ballad

Plush | Soaring and Boring

“Liam Hayes is an accidental perfectionist. In hindsight, the Chicago-bred/Milwaukee-based songwriter’s disjointed two-decade trajectory — under his nom de pop Plush and, now, his birth name — was pretty much spelled out in the title of his early signature “Soaring and Boring”: high expectations followed by agonizingly long periods of inactivity,” (Pitchfork). “On the surface, Hayes’ backstory boasts all the hallmarks of a contrarian eccentric genius, whether he was answering the orch-pop promise of Plush’s splendorous 1994 debut single “Three-Quarters Blind Eyes”/”Found a Little Baby” with 1998’s starkly somber solo-piano effort More You Becomes You; tinkering with the symphono-soul follow-up Fed so much he had to release it in two different versions; or issuing certain albums in Japan only. But the uncommon lags between albums have mostly been a factor of Hayes losing his money rather than his mind, and trying to find sympathetic label backers to support a vision of tastefully constructed, soft-focus pop music that’s always been out of step with both mainstream and underground orthodoxies.”

“While it’s hip for contemporary pop acts to toss out Burt Bacharach’s name as an influence, few even remotely approximate the master’s melodic savvy, emotional resonance and simple elegance; Plush’s Liam Hayes comes much closer to the mark, with his debut More You Becomes You — an intimate, often gorgeous collection of piano ballads — recalling the handful of solo records Bacharach cut during the late 1960s,” (AllMusic). “Gentle yet disarming, the record’s only hint of irony is in its title — Hayes smartly favors a less-is-more approach, stripping his music of virtually everything but piano and vocals; both are more than adequate to convey the somber beauty which lends the album its seductive powers.”

Starting in A minor, “Soaring and Boring” (1998) drifts down to Ab minor at the 0:17 mark before rebounding at 0:26. The alternating pattern continues until 0:44, when the track settles into a longer patch of G minor during the chorus. More harmonic shifts continue from there.

Many thanks to regular contributor Ari S. for yet another distinctive submission to MotD!

Charlie Rich | A Very Special Love Song

“Charlie Rich did not start his career in country music,” (Saving Country Music). “After leaving the Air Force in 1956, he purchased a 500-acre farm in West Memphis, Arkansas, and would drive over the Mississippi River bridge at night to play piano in jazz and R&B outfits in Memphis clubs. Eventually he ended up at Sun Studios in Memphis as a studio musician. Sam Phillips didn’t see him as a performer though, chiding that Rich was too jazzy. At one point, Sam Phillips handed Charlie Rich a stack of Jerry Lee Lewis records and told him, ‘Come back when you get that bad.’

For years Charlie Rich struggled as a performer since he wasn’t dirty enough for rockabilly or country, and not distinctive enough to make it in the world of pop. But when the Countrypolitan sound became all the rage in country music, it gave Charlie Rich an opening. Where some more hard country artists struggled to perfect the more genteel Countrypolitan approach, Charlie Rich’s balladeer style and smoothness fit the era perfectly.”

Though it didn’t reach the popular heights of his biggest single, “Behind Closed Doors,” 1974’s “A Very Special Love Song” is among Rich’s best-known tracks. After starting in C major, the tune features a bridge in Bb, running between 1:16 – 1:44. After the bridge, the original key returns.

Keven Eknes | Falls

“Keven Eknes is a Norwegian guitarist and composer based in Los Angeles, CA,” (artist website). “He is developing his first full-length instrumental album, Dark Canyon, created in collaboration with keyboardist and producer Alex Argento, following earlier solo releases.

… As a touring and session guitarist, Keven has performed and recorded with Jonathan Cain (Journey), Engelbert Humperdinck, Jesse McCartney, Leslie Odom Jr., among others. He was part of the house band for NBC’s American Song Contest, performing with artists including Michael Bolton, and has worked extensively with the Deadline Hollywood Orchestra on projects featuring artists and composers such as Mark Ronson, Diane Warren, Jaeil Jung, Brian Tyler, and Bear McCreary.”

Eknes’ 2014 track “Falls” is largely built in A minor. From the first bars, its lyrical melody soars above a peaceful 12/8 feel. A chorus arrives at 1:38 — initially in Bb major. But after a shift in the groove and a falling chromatic bass line, the section eventually ends on a sustained D major chord, fading to the 2:11 mark. Next is a soft-spoken dialogue among drums, bass, and guitar. At 3:04, the cycle repeats, with the guitar melody augmented and developed along the way. A blistering bridge in E minor hits at 4:13, shifting over to A major at 4:48. 5:20 brings a gentle restatement of the theme, starting in A minor but concluding in D major.

Jacob Collier | Summer Rain

“Now five albums into his career, it’s clear Jacob Collier is a once-in-a-generation musician,” (Undertone). “For anyone that’s been following him since he broke out via harmonically complex a capella covers on YouTube, that’s old news. In reality, it was clear from that very first album – Hideaway, toured solo with Jacob jumping around stage from drums to keys to double bass with the help of a loop pedal – that Collier isn’t like your average singer-songwriter, not even your average jazz musician. He plays everything brilliantly and effortlessly, all with Herculean powers of humility, and has an immense grasp of musical harmony in all its nuances. His insatiable urge to learn new instruments is matched by his appetite for a dizzying array of genres and a rare respect for music in all its nebulous forms: Djesse Vol. 4 (2024) has everything from choral ambience to cinematic pop and oppressive death metal – and that’s just track one. As a result, Djesse Vol. 4 is in turns awe-inspiringly virtuosic and discombobulating, as has Collier’s entire career up to this point.

‘Summer Rain’ is the pick of the ballads, Collier showcasing the depths of his lovesick tenderness before a soaring, delightfully uncomplicated finale that evokes Coldplay in ‘Fix You’ mode. It’s more proof that when Collier can successfully harness his immense talents into developing a single strong idea – like the Hulk trying not to smash everything he holds – the result can be stunning.”

Collier is joined by mandolinist/vocalist Chris Thile (best known for his work with Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek) and singer/songwriter/guitarist Madison Cunningham on vocals. Beginning in D major, the tune runs along a largely uncomplicated course for its first three-plus minutes. At 3:30, a bridge shifts to D minor before dropping into an unexpected C minor (3:58). By 4:29, the tonality has been pulled gradually back to its ultimate resting place — a return to D major.

Many thanks to Ellie D. for submitting this memorable track to MotD — hopefully not her last!

Jeff Beck + Rod Stewart | People Get Ready

“Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart played together in a band for roughly two years in the late ’60s, enjoying two Top 20 albums and several tours as part of the Jeff Beck Group,” (UltimateClassicRock). “But like a great many high-profile bands, success on the outside didn’t always translate to the inside. Riddled with disagreement among band members … the Jeff Beck Group split up in 1969. Stewart, for his part, found Beck to be an astounding musician but an incapable leader … ‘I never felt he was going to put an arm around someone and check that they were all right,’ Stewart wrote in his 2013 book, Rod: The Autobiography … Stewart continued with his solo career, as well as with a new band, Faces (which also included Wood), while Beck re-formed the Jeff Beck Group with new players and released solo music.” It was apparently a a musical break-up that was short on acrimony — just a mutual decision to go separate ways.

Years later, the two reunited and recorded a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s 1965 track “People Get Ready.” The cover “stalled at No. 48 in the U.S. and didn’t make the chart at all in the U.K. The album the song appeared on, Beck’s Flash (1985), reached No. 39 on the Billboard 200. Still, “People Get Ready” was “a moment of resolution for Stewart and Beck. ‘I was glad about doing [it],’ Beck later recalled. ‘Because people could see we didn’t hate each other. That it was all good, so to speak.’ … When Beck died in January 2023, Stewart shared his condolences online. ‘Jeff Beck was on another planet. He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond. Jeff, you were the greatest, my man. Thank you for everything.'”

Leading into a protracted guitar solo late in the tune, the track shifts up a half-step at 3:29 as Beck states the simple but compelling four-note hook. The amusing opening to the video shows Stewart writing a quick note to Beck: “Jeff, why not come to L.A. and take up the guitar professionally?”

Neil Diamond | Hello Again

“If 1980’s Bob Gaudio-produced The Jazz Singer marks the point at which Diamond crossed over from respected, rugged torch balladeer to schmaltzy cabaret act, he could take solace in phenomenal sales,” (BBC). “His biggest in the States, it shifted over six million. This despite the fact that the film which it soundtracked, in which Diamond starred as a Jewish singer opposite one Laurence Olivier, was generally panned. (It was a conceptually bizarre remake of the Al Jolson classic.) Still, it spawned songs as emotionally domineering as ‘Love on the Rocks,’ ‘Hello Again,’ and the patriotic (and therefore enormously commercial) ‘America.’

Neil’s acting gained him nominations for both a Golden Globe and the first ever Razzie Award for Worst Actor (he won the latter). To add painful injury to insult, he’d recently been wheelchair-bound for months, having had a tumour removed from his spine. So for all its gaudy sentimentality, The Jazz Singer was a personal triumph over adversity. If he now traded in the tingling presence of his earlier, rawer recordings, he hit on a polished soft-rock sound that even today is being rehabilitated by hungry ironists. ‘Hello Again’ is a Lionel Richie-style weepie, the lady in question awkwardly addressed as ‘my friend.’ It became Diamond’s calling card for the next few years.”

‘Hello Again,’ released as a single in 1981, was co-written by Diamond and Alan Lindgren, hit #70 on Billboard’s year-end singles chart. After a cinematic intro whose sustained chords at first seem to be written in G major, 0:17 brings an apparent shift to F major. But at 0:25, C major takes over. Neil’s voice is beyond center-stage — it’s absolutely primary, with a gentle piano-and-strings ensemble backing him up. At 3:11, a half-step shift up to Db major unfolds. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Patti Labelle | If Only You Knew

“Written by Dexter Wansel, Cynthia Biggs, and Kenneth Gamble, ‘If Only You Knew’ became the Patti Labelle’s first #1 R&B hit as a solo artist,” (Songfacts). “Wansel – who also collaborated with Biggs on the track ‘Shoot Him On Sight’ from LaBelle’s previous album, The Spirit’s In It – didn’t think the mid-tempo ballad was that great, but LaBelle disagreed. ‘She loved it from the very beginning and saw the potential, that there were a lot of lonely people out there who loved other people and didn’t really know how to say it,’ he recalled in The Billboard Book Of Number One R&B Hits. ‘She felt like she could say it for them.’

LaBelle found fame as the leader of the progressive soul trio Labelle, who had a big hit with ‘Lady Marmalade’ in 1974. Following their split a couple years later, she worked hard to build a solo career that earned her critical acclaim, but she struggled to make the charts. After releasing her first four albums with Epic, LaBelle signed with Philadelphia International Records, pinning her hopes for a hit on the label’s founders, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. The songwriting and production duo was behind many of the hottest soul singles of the ’70s, including ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now,’ ‘Love Train,’ and ‘Me and Mrs. Jones.’ Her first album with PIR didn’t yield any hits, but she finally scored on I’m In Love Again (1983). Aside from being her first R&B chart-topper, “If Only You Knew” was her first solo crossover hit, peaking at #46 on the Hot 100.” The track also climbed all the way to #1 on the Cash Box US Black Contemporary Singles chart.

The intro is in E major, but there’s an early shift to C# major when the verse starts at 0:29. The chorus (0:58) returns to E major; the alternating pattern continues throughout.

Three Dog Night | Easy to Be Hard

“‘Easy To Be Hard’ appeared in the stage musical Hair (1968). It became a smash American Top 40 hit in its own right,” (Last.FM). “It was played frequently by Top 40 radio stations well into the summer of ’69. The track spoke to the milieu of the late ’60s: Social consciousness and social injustice. For that reason, young America embraced it.” From Sleepless Critic’s review: “Before cell phones, the internet, and alternate forms of digital communication invited people to text and talk on a computer screen as an alternative to seeing someone in person, Hair highlights the value of in person camaraderie, especially when things seem to be falling apart. Set in war-torn 1968 and focusing on a tribe of hippies that could possibly be drafted, emotionally and physically holding onto each other helps them cope in a world gone mad.”

The tune was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni and was first released by Suzannah Evans, Linda Compton, Paul Jabara and the company of the musical Hair in October 1967 (SecondHandSongs). It was then released as a single by Three Dog Night in July 1969.

Starting with a vamp alternating between a conflicting C major and A major, the tune eventually settles into D major partway through the verse. At 1:33, the chorus begins in G major, shifting to A major at 1:44. The verse returns and the pattern continues from there, until the final chord shifts unexpectedly to B minor.

Herbie Mann | Insensatez

“Herbie Mann played a wide variety of music throughout his career. He became quite popular in the 1960s, but in the ’70s became so immersed in pop and various types of world music that he seemed lost to jazz,” (Qobuz). “However, Mann never lost his ability to improvise creatively as his later recordings attest.
Herbie Mann began on clarinet when he was nine, but was soon also playing flute and tenor. After serving in the Army, he was with Mat Mathews’ Quintet (1953-1954) and then started working and recording as a leader. During 1954-1958 Mann stuck mostly to playing bop, sometimes collaborating with such players as Phil Woods, Buddy Collette, Sam Most, Bobby Jaspar, and Charlie Rouse.

… After spending time playing and writing music for television, Mann formed his Afro-Jazz Sextet, in 1959, a group using several percussionists, vibes (either Johnny Rae, Hagood Hardy, or Dave Pike) and the leader’s flute. He toured Africa (1960) and Brazil (1961), had a hit with “Comin’ Home Baby,” and recorded with Bill Evans. The most popular jazz flutist during the era, Mann explored bossa nova (even recording in Brazil in 1962) … he had among his sidemen such top young musicians as Willie Bobo, Chick Corea, Attila Zoller, and Roy Ayers … As the ’70s advanced, Mann became much more involved in rock, pop, reggae, and even disco. After leaving Atlantic at the end of the ’70s, Mann had his own label for awhile and gradually came back to jazz … He passed away on July 1, 2003.”

Mann’s version of the Brazilian standard by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Insensatez” (“How Insensitive”), released on 1964’s Latin Fever, is built in a slightly de-tuned C minor overall. The middle chorus, where the melody passes to the trombone while the Mann’s flute provides a harmony line (1:07 – 1:48), is in D minor .

David Soul | Don’t Give Up On Us

“The newish Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is full of fascinating little period details, and one of my favorites is the idea that everyone in 1969 watched the same TV shows,” (Stereogum). “The washed-up movie stars, the psychotically violent hippies, the ailing cowboys — they all go home at night and tune in to the same cheesy procedurals. They don’t have options. Cable doesn’t exist yet. Neither, obviously, does the internet. There are three networks. If you’re looking for some kind of routine and vaguely comforting diversion, the shows on those three networks are all you really have … That was still the case in 1977. The ABC buddy-cop show Starsky & Hutch wasn’t even an especially big hit in its time. It did decent ratings, stayed on the air for four seasons, and stuck around in syndication for a while. Starsky & Hutch wasn’t a landmark TV show. It didn’t change the game. But it was on. So pretty much everyone in America at least had some vague idea who those two Bay City, California detectives were.

If you were, let’s say, an actor who’d never managed to get your music career off the ground but who was on TV every week, that exposure could change everything. You could record a forgettable ballad, and that forgettable ballad, combined with your own familiar face, could propel a record to #1. Starsky & Hutch was in its second season when David Soul, the chiseled and squinty actor who played Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson, released ‘Don’t Give Up On Us.’ That year, Starsky & Hutch was airing against The Mary Tyler Moore Show and regularly getting wrecked in the ratings. But that didn’t matter. David Soul was just famous enough … (UK songwriter) Tony Macaulay produced the song for Soul, slathering it in dramatic strings and woodwinds. (It) has a hook strong enough to linger. It’s got a full, luxuriant arrangement … But ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’ remains a sleepy nothing of a ballad. It fills space, and it does nothing else.”

After a start in A major, the piano-driven track shifts up to Bb major at 2:43. The vocals seem a bit dicey through the transition in terms of pitch, but close enough for a 1970s pop ballad(?) — apparently! Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this track.