“If I Can’t Have You,” written by Sara Bareilles, Aaron Sterling and Emily King, is the fourth track on Bareilles’s 2019 album Amidst The Chaos. The record, which Bareilles was inspired to record after the 2016 US presidential election, debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200. The tune begins in Bb and modulates to C at 2:53.
Tag: pop
The Box Tops | The Letter
(The Box Tops had) “never been in a studio before ‘The Letter,’ but they knocked it out,” (Stereogum). “Producer Dan Penn added in a plane-taking-off noise that he’d pulled from a sound-effects record that he’d checked out of the library. Given all that, ‘The Letter’ should be a sloppy and amateurish record, which wouldn’t necessarily prevent it from being great. But ‘The Letter’ is not that. It’s a two-minute epic.”
Despite being not even 20 years old at the time, frontman Alex Chilton “sounds weary and ravaged. He’s stuck somewhere far away from his baby, and he’s got to go see her right away. We don’t know where he is, why he’s separated from her, or what she wrote in her letter … But Chilton’s voice absolutely pops off of the record, and it’s all the band needs to tell the story. ‘The Letter’ is a tight, hard, compact piece of white-kid soul. (It’s the last #1 song ever to come in under the two-minute mark.) But it sounds big and cinematic anyway, with Chilton’s voice fighting its way through nervous organs and melodramatic strings and horn stabs … There’s nothing lo-fi about the record; even if it was recorded on a low budget, it’s got the sweep of a James Bond theme.”
The track sticks to A minor for most of its length, but jumps up to C# major at 1:33 for its tiny instrumental outro. The horns have made their exit, leaving the strings to lead the fast fade-out.
Vulfpeck | Business Casual (feat. Coco O.)
Vulfpeck is a Michigan-based funk band that has released 10 albums and embarked on three tours. The group, comprised of Joe Dart, Woody Goss, Theo Katzman and Jack Stratton, headlined a sold out concert at Madison Square Garden in 2019, becoming one of the first bands to do so without the backing of a major label or manager.
“Business Casual” is the seventh track on their 2017 album Mr. Finish Line, and features the Danish singer Coco O. It begins in Db and smoothly slides up to D at 2:02.
10cc | I’m Not in Love
In the mid-70s, 10cc was a UK band with a fair amount of know-how about the recording studio and the nascent field of synthesis. But they weren’t prepared for the journey they’d embark on with their single “I’m Not in Love” (1975). Lol Creme, the band’s keyboardist and one of its vocalists, told The Guardian: “I’d become obsessed with tape loops after listening to the Beatles’ ‘Revolution 9.’ Our studio used to do recordings for the Mellotron, a keyboard that played prerecorded notes. Session musicians would come in and do these painstaking recordings for every instrument of an orchestra, one note at a time, so that when they were all played together on a Mellotron it sounded like an orchestra. I was fascinated by this, and wanted to try it with banks and banks of voices.”
Creme continued: “‘The whole process took about a week. It was incredibly tedious. Three or four of us had to sing every note about 14 times, then put echo on it, which gave it that luxurious, velvety harmonic sound. It was beautiful, but Eric (Stewart’s) vocal was what really made the song. That lead voice was actually the guide vocal, from the first take you do just to test everything out. Eric tried to do a better one, but we all agreed that one had the magic … When it was done, we thought: ‘What the hell have we done?’ It was six minutes and 12 seconds long, so we knew we’d never get it on the radio. But, after it appeared on our The Original Soundtrack album, people like Bryan Ferry and Roy Wood were ringing up and going: ‘You’ve got to release this as a single. It’s brilliant.’ When it went to #29, the BBC had to play it … Three weeks later, it was #1 around the world.'”
The intro and verses are written in E major, although the tune doesn’t spend much time on the tonic chord. 3:03 – 3:18 features a late bridge in G major (twice as long on other versions of the song) before the track reverts to E. This “live” version of the track is mimed, right down to “backing vocals” which were actually comprised of Mellotron lines.
Wendy + Lisa | Honeymoon Express
“Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman are an Emmy Award winning musical composing duo based in Los Angeles,” (WendyAndLisa.com). “They both started their careers in one of the most successful rock bands of the 80s, Prince & the Revolution. They continued to work as a duo and released five original albums as well as pursuing a career path in scoring feature films and television. Since 1995’s box office hit Dangerous Minds, Wendy & Lisa have set a successful track record scoring films such as Soul Food, Something New, television series’ Crossing Jordan, Nurse Jackie, Mercy, and the Emmy-nominated NBC series Heroes, Touch, No Tomorrow, and Shades of Blue.
Apart from their composing career, Wendy & Lisa are often sought out for their song writing and collaboration skills. They have collaborated on albums with Joni Mitchell, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, Neil Finn, Seal, and Grace Jones, to name a few.” The now-defunct publication Music + Media described the duo: “(they) remain heavily influenced by Prince … (proving) that not only can they stand on their own two feet, but also how important they are to Prince’s Revolution.”
“Honeymoon Express” was a single from the duo’s 1987 debut album Wendy + Lisa, which cracked the top 100 album charts in the US, the UK, and Holland. The track, a funk-infused romp that clearly shows the influence of The Purple One, depends almost entirely on its compelling groove, syncopated Prince-esque keyboard hooks (most noticeable at 0:18 and 2:14) and roving melodic sensibility, as its harmonic vocabulary is quite limited! The intro and verse are built in E dorian; the pre-chorus lifts up to G dorian (0:45), returning us to E dorian for the chorus at 1:03. The pattern continues from there.
The Spinners | Working My Way Back to You
“The holiday season of 1979 was in full swing when Detroit legends The Spinners released their version of the Four Seasons’ 1966 classic, ‘Working My Way Back to You'” (Rhino Records). “… The Spinners retooled the tune with a symphonic disco-funk groove, and the interpolation of Michael Zager’s ‘Forgive Me Girl.’ Showcasing the booming bass vocals of singer Pervis Jackson, the energetic track was a hit on the holiday airwaves across pop and R&B stations.
As the track rang up those radio spins, ‘Working My Way Back to You’ danced up the charts to peak at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the weeks of March 29, 1980, and April 5, 1980. The song that kept the Spinners from #1? Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).’ Over on the Hot R&B Songs chart, the tune hit #6 over the week of March 22, 1980. The #1 song on the chart that week: The Whispers with ‘And the Beat Goes On.'”
After the multi-section tune begins to draw to a close, an unexpected and extremely late modulation (up two whole steps, from C major to E major) hits at 3:48. On the final fade-out, the tracks’s energy refuses to recede, but the lead tenor’s vocal line launches into the stratosphere!
Couch | Poems
“Couch injects each project with their signature flavor: expressive horns, warm vocals, and bubbling synths—crafting an oasis of joy for musicians and non-musicians alike, ” reads the description of the 7 piece Boston-based band Couch on their website. The group’s music synthesizes funk, r&b, and soul; they released their debut EP in 2021 and follow-up, Sunshower, in 2023. While the band members were all studying at different universities, they wrote and recorded virtually, and in 2023 embarked on a multi-city tour with a sold-out run in the UK.
“Poems” was released as a single in 2022. It begins in G and shifts up to A at 2:28.
Gladys Knight | The Way We Were
For the 1973 film The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand served in the role of leading lady and also a mainstay of the soundtrack. “Marvin Hamlisch came up with the melody; he was asked to write in the minor mode, but instead wrote in the major.” (SuperSeventies.com). “‘If I’d written in a minor mode, it might have told you too much in advance,’ he said, ‘that Streisand and Redford were never going to get together. So, I wrote a melody that was sad, but also had a great deal of hope in it.’ The tune was completed by a husband-and-wife songwriting team, Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
Streisand’s single broke in late November 1973, and reached number one in mid-February 1974. It was her first number one hit, and first single to stay on the charts for more than five months. It earned an Academy Award as the Best Film Song of 1973, Billboard ‘s award as the Top Pop Single of 1974, and a Grammy as Song of the Year.” The powerful ballad served as fodder for covers by a range of performers including Andy Williams, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Beyoncé, and more.
But the tune’s most memorable cover might have been Gladys Knight’s 1974 version from her album I Feel a Song. Mixing in extensive quotes of “Try to Remember” from Broadway’s The Fantastiks before adding a half-step modulation (3:00) not found in Streisand’s original, Knight leaves her distinctive signature on the tune.
The Chimes | Once in Awhile
Lenny Cocco, the founder and lead vocalist of the New York City-based doo-wop vocal group The Chimes, “was deeply influenced by his parents and motivated by his father, Leonard,” (TheChimesMusic). “A professionally accomplished accordionist, (Leonard) advised Lenny to focus on Tommy Dorsey’s 1937 number one hit, ‘Once In Awhile.’ Lenny arranged the standard to work itself well with his vocal quintet. Standards were their passion!
In 1960, they visited the Brill Building in Manhattan, New York, to record a demo. The engineer during the session introduced them to Andy Leonetti, of TAG Records. Within minutes their lives were changed.” In 1961, the tune reached #11 on the US pop charts and #15 in Canada. “As a result, their major bookings, in the beginning, were in intimate theaters, such as The Howard in Washington, D.C., the Regal in Chicago and the Apollo in Harlem, New York. The intimate theater setting bonded people together like never before … The group made two appearances on ‘American Bandstand’ with Dick Clark” and had several other minor hits during the early 1960s.
The 12/8 tune could easily serve as an example of the doo wop genre as a whole. After beginning in Eb major, there’s a shift to G major for the bridge (1:08 – 1:35) before the track returns to the original key.
Rihanna | Only Girl (In The World)
“Only Girl (In The World” is the lead single from Barbadian singer Rihanna’s 2010 album Loud. A number one hit in the United States, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland, the track won a Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording. “Only Girl (In the World) aims squarely for dance-floor domination,” said Billboard critic Monica Herrera.
Rihanna performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 2010, and at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2022. The track begins in F# minor and subtly shifts up to B minor at 1:03. It returns to F# minor for the second verse at 1:49 before a final modulation to B minor at 2:18.
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