Tommy James, along with his band, The Shondells, scored a Billboard #4 in 1967 with the just-over-2-minutes bubblegum rocker “I Think We’re Alone Now”. The song, written by Ritchie Cordell (who also co-wrote another Shondells hit, “Mony Mony”), stuck to one key throughout.
Over 50 years later, in 2019, James reprised the song on his album Alive, featuring only acoustic guitar and background vocals, and a much slower tempo. Missing in this version are the percussive “heartbeats” from the original, perhaps because at this tempo, they would be suggestive of brachycardia. James’ voice, perhaps sweetened by a touch of autotune, is really the highlight here.
The song starts in A; in addition to some subtle re-harmonization here and there, it features an elegant modulation to C at 2:18.
“While working on their new album of classic country covers — Country Evolution (2015),” the a cappella ensemble Home Free decided to cover The Oak Ridge Boys’ “defining 1981 hit ‘Elvira,'” (Rolling Stone). The kicker: Home Free collaborated with the song’s originators on the track. “’Once we got together as a group, there was a magic happening among the nine of us that just exploded…’
The result is an ‘Elvira’ that … maintains the cadence of the Oaks’ recording, but adds modern-day flourishes, thanks to Home Free’s beat-box singer Adam Rupp.” Home Free has been awarded “the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.”
After the initial surprise of “a capella + country” starts to wear off, there’s a half-step key change at 1:03; at 2:02, another modulation hits (this time a whole step). At 2:29, there’s a shift to the parallel minor for a brief bridge before a jubilant return to major at 2:40. Many thanks to first-time contributor Joya M. for submitting this track!
“Coming Back As a Man” is featured on Dutch singer Caro Emerald’s 2013 album The Shocking Miss Emerald. “Caro is certainly the sort of performer who you could imagine giving a knowing wink in between a cheeky lyric or two and the voice has a twirl that makes you smile,” said critic Stephen Unwin in his review of the album for The Daily Express.The record debuted at #1 in the Dutch and United Kingdom album charts, selling over 600,000 copies.
The track begins in G# minor and modulates up a half step to A minor at 2:43.
The Last Ship opened on Broadway in October 2014 and played for 3 months. The score, written by Sting, was nominated for a Tony Award. Sting also briefly stepped into the lead role in New York for the final few weeks of the run.
The story, while original, is inspired by memories from Sting’s childhood in Wallsend, England. “I did everything in my power to escape Wallsend… I became successful, but I owe a debt to that community,” Sting said in an interview on public radio. “This play is me trying to honour that community, trying to pay back what they gave me — a sense of self but also the engine that allowed me to escape. That’s the strange paradox. I love where I come from, I’m glad I escaped, at the same time I need to tell that story as a sort of ‘soul debt’.”
Writing the show also helped Sting emerge from a long period of writer’s block. ““I was writing songs for other characters than me, other sensibilities than mine, a different viewpoint,” he told the New York Times. “And so all of that pent-up stuff, all of those crafts I’d developed as a songwriter, I was suddenly free to explore without much thinking, actually. It just kind of came out as a kind of Tourette’s, a kind of projectile vomiting. It just came out, very quickly.”
“What Say You Meg?” is performed here by Sting. Modulation from E up to F# at 2:49.
“Undo,” written by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger, and Hamed “K-One” Pirouzpanah, was recorded by Swedish singer Sanna Nielsen and selected as Sweden’s entry in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Nielsen later included the track on an EP, also released in 2014.
The song begins in Eb minor and shifts up a half step at 2:21.
Ariana Grande recorded the demo for “Pink Champagne” at 17. The track didn’t make the cut for inclusion on Yours Truly (2013), but Grande promised her diehard fans that “when she hit 10 million followers on Twitter she would release the studio version. Upon reaching the magic number on October 1, 2013, Ariana popped the champagne and dropped the song,” (Songfacts).
“Grande wrote the song with Pebe Sebert: ‘I knew Ariana well enough because I feel like it’s all about trying to know the person to know what’s going to be a real look for them,’ she said … ‘She was 17 and portraying this kind of goody-two-shoes on the Nickelodeon series. We didn’t want to go too far from that image at that age … You almost have to have a little movie that you’re writing in your head.'”
After a 30-second spoken intro from Grande, the effervescent, bouncy track unfolds amid Grande’s trademark upper-range ad libs and embellishments. Very close to the tune’s end (3:24), a half-step modulation hits between two choruses. Many thanks to regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!
“Father’s Eyes” is featured on the 2014 album Wonders, the fifth studio release by the The Piano Guys, a US-based piano and cello duo. The song, written by cellist Steven Sharp Nelson and producer Al van der Been, is one of the few originals the group has recorded; they are known mostly for their covers. It is also the only song on the record to include vocals. It begins in G minor, shifts to C minor at 2:43, and winds its way back to G minor at 3:17.
“House music is a genre of electronic dance music first created by club DJs and music producers in Chicago in the early 1980s,” (Linguazza.com). “Early house music was generally characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized bass lines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, which preceded and influenced it (as both were DJ and record producer-created dance music) house was more electronic and minimalistic. The mechanical, repetitive rhythm of house was one of its main components.”
Neo-Soul/r+b/hiphop duo The Foreign Exchange, the collaboration of American rapper/vocalist Phonté and Dutch producer Nicolay, have branched out to supporting other artists in addition to the Grammy-nominated work they’ve accomplished together. Diviniti is among those artists: “A true lady of Detroit house, she writes uplifting songs and has a distinctive vocal style which incorporates eloquent wordplay (ThisIsDiviniti.com) … She has collaborated with producers such as Louie Vega, Josh Milan, Pirahnahead, DJ Minx … and has performed live in Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Detroit, and New York … The highlight of her career thus far is receiving a Grammy nomination as a result of her contribution to Louie Vega’s album Louis Vega Starring…XXXVIII.”
“The Beauty of Life,” featuring Diviniti and producer Piranhahead, was curated for the multi-artist compilation series Hide&Seek by The Foreign Exchange and Reel People Music in 2017. After lulling us into a trance with three minutes of gentle but insistent groove in F# major, the tune breaks away to modulate up a half-step to G (3:54).
“Oops” is featured on the British girl group’s acclaimed fourth studio album Glory Days, released in 2016. The record spent five consecutive weeks at #1 on the UK Albums chart and is the most streamed girl group album on Spotify.
In their review, AllMusic saidGlory Days “finds the group delivering a set of hooky, smartly crafted songs that balance swaggering, ’60s-style R&B with stylish, electronic-tinged dance-pop,.” London’s Evening Standard added “the foursome have carved out a pop niche for themselves, so the really rather good You Gotta Not and Oops have a finger-clicking Fifties feel and there’s a hint of edge to the delightfully fierce Power.”
This track features American singer Charlie Puth, and modulates up from D to Eb right near the end at 2:45.
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