Tag: 1970s

Climax | Precious and Few

Vocalist Sonny Geraci, a Cleveland native, didn’t become a household name in his own right, but he was at the helm of two very different but prominent pop hits with two different bands. “’Time Won’t Let Me,’ (The Outsiders), a frenetic dancefloor rocker … incorporated popular soul music elements and was consistent with the garage-band trend of the mid-’60s, (BestClassicBands). ‘Mersey meets Motown,’ was how Geraci once described it.”

Geraci “resurfaced in 1972 fronting the Los Angeles-based Climax … their ballad ‘Precious and Few’ became one of the biggest hits of that year, but they were only able to follow it with one more chart single, “Life and Breath,” which topped out at #52. Their first and only album, simply titled Climax, fizzled at #177 and the group disbanded in 1975.”

The power ballad pulls out all of the stops, featuring layers of orchestral instrumentation and extra backing vocals in addition to the sound of the band itself. Starting in A major, the track makes a stop in Bb major at 1:30, then drops a hearty rubato into the mix during the transition to B major at 1:59.

Manhattan Transfer | On a Little Street in Singapore

“Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, The Manhattan Transfer continues to set the standard as one of the world’s greatest and most innovative vocal bands,” (ManhattanTransfer.net). “Winners of ten Grammy Awards, with millions of records sold worldwide … Defying categorization, The Manhattan Transfer became the first vocal group to win Grammy Awards in the pop and jazz categories in one year, 1981: Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for ‘Boy From New York City’ (a cover of the 1964 song by The Ad Libs), and Best Jazz Performance by a Duo or Group for ‘Until I Met You (Corner Pocket).'”

Janis Siegel, the quartet’s alto, “emphasizes the group’s unmatched ability to excel performing a wide variety of music. ‘We didn’t say we were a pop group. We didn’t say we were a jazz group. We’re a vocal group.'” The quartet are now members of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

“On a Little Street in Singapore,” originally released by Frank Sinatra and the Harry James Orchestra in 1939, takes on a cinematic quality in the Manhattan Transfer’s 1978 cover. The quartet is backed by WDR Funkhausorchester, an ensemble affiliated with the German big band powerhouse WDR Big Band. Featuring plenty of small harmonic sidesteps before the main vocal’s entrance at 1:30, the tune settles into C major. Between 2:54 and 3:15, an instrumental break modulates up a half-step to Db major in time for the next verse — but the textures are sufficiently ornate to hide the seams, obscuring the exact moment of the shift.

(press play — the video does work, even though it doesn’t look like it will!)

Gayle McCormick | It’s a Crying Shame

“Gayle McCormick’s music career had begun in the mid-60s in Missouri, where she performed with Steve Cummings + the Klassmen,” (Exclaim.ca). “She moved to California with the band, but left the group upon arriving on the West Coast. From there, she hooked up with an act called the Smiths (not to be confused with the later group from the UK), who changed their name to Smith by the release of 1969’s debut album, A Group Called Smith.

The record’s biggest hit was their cover of the Burt Bacharach-penned ‘Baby It’s You.’ While the song had been recorded by the Shirelles, the Beatles and more, the smooth, soul rock groove Smith grafted to the piece gave the tune its highest chart position, climbing to #5 in late 1969.

Smith followed up their debut with a sophomore collection in 1970, but they disbanded, leaving McCormick to start a solo career. She yielded a minor hit with ‘It’s a Cryin’ Shame’ from an eponymous solo set in 1971.” The energetic track features a mid-phrase modulation up a half-step at 2:07.

Hall + Oates | She’s Gone

In an interview with American Songwriter, John Oates, songwriter/guitarist/vocalist for Hall and Oates, spoke about “She’s Gone,” from the band’s 1973 album Abandoned Luncheonette (re-released to larger acclaim in 1976): “I don’t know if it’s the best song we’ve ever written, but it’s certainly one of the most enduring songs. I think it’s a song that is certainly emblematic of our collaborative relationship … We knew it was a good song. We knew it was unique. But really that song – don’t confuse that song with the record. The song was the thing that happened in our living room with him on the piano and me on the acoustic guitar. The record is what happened when we went into Atlantic studios with the legendary producer, Arif Mardin, and this incredible collection of musicians who he surrounded us with and his string arrangement and the chemistry. I call it the perfect storm of creativity. It turned that song into a classic record that has really stood the test.”

From Songfacts: “This is one of the duo’s favorite Hall & Oates songs. Daryl Hall told Entertainment Weekly: ‘It’s very autobiographical. What we wrote about was real, even though it was two different situations. And it’s very thematic with us: this soaring melody and uplifting chord progression, but about a very sad thing.'” In Songfacts‘ 2011 interview with John Oates, he explained: “‘We started out as songwriters. And both Daryl and myself, individually and collectively, have a wide variety of musical tastes. Just because the music we made may have fallen into a certain category doesn’t mean we weren’t aware of and interested in other kinds of music. When Hall & Oates got together, I brought a traditional American folk-y approach, and it was something Daryl wasn’t really even aware of. And Daryl brought a lot more of the urban R&B side. And when we blended those together, we eventually created a sound.'”

In what might be a high water mark for the duo’s vocals, lead vocal duties are shared and harmonies alternate with octave unisons. Although the single peaked at only #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, it also placed in the top 10 on the Canada Top Singles chart and both the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts. It only reached #93 on the US R&B chart. Though the duo’s unprecedented run of early-80s hits almost entirely arose from the pop genre, this earlier outing was textbook blue-eyed soul. Between 4:08 – 4:34, a late instrumental bridge brings three half-step modulations, ushered in with a IV/V compound chord in each new key.

Heart | Crazy on You

The first song on Heart’s debut 1975 LP, Dreamboat Annie, is the epic, “Crazy On You,” (American Songwriter). “The song, which begins with an acoustic riff that sounds like it’s being plucked by five or six hands (not just by one of guitarist Nancy Wilson’s) leads into one of the most stalwart guitar licks of all time. Borne out of fits of passion amidst troubled political times (see: War, Vietnam), the track describes the desire to forget everything happening outside one’s windows and succumb to passion. With this song as the band’s introduction to new fans, it’s no wonder that Heart would later make the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

… Guitarist Nancy Wilson spoke about her sister’s songwriting process: “When Ann was writing the lyrics, I know that she was – the times were very troubled, kind of like today. Very much like today. And, you know, it was kind of a call to your partner to be like, ‘I know the world is just insanely crazy here right now. But I just want us to go crazy together. To let it all just fall away so it’s only just you and me here!’ So, I think that’s a really cool thing that she did in those words for sure.”

Built in A minor overall, the tune features a bridge in A major (2:25 – 2:52). In addition to the new tonality, the shape of the melody also shifts in comparison with the balance of the song. Between 4:00 and 4:20, an instrumental section echoes the earlier vocal bridge.

John Lennon | #9 Dream

“On first listen, the beautifully syrupy pop ballad that is John Lennon song ‘#9 Dream’ seems as though it couldn’t be further from its numerical cousin, The Beatles’ ‘Revolution 9’ (FarOut). With its lush string sections, glittering acoustic guitar arpeggios, and exuberant melodies, this 1974 track, taken from Walls And Bridges, sees John Lennon at his most uninhibited.

Like many of John Lennon’s best works, ‘#9 Dream’ emerged fully formed in that brief intersection between sleep and wakefulness. ‘That was a bit of a throwaway. It was based on some dream I had,’ Lennon would recall in 1980. … The writing process was effortless, a welcome contrast to the usual grind that he ritually submitted himself to. ‘That’s what I call craftsmanship writing, meaning, you know, I just churned that out,’ he said. ‘I’m not putting it down, it’s just what it is, but I just sat down and wrote it, you know, with no real inspiration, based on a dream I’d had.’ … The dreamlike atmosphere Lennon wanted to capture motivated him to pay a lot of attention to the textural quality of ‘#9 Dream’. The vocals, for example, sound as though they have double-tracked at least five or six times, giving Lennon’s voice a choral quality.”

The verses are in C major, with a shift to E Dorian for the chorus (first heard between 1:14 and 1:56). The modulation doesn’t announce itself in advance — in fact, the downward chromatic motion of the melody at the very start of the chorus suggests a feeling of unexpectedly falling, but somehow enjoying the journey nonetheless. The post-chorus section never quite settles into one single tonality or tempo, its speed spiraling downward as it goes. At 2:10, the cycle begins a second time.

Squeeze | Up the Junction

Squeeze’s “Up the Junction,” released in 1979, “is an unusual song in that it has no chorus, and the title appears only in the last line.” (Songfacts). “When Chris Difford wrote it, the song had about 16 verses. Glenn Tilbrook, Squeeze’s other guitarist: ‘The lyric was a story that had no obvious repeats, and I thought it read perfectly well as it was. I was thinking of something like Dylan’s ‘Positively 4th Street‘ as a template when I wrote the music.’ Difford explained: ‘I imagined it would never be a hit and we’d have to take it off the album. And the record company said that they disagreed, and it was that second #2 record (after ‘Cool For Cats’)…’

‘Up The Junction’ is a British phrase meaning you’re screwed. In this song, a guy gets his girl pregnant, becomes a drunk, and is left on his own when the girl leaves him and takes the child. The song begins with the couplet I never thought it would happen/ With me and the girl from Clapham. Difford recalled to Q magazine: ‘I still can’t believe we rhymed that, but the language in the song reflects the way we used to talk to each other. Glenn’s is an extraordinary collection of chords and the riff is unforgettable. The first time we played it I remember thinking, God, this is great. It was everything I loved in music – Bob Dylan in a sweet wrapper.’

After a start in E major for the first group of the long collection of verses, the bridge arrives at 1:10, shifting to D minor halfway through (1:19). At 1:30, the next verse enters in D major before rising back to E major at 1:50.



Guys ‘n’ Dolls | There’s a Whole Lot of Loving

“Yes, we have reached the stage where a song from a McVitie’s fruit shortcake TV ad can be recorded and released as a hit single.” (Music Sounds Better With Two). “The song itself has nothing to do with cookies and a lot to do with the natural hugeness of the United States (the songwriters were American).  It’s a proper song, not a jingle fleshed out.  The loving going on is abstract; the love could be for anyone, but it’s heartfelt and the wholesome goodness of the song’s sing-a-long style matches the Hoover Dam mention.  It could be straight out of a musical, though usually there’s a bit more plot in a stage song.

I don’t know if this was expected to be a hit – but it was.  So, what to do?  On very short notice, a group of male and female singers were put together so they could appear as Guys ‘n’ Dolls for promotional purposes – miming the song and dancing on variety shows … There was no time to re-record the song with the new group, however. It worked, at least at first … This scam, if you like, did have one unintended consequence. A few years after their being relieved from Guys ‘n’ Dolls, Theresa Bazar – the female of the pair – approached the studio bass player, one Trevor Horn, to see if he would be interested in working with her and David Van Day, the male of the pair. He was and so they did – as the duo Dollar. And so from late 1974, the tiny seeds of something different were being sown.”

The intro features a few psychedelic-adjacent instrumental touches before it kicks into its full “Up With People”/The Bicentennial is Approaching — Look Busy! vibe in earnest at 0:33. At 1:45 and 2:30, the string-saturated key changes are unsubtle enough to drive your Great Aunt Mildred’s V8 Buick Electra through — with room to spare.

Barry Manilow | I Write The Songs

“I Write The Songs” was written by Bruce Johnston, a member of the Beach Boys, and released on his 1977 solo album Going Public. Barry Manilow’s cover, recorded in 1976, won Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards and reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Cash Box, a now-defunct music trade industry magazine, wrote that “the melodic, ballad-like beginning grows into an operatic crescendo, all done in clear production that all age groups will appreciate.”

There is an unusual modulation up a major third from F to A for the penultimate strain of the chorus at 2:34, and then Manilow takes it up one more step to B for the last chorus at 3:00.

Jim Croce | Time in a Bottle

Jim Croce was “a songwriter with a knack for both upbeat, catchy singles and empathetic, melancholy ballads” … (AllMusic). “Croce appealed to fans as a common man, and it was not a gimmick — he was a father and husband who went through a series of blue-collar jobs. And whether he used dry wit, gentle emotions, or sorrow, Croce sang with a rare form of honesty and power. Few artists have ever been able to pull off such down-to-earth storytelling as convincingly as he did.”

“Jim Croce wrote this reflective song the night that he found out his wife, Ingrid, was pregnant,” (Songfacts) … “She recalls a mix of terror and delight in Jim’s reaction when she told him the news. The child was a boy named Adrian, who grew up to become the singer-songwriter A.J. Croce … ‘Time In A Bottle’ hit #1 in America 14 weeks after Croce was killed in a plane crash. Croce started touring after he completed his last album, I Got A Name. On September 30, 1973 a plane carrying Croce and five others crashed upon takeoff as he was leaving one college venue to another 70 miles away … The single entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 1, 1973 and finally reached #1 for the week ending December 29, a little over three months after he died.”

The verses are in D minor, but the choruses (heard first between 0:56 – 1:17) shift to D major. Quite unusually, the title is mentioned only at the beginning of the first verse, rather than during the chorus.