Celine Dion’s signature song, the theme of the 1997 film Titanic, is covered here by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, known for their inventive interpretations of well-known classics. The track, the style of Jackie Wilson and Frank Valli, features singer/songwriter Mykal Kilgore, and modulates at 2:22.
Tag: 1990s
All the Wasted Time (from “Parade”)
“All the Wasted Time” is from composer Jason Robert Brown’s 1998 Broadway musical Parade. The show tells the real-life story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man from Atlanta who was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of his 13- year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in 1913. Brown’s Tony Award-winning score, the first he wrote for Broadway, is tinged with folk, blues, gospel and musical theater influences.
This song comes near the end of the show; Leo and his wife Lucille are sitting in his cell taking stock of all they have been through over the past two years, and expressing how their love for each other is as deep as it has ever been. Its rolling accompaniment is reminiscent another of Brown’s romantic duets, “I’d Give It All For You,” from the 1995 show Songs For a New World. The first revival of Parade, starring Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond, opened on Broadway last week.
There are three modulations in the tune: at the start of Lucille’s verse at 1:37, leading into the third chorus at 3:10, and at the coda at 3:48.
Jay Ungar + Aly Bain | The Lovers’ Waltz
“Aly Bain was born on May 15 1946 in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland,” (WorldMusicCentral). “Lerwick is a small, enchanting town on the Shetland Islands. Aly began learning fiddle at the age of eleven. Tom Anderson, his teacher, is acknowledged as one of the true masters of Shetland music. Aly developed a highly dramatic style of playing, matching his great tone and technical ability with genuine emotion. Alert to the musical potential of the dynamic interaction between Irish and Scottish traditions, he helped establish the Boys of the Lough. The group is now recognized as one of the best in the tradition.”
Fiddler Jay Ungar was “a Bronx kid” while pianist Molly Mason “grew up in Washington State,” (JayAndMolly.com). “He was raised on pop music of the 1940s and ’50s. She had a fondness for traditional fiddle music and ’30s and ’40s popular tunes. He hung out in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and roamed North Carolina and Tennessee in search of traditional players. She played clubs and colleges on the West Coast and took a liking to the jazzy sound of the Swing Era. Since joining forces—both artistically and romantically (the two would marry in 1991)—Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have become one of the most celebrated duos on the American acoustic music scene.” Ungar is probably best known for co-writing “Ashokan Farewell” with Mason — a tune which was featured in the Ken Burns series The Civil War and certainly feels like it was written a century or more before its 1982 debut.
Ungar, Bain, and Mason collaborate here on “The Lovers’ Waltz,” also written by Ungar and Mason. Starting in G major, the tune alternates between solo and duo fiddle lines and a solo by an uncredited guitarist as the key shifts up to D major at 1:47.
Pettin’ and Pokin’ (from “Five Guys Named Moe”)
“Five Guys Named Moe” premiered on London’s West End in 1990 and on Broadway in 1992. The musical, with a book by Clarke Peters, features the music of saxophonist and songwriter Louis Jordan, who was known for helping to bridge the transition from jazz to rock ‘n roll in the 1950s. The show has been revived by numerous regional theaters over the last decade. There are modulations at 0:41 and 1:11.
Cher | Love and Understanding
“Love and Understanding” was featured on American singer Cher’s 1991 album Love Hurts. Written by MotD regular Diane Warren, the track reached the number 3 spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
The song’s intro begins in the key of A minor and 12/8 time before abruptly shifting to a 4/4 rock groove in the relative C major at 0:14. The verse stays in C before pivoting back to A minor through a V7 chord for the chorus at 1:00. A full modulation up a step to B minor occurs at 2:50, leading into the final chorus. Finally, a short outro at 3:54 recalls the opening 12/8 motive.
I’ll Make a Man Out of You (from “Mulan”)
“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is featured in the 1998 Disney film Mulan. Written by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel, it is sung by Donny Osmond in the movie and on the soundtrack.
This track is one of the few well-known Disney favorites that is not a ballad. “We knew it needed to be masculine and muscular and hence the drums, all the military aspects of what were factored into a very odd pop song,” Wilder said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I knew I wanted it to sound large and I knew what the tempo and the cadence of the piece was,” he continued. “I had a very extensive Asian sample library. I was sort of mixing and matching East meets West where I was taking drum cadences from traditional Chinese drums and then marrying that with military snares, etc. and just kept building and building and building so it became this cacophonous effect of a Chinese marching American band.”
The song begins in E minor and modulates up a whole step to F minor at 2:03.
Annie Lennox | Cold
“From the very beginning of her rise to international stardom, Annie Lennox desperately wanted to transcend her own fame,” (Pitchfork). “Her breakout single as one half of Eurythmics, 1983’s ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),’ encapsulated her anxieties as a frontwoman in the increasingly panoptic public eye: ‘Everybody’s looking for something,’ she warned … Like an international spy, Lennox used clothing and makeup as tools of professional disguise, continuously shapeshifting … many of Lennox’s characters served as commentary on societal perceptions of fame, wealth, and gender … But even if her facades had successfully warded off the media’s leering eye—even if she hadn’t been dubbed ‘Britain’s most tortured rock star’ … Lennox might still have justifiably burnt out by the end of the decade. Eurythmics were incredibly prolific, releasing almost an album a year starting with their 1981 debut In the Garden. Almost every album begot an international tour, with little downtime to recuperate. ‘I had this vision constantly towards the end of the Eurythmics period,’ Lennox later told Q, ‘my life was a bus, but I was running behind it. I just could not catch up with that fucking bus.'”
After she stepped away from Eurythmics and her longtime artistic partner Dave Stewart, “Diva (1992) broke dramatically with Eurythmics in style and substance: Where her work with Stewart trafficked in restless anxieties, her solo work was a step towards the wistful, patient resolve of womanhood … Despite the velveteen, varied instrumentation on Diva, Lennox’s voice is the album’s most essential and expansive element … a veritable one-woman orchestra.
In a decade marked by the meteoric rise of prefab boy bands, the explosion and subsequent implosion of Britpop, and the tragic, paparazzi-fueled death of Princess Diana, Diva is a prophetic warning about the acceleration of fame … In her eerily predictive manner, Lennox identified Ivana Trump as a bellwether for the growing influence wielded by, as she put it in 1992, ‘people famous for being famous.'”
On “Cold,” one of Diva‘s ballads, the verses never settle into one key (the music starts at 0:44, after a cinematic intro). The first progression, I – bIII – IV – I in G major (0:56 – 1:19), alternates with a second progression (1:20 – 1:43), which features the ii-V (and eventually the I) of the closely related key of D major. This tonality shift continues throughout all of the verses. Amid the rangy yet fluid melody and intensely emotive lyrics, somehow not a hair seems out of place.
Harry Connick Jr. | A Wink and a Smile
Written by MotD favorite Marc Shaiman with Ramsey McLean for the 1993 Nora Ephron film Sleepless in Seattle, “A Wink and a Smile” was performed by Harry Connick Jr. for the soundtrack.
The song, which was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, plays over a montage as Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) tries to cheer up his son Jonah (played by Ross Malinger) after his mother dies. It modulates from C up a half step to Db at 2:09
Owsley | I’m Alright
“Audacious musicians are the best,” (Harvard Crimson). “They’ve been all over the map with their talents and tastes, they’ve been a part of power-pop band The Semantics, they’ve toured with Shania Twain, Pat McGee, Amy Grant and Janis Joplin to get a foothold in the music industry, they’ve jammed with Ben Folds for fun. And then they retire to their living rooms in Alabama to craft their solo pilot over four meticulous years, which they subsequently drop off at the major labels with a rakish take-it-or-leave-it attitude until Giant Records snaps it up. As a result, they make music that’s informed and intelligent, yet independent and fresh.
That’s Will Owsley, recommended by his history and spirit and supported by a very strong debut album of 11 rock gems … The songs here don’t address urgent issues or bleed hearts and even have a tendency to sound like one another, but they do serve blissful, slightly off-center rock with consistent crunch. They make you shut your eyes, nod emphatically and belch, ‘Yey-ahh. Thank god for audacious musicians.'”
The meticulously produced “I’m Alright” is a track from Owsley’s eponymous debut album (1999), recorded in his home studio, which went on to receive a Grammy nod for Best Engineered album. The track starts in E major, shifts to E minor for the first chorus (0:40); the pattern continues until 1:34, where an instrumental verse arrives in Eb major. At 1:51, we’re back to the original E major/minor pattern.
Crowded House | Weather With You
An Australian/New Zealand band perhaps best known for its 1986 international smash hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” Crowded House released “Weather With You” in 1991. The track did well in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe, but didn’t chart in the US.
AllMusic reports that “as the primary songwriter for the band, Neil Finn has always set the tone for the band’s sound … (and) has consistently proven his knack for crafting high-quality songs that combine irresistible melodies with meticulous lyrical detail.” Songfacts adds more details from Finn’s songwriting process: “‘We were trying to imagine a time and a place, and the line Walking ’round the room singing Stormy Weather helped us get into some atmosphere of somebody troubled who is always on their own in a room. We were trying to find lines that described the scene, like the small boat made of china, and that feeling of ennui or languishing that permeates the song. Ultimately, the theme of the song is, of course, that you are creating your own weather, you are making your own environment, always.'”
After an intro and verse in E minor, a pre-chorus (0:42 – 1:04) drops to D minor, then revisits the E minor intro until 1:14, when the D major chorus finally hits, including some unexpected chord inversions. A mix of these elements continues from there, including another return to the intro.
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