Tag: 2000s

Jamie Cullum | All At Sea

UK singer/songwriter/pianist Jamie Cullum, “… mostly self-taught, began playing in a rock band at age 15,” (Brittanica). “He soon became attracted to jazz and began playing and singing it in bars and on cruise ships. He spent a year in Paris and then attended the University of Reading, England, where he studied film and English, composed music, and acted … His second album, Pointless Nostalgic … became such a favorite on British radio that … major labels fought a bidding war to sign him. His singing and playing, which evoked swing and ballad moods rather than rock, were an anomaly in the pop music of the day, but the CD sold 2,000,000 units, 400,000 of them in the United States.” Twentysomething reached top three in the UK, and the Netherlands; it scored top 100 status in most of Europe and the USA.

“… This is not a jazz album in the unapproachable sense – there are Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Buckley covers here (CLUAS.com, 2004) … This is a bona fide listenable and enjoyable opus. Jamie Cullum is not your typical jazz pianist or singer … he straddles genres for fun. This is certainly not a jazz-only album … the end result is surprisingly great.”

The single “All At Sea,” wasn’t a big hit by any stretch of the imagination, but received slow but steady airplay in the US (Cullum’s success seems better measured through the relative success of his full albums as opposed to his singles). Built in Eb major overall, the tune’s bridge (2:44 – 3:26) is in Ab minor; then Eb makes its return. The 2015 live version below includes an extended Billy Joel quote in its closing bars, demonstrating the breadth of Cullum’s improvisatory sensibilities. The studio version benefits from a full instrumentation and vocal harmonies — but Cullum’s dense voicings, sharpened vocal and piano technique, and absolutely unsinkable time make the solo version more than a full portion.

Anne Murray + Céline Dion | When I Fall in Love

What’s Canadian and sweet? A Tim Horton’s doughnut? Yes, that, and the
voices of Anne Murray and Céline Dion harmonizing on the standard
“When I Fall in Love”.

The song, written by Victor Young and Edward Heyman for the 1952 movie
One Minute to Zero, has become a jazz standard ballad over the years. The tune has had myriad interpretations: Doris Day had a hit version that same year, and Nat “King” Cole recorded his well-known version in 1956. Céline Dion did a version with Clive Griffin for the movie Sleepless in Seattle in 1993, which was also released as a charting single. In 1996, Natalie Cole recorded the song as a virtual duet with her late father, winning a Grammy for her effort.

This live version, appeared on Anne Murray’s 2007 album Duets: Friends & Legends, although it was recorded in 1998 for a DVD release. Murray takes the opening verse in the key of A major. After a climb to D major at 0:54, Dion takes the next verse. The song continues in D, featuring both voices in sweet harmony. At 3:13, there’s a flirtation with F before a return to D at 3:20.

The Chicks | Long Time Gone

“Long Time Gone” was originally recorded by American singer/songwriter Darrell Scott, and subsequently covered by the Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks) and featured as the lead single on their 2002 album Home. The instrumentation includes banjo and fiddle but no percussion; critic Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe said the track “features the same empowered energy of their best hits…but with a sharper edge and a complete refusal to mince words as they slice and dice the contemporary country landscape that they still ruled at the time.” The Chicks’ cover won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The track begins in D and briefly modulates to E following the second verse and chorus at 1:42. It returns to D at 2:10.

Noisettes | Never Forget You

“The Brit pop trio’s bubbly soul ditty is, thanks to Shingai Shoniwa’s sweet crooning, reminiscent of an early Motown party groove,” said USA Today upon the release of “Never Forget You” in 2009. Written by all the members of this English band, the track reached #20 on the UK Singles Chart. It begins in D and, after a more subdued bridge in B minor, modulates up to E at 2:09.

Once Upon a Time (from “Brooklyn”)

“Once Upon a Time” is from the 2004 Broadway musical Brooklyn by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson. The story follows a group of five homeless musicians in New York City who put on a play about a singer named Brooklyn under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The original production ran for 284 performances.

The track, which features Eden Espinosa in the lead role, begins in Bb and shifts up a half step to B at 2:14.

The Song That Goes Like This (from “Spamalot”)

“Would anyone have thought years ago that one of Broadway’s hits would be based on a wild and wacky Monty Python movie? Don’t be silly,” (TalkinBroadway). “On second thought, do. That’s what it’s all about … Certainly both fans and foes of big (meaning very big) Broadway musicals will relate to references to their excesses. ‘The Song That Goes Like This’ … mercilessly mock(s) de rigueur big, dare-I-say-pretentious, bombastic love ballads designed in their pre-fab way to press the emotional buttons and win applause … skewer(ing) the genre while illustrating and recreating every by-the-numbers recyclable cliche (‘I’ll sing it in your face/ While we both embrace/ And then we change the key’ … ).

Broadway can stand a self-inflicted piercing as sharp as one from the sword of a Round Table Arthurian … But just in case you’re distracted by just the jests and jousts, even in the CD’s lyric booklet it is pointed out that in the overblown key-changing ‘The Song That Goes Like This,’ there’s a character dramatically coming downstage on a boat and a chandelier descends! But it’s all for an evening’s amusement …” With music by John Du Prez and original Monty Python’s Flying Circus cast member Eric Idle, combined with lyrics by Idle, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2005 and saw a Broadway revival in 2023, with many national tours in the interim.

As the intro leads into the verse at 0:09, the first key change drops down two whole steps. At 1:20, we hear another modulation (this time up a whole step), duly announced beforehand in the lyrics. 2:02 and 2:24 continue the trend with more upward whole step shifts.

kd lang | Love is Everything (Jane Siberry cover)

“The title of Canadian singer-songwriter Jane Siberry’s 1984 breakthrough sophomore LP also still serves as her mission statement: No Borders Here,” (Tone Glow). “As one of Toronto’s most prolific tone poets and troubadours, her work has long ridden the divide between pop form and sonic abstraction, carefully dodging any traps of easy definition through detail and duration.

Erstwhile music critics often compared the ethereal leanings of her stretch of records for Reprise as Canada’s answer to the likes of Kate Bush or Laurie Anderson, but even these ties are somewhat of a slight. Her genre-agnostic innovation is fully drawn from intuition—a record like her retrospectively celebrated 1988’s The Walking merged koan-like lyrical hooks with thick vocal arrangements and impressionistic textures. Over the years, she’s collaborated with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, k.d. lang, Michael Brook and Mary Margaret O’Hara.”

Under the affectionate care of Siberry’s intermittent collaborator, fellow Canadian kd lang, “Love is Everything” (originally released by Siberry in 1993) is a showcase for lang’s stunning palette of vocal colors. Fully immersed in the lyrical sweep of Siberry’s lyrics, lang’s voice ranges from a soft breeziness to the power of her trademark belt — which for all of its impact, always seems to leave a bit more in reserve. The tune’s intro and verses are in D major; the chorus, first heard at 1:21, is in A major. But the shift to A major, in addition to being closely related to D major, is perhaps further obscured by voicing all of the A chords with D major’s leading tone, C#, in the bass. The next verse returns to D major at 2:11.

Many thanks to Mandy D. for calling our attention to this 2005 performance of the tune — her second contribution to MotD!

Rufus Wainwright | Zing Went the Strings of My Heart

In 2006, “Rufus Wainwright did something extraordinary – even bizarre: he performed a cover version of an entire concert,” (The Guardian). “Judy Garland’s 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall is a legendary night in showbiz, marking a comeback after a period of ill-health and addiction in order to claim her crown as the world’s greatest entertainer.

Wainwright, who had his own crystal-meth-afflicted dark night of the soul in the late 90s, decided to sing the whole thing from beginning to end, including the parts where Garland forgets the words (in You Go to My Head), on the very boards the resurgent diva trod. Part homage, part exorcism, part formidable technical exercise, it was also an experiment: what would happen when the voice of the present sings the songs and evokes the spirits of the past?”

One of the most energetic tunes of the show, “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart,” shows off the big band accompaniment beautifully. Wainwright turns in a rock solid vocal performance; freed from his usual self-accompaniment duties on piano or guitar, his energy is channeled into belting his vocals in a manner worthy of Garland’s memory. To say he’s not much of a hoofer would be a huge understatement, but Wainwright is in on the joke as he tosses off a goofy dance break during the tune’s midsection. The tune shifts up a half step at 2:26.

Garland’s original 1961 Carnegie Hall performance:

Michael McDonald | You Are Everything

“You Are Everything” was originally recorded and released in 1971 by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics, and written by Thomas Bell and Linda Creed, who both helped pioneer the Philadelphia soul sound. The track, which was also covered by Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, is included on American singer Michael McDonald’s 2003 album Motown, comprised entirely of covers.

It winds through many different keys, starting in Db for the intro and shifting to Bb when the vocal enters at 0:26. There is a modulation to Eb for the first chorus at 0:57, and then a downward mod to C for the second verse at 1:20. The last chorus, starting at 1:52, is in F.