Tag: 1990s

Lisa Stansfield | Set Your Loving Free

“The most convincing white R&B singer since Teena Marie,” declares AllMusic, “Lisa Stansfield reached the mainstream after nearly a full decade in the music industry … (1989’s) solo single ‘All Around the World‘ gave Stansfield a tremendous boost by reaching number one in several countries, including the U.K. From that point, throughout her distinguished if sporadic recording career, she was known for sophisticated, soul-inspired releases that appealed to a broad audience.”

Stansfield’s sleek yet evocative stage presence made her a natural for music video and for her live shows. The UK native’s distinctive, open expression (so celebrated in the iconic video for “All Around the World”) might have made her a silent film star had she been born 60 years earlier.

In addition to the custom-written dance tracks she’s best known for, she has reverently covered a wide range of classics by artists ranging from Billie Holiday to The Four Tops, from Barry White to Marvin Gaye. “Set Your Loving Free” is a single from Stansfield’s second album, Real Love (1991), written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney, and Andy Morris. This expansive 1994 live performance provides all of the lush instrumentation of the studio version, if not more. The verse starts in B minor at 0:28. At 1:04, the pre-chorus in C# minor quickly sets the stage for the chorus in E minor (1:22).

Brian McKnight | Back at One

“Back at One,” featured on Brian McKnight‘s eponymously named 1999 studio album, is one of the 16-time Grammy-nominated singer’s most successful singles. A Top 10 hit in New Zealand and Canada, the track reached the #2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and also placed on the Adult Contemporary and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Key change at 3:00.

Hall + Oates | I Ain’t Gonna Take It This Time

Hall and Oates came into being during the height of the Philly Soul sound. “Daryl Hall had become friends with The Temptations as they rose to stardom from the streets of Philadelphia,” reports SoulCountry. “‘They were an outrageous influence on me,’ Hall said. He joined them on the road some, ‘trying to be their assistant,’ picking up their suits at the cleaners and grabbing their coffee.

‘After the show, they would just go and sing gospel songs and stuff,’ Hall said. ‘I felt that was something I belonged doing. It was really a lot of interracial interaction, and it’s why I sing the kind of music that I sing,’ he continued. ‘There’s been a lot of misunderstanding over the years by people who can’t even imagine that.'”

The 1990 power ballad “I Ain’t Gonna Take It This Time,” like so much of the band’s output, straddles the lines among rock, pop, and soul. The tune starts in D minor; at 1:37, a multi-section bridge builds tension until 2:37, which brings a mammoth shift to F# major.

New York Rock + Soul Revue | Lonely Teardrops

“At a time when rock concerts are putting an increasing emphasis on spectacle and choreography, it is refreshing to attend a show at which genuine interplay among musicians is the main attraction,” notes a New York Times review of a 1990 concert by the New York Rock & Soul Revue. “… Seasoned pop veterans working together in an unusually flexible and informal setting … a loosely-structured round-robin format.” According to AllMusic, the concert lineup included the organizer of the short series of shows, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, as well as Phoebe Snow, Charles Brown, Michael McDonald, Eddie and David Brigati (the Rascals), and Boz Scaggs. In the liner notes, Fagen called the selected tunes “durable music.”

Songfacts reports that “Lonely Teardrops,” made famous in 1959 by Jackie Wilson, was “written by Tyran Carlo (the pen name of Wilson’s cousin Roquel Davis) and a pre-Motown Berry Gordy Jr., who co-wrote eight other songs for Wilson. This song gave Gordy him the confidence to rent a building in Detroit and start the Tamla label, which would become Motown.” The tune was a #1 R&B hit, also reaching top 10 on the Pop charts.

Unlike the single-key original, the NYR+SR version has a quick key-of-the-moment lift from 2:19 to 2:26, but it’s a fake out that returns us to the original key almost immediately; 2:59 brings a real key change.

Jackie Wilson’s original:

Let It Sing (from “Violet”)

“Let It Sing” is featured in composer Jeanine Tesori’s 1997 Off-Broadway musical Violet. Based on the short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim” by Doris Betts, Violet won the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical the year of its premiere, and was revived on Broadway in 2014 starring Sutton Foster and Joshua Henry, who performs here. Key changes at 0:57, 1:05, 1:18, 1:39, 1:48, 2:00, 2:32, and 2:57.

Christina Aguilera | I Turn To You

Written by songwriter and vocalist Diane Warren, “I Turn To You” didn’t become popular until Christina Aguilera included it on her debut album in 1999. She described the song as being “about that sort of perfect love, which we all dream. This kind of song can make you feel safe and warm anytime of the year.” The track peaked at the #3 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, and has been a popular choice for contestants on reality competition series such as American Idol and The Voice. Key change at 3:17.

Nightnoise | The Wexford Carol

The Irish chamber ensemble Nightnoise was active from 1984 to 1997, and was known for their fusion of Irish, Celtic, and jazz styles. Their arrangement of this traditional carol is included on the Windham Hill‘s 1993 holiday compilation album Winter Solstice IV. Key change at 2:46.

Nando Lauria | Gloria

A native of Recife, Brazil’s fifth-largest city, guitarist and vocalist Nando Lauria is perhaps known for his wordless vocals on many tracks from the Pat Metheny Group. The Chicago Tribune describes Lauria’s work as “meld(ing) the Afro-Latin sensibilities of his native Brazil with American contemporary jazz to soothing effect.” AllMusic outlines Lauria’s sound: “Rather than blazing, polyrhythmic compositions, Lauria performs romantic, hypnotic numbers. He doesn’t downplay his ethnic heritage, but the rhythms are subdued rather than bubbling, aggressive, or intense … a tight balance between electric and acoustic instrumentation and modern and vintage arrangements, with a contemporary outlook.”

The track was released on Narada Records, which Billboard describes as “an independent New Age music label … (which) evolved through an expansion of formats to include world music, jazz, Celtic music, new flamenco, acoustic guitar, and piano genre releases.” Narada started in 1979 as a mail-order business, expanding in the 1990s to include Jazz and World divisions in addition to New Age.

“Gloria” (1992) is essentially a short multi-movement piece. The first section, centered around acoustic guitar, doesn’t introduce the melody until 1:09. This intro presents less of a specifically Christmas-y mood than a gentle scene of winter wonder. At 2:30, the track is built on the contemporary Latin text for the Catholic mass Gloria segment, performed a cappella by a multi-tracked Lauria. At 3:52, the acoustic guitar returns to accompany the vocals. 4:09, 5:05, and 5:16 bring more changes, re-visiting and expanding upon previous melodic and harmonic ideas while adding and subtracting groove elements. There are several modulations, with the first substantial shift at 2:27.

Strangers Like Me (from “Tarzan”)

“Strangers Like Me,” by English drummer and songwriter Phil Collins (best known for his work with the rock band Genesis), was originally featured in the 1999 Disney animated film Tarzan, and later included in a Broadway musical adaptation. Also popular as a pop song, the track reached the #10 spot on the US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Straight-forward half-step modulation at 3:06.

Nancy Wilson | When October Goes

After his death in 1976, the estate of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Mercer revealed several unfinished lyrics. Singer/songwriter, accompanist, and music director Barry Manilow, who’d befriended Mercer in his final years, was gifted some of these lyrics by Mercer’s widow, Ginger. Mercer’s estate details that one of these lyrics was for “When October Goes.” After setting the words to music, Manilow released the resulting ballad in 1984; the track reached #6 on the US Adult Contemporary charts that year. The tune has since been covered by Rebecca Paris, Kevin Mahogany, Rosemary Clooney, and many more.

AllMusic reports “Diva Nancy Wilson was among contemporary music’s most stylish and sultry vocalists; while often crossing over into the pop and R&B markets … she remained best known as a jazz performer, renowned for her work alongside figures including Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing … By the 1990s, she was a favorite among the ‘new adult contemporary’ market, her style ideally suited to the format’s penchant for lush, romantic ballads; she also hosted the Jazz Profiles series on National Public Radio.” From the JazzIz 2018 posthumous tribute to Wilson: “(her) supple voice, natural ability as a storyteller and willingness to cross musical boundaries made her a sensation in the jazz and pop worlds … (she received) three Grammy Awards during the course of her life — the first in 1965, the last in 2007 … “

Wilson’s version of the tune was released in 1991. It starts in C minor and shifts to Bb minor at 1:51.