”

The scant information available on Allen is lacking in detail. But his heartfelt vocal definitely swung for the fences with “Hard Way to Go” (1968). There’s some flutter on the source tape (particularly around 1:44), making it a bit tough to tell whether the chord is major or minor! Starting in G major, the track shifts to A major at 1:03. After a grand pause, at 2:13, a long outro hits, complete with a completely different groove. The outro takes awhile to settle in, but once it does (2:27), it’s in C major.

Carl Carlton | Everlasting Love

“Between 1968 and 1987, Detroit singer Carl Carlton racked up an impressive 19 hits on Billboard’s R&B singles chart,” (Soul and Jazz and Funk). “Initially recording under the moniker ‘Little Carl Carlton’ – in an attempt to invite comparisons with Motown prodigy Little Stevie Wonder – the precociously talented vocalist” scored several hits before his largest release – 1981’s Leon Haywood-penned ‘She’s A Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked). “Much of his other work, despite its merits, has been ignored by compilers and reissue companies.

His biggest hit for Back Beat was his soulful 1974 reconfiguration of Robert Knight’s 1967 smash, ‘Everlasting Love,’ which was a Top 10 US pop hit for silky-voiced Carlton … Carlton’s fame, though, rests on another Haywood produced number – the much-sampled disco-inflected ‘She’s A Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked),’ which still sounds good.”

After a start in A major, the tune’s chorus shifts to the closely-related key of E major (heard for the first time between 0:46 – 1:18). The key then reverts to A major and the pattern continues from there.

The Debonaires | Headache In My Heart

“The Debonaires were cousins, Joyce Vincent Wilson and Telma Hopkins … there were other members who remain unknown,” (AllMusic). The group released several smaller singles in the mid-60s, but 1966’s “Headache in My Heart” b/w “Loving You Takes All My Time,” raised the group’s profile by engaging George Clinton as producer (Solid Hit Records). “Solid Hit’s typist blew the spelling and the single is credited as by the Debonairs; she missed the E, but it didn’t matter; it didn’t sell either. They tried one last time with “I’m in Love Again” before closing the book on the Debonaires.

… Wilson and Hopkins later sung with Tony Orlando, a pop group that notched three number one hits” … eventually, they became known collectively, via their work with Orlando, as Dawn. “Tony Orlando and Dawn unite from time to time for brief appearances, but the Debonaires were forgotten almost before they began.”

“Headache in My Heart” comes straight out of central casting: a minor key tune about heartache that clocks in well under three minutes, following a clear recipe for chart success at the time. Unfortunately, this tune didn’t catch fire. The two-and-a-half-minute track shifts upward by half a step at 1:43.

The Beatles | While My Guitar Gently Weeps

“In spring 1968, George Harrison found himself eager to play the guitar,” (Financial Times). “This may not sound like a particularly illuminating observation about the lead guitarist of the world’s biggest rock group, but the recording sessions for what became known as The Beatles’ White Album marked the first time in a while that he had approached his instrument with anything more than grudging professional obligation. For the past three years he had been fixated on mastering the sitar, but now he was finding joy in his six-string again … (it) was one of The Beatles’ best compositions — a perfectly balanced mixture of elegiac vocals and electrified solos; of West Coast dream-rock and eastern philosophy.

Prior to writing the track, Harrison had immersed himself in the teachings of the I-Ching, which posits that there is meaning inherent in ostensibly random events. Putting this idea into practice, he contrived to write a song based around two words plucked arbitrarily from a nearby book: ‘gently weeps.’ But perhaps there was nothing incidental about the choice of this emotive phrase; Harrison was, after all, in a fragile state, alienated from his own band … Things had become so fraught that Harrison asked his close friend Eric Clapton to help out. Not only would his presence cajole the other three into pulling their weight, but he was, handily, one of the best guitarists in the business; his uncredited playing on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ became one of the greatest moments of individual virtuosity on any Beatles track.”

The tune was later covered by a broad array of artists: Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Prince (at Harrison’s posthumous 1988 induction into the Rock + Roll Hall of Fame); Peter Frampton; Jeff Healey; Carlos Santana, India Arie, and Yo-Yo Ma; and Regina Spektor. “For most, the song is unmistakably Harrison’s personal triumph; ‘Only a guitar player could write that,’ Mick Jagger noted.” There is probably not much need to time slate this tune; the verses (in A minor) and choruses (in A major) are about as clearly delineated as any tune we’ve featured!

Manfred Mann | Fox On the Run

The bluegrass standard ‘Fox On the Run’ “… (was) written by Tony Hazzard in 1968,” (Bluegrass Today) ” … Having been raised in the country on the outskirts of Liverpool as a young boy, Tony had a lot of inspiration to draw from for the imagery in the song. ‘The main source was an imagined scene, described in the chorus, of a hot summer’s day, a field of wheat sloping down to a river in the sunshine, and a blonde woman walking through the wheat field towards the river … The second source was really just the feel of the music. I was a fan of The Band in the late 60s, and their style was running through me at the time.’

… Tony played the song for British rockers Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and in 1968, ‘Fox on the Run’ became a hit song for them in the UK … In 1976, Tom T. Hall took ‘Fox On the Run’ to #9 on the US Billboard Charts and to #12 in Canada. The song went on to be recorded many more times by bluegrass and country bands all over the US. You can hardly walk past a festival jam without hearing a version of this beloved chestnut … (Tony adds) ‘I eventually realized it had become a standard, and I’m very proud of that fact; the song will remain long after I’m gone, and if people think it’s an old folk song, that’s fine by me!’”

After a start in C major, a surprising shift to Bb major hits at 0:33, ushered in by an odd time signature. At 0:57, the tune reverts to the original key. These sections alternate until 2:08, when a half-step key change to Db major unfolds and remains in effect for the balance of the tune.

For good measure, here’s an example of the tune’s frequent setting in the Bluegrass genre, as represented by Bolt Hill Band:

Zager + Evans | In the Year 2525

It’s 2025, and our AI overlords have just begun their domination of the human species. What will life be like five hundred years hence?

Zager and Evans, a duo who met as students at Nebraska Wesleyan University, explained the consequences of technological change run amok with their only hit, “In the Year 2525 (Exordium + Terminus),” a Billboard #1 hit in 1969. Each verse increments the year described by 1010 years, so we have the sequence 2525, 3535, 4545, and so on, up to 9595. 1010 is not necessarily the most logical interval, but makes for a handy piece of songwriting.

There are upward half-step modulations at 1:34 and 2:12. The fan-made video is cut together from excerpts derived from Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic film Metropolis, in all of its retro-futuristic splendor.

Sonny + Cher | I Got You Babe

“When it came out (1965), ‘I Got You Babe’ also bridged a divide that should’ve been unbridgeable,” (Stereogum). “It’s a hammy little earworm, a simplistic example of pop-music showmanship at work. It’s the product of experienced studio hands, and its got some of its era’s greatest session musicians playing on it. But it’s also an example of the vaguely psychedelic, starry-eyed folk rock that was starting to take over in one of those big generation-divide moments. It’s got Cher reassuring Sonny Bono that his hair’s not too long. It’s not Bob Dylan, exactly, but it was pitched directly to the same young people who were buying Dylan records. And, because it’s a great song, they bought it.

… Sonny wrote ‘I Got You Babe’ one night … Sonny woke (Cher) up, she said what she didn’t like about it, and then he rewrote it after she went back to sleep. They recorded it with the members of the Wrecking Crew, the LA hired-gun studio musicians who’d played on so many of (Phil) Spector’s records … Bono produced it, and he did a nice job making it sound as much like a Spector track as possible. The arrangement … is lush and gorgeous, with those chiming guitars, those tinkling bells, and that tootling wind instrument (It was either an ocarina or an oboe, depending on who you ask). But the real discovery, of course, was Cher, who belted out all of her lines with tremendous gusto. On the bridge — ‘I got you to taaaalk to me’ — she’s a force of nature.”

The mid-tempo 6/8 track ambles along in F major through the first two verses and choruses, and then into the bridge, before a half-step key change shifts upward to F# major at 1:30 (about halfway through the tune). Many thanks to Amy C. for this contribution to MotD — her third submission!