Scottish singer Susan Boyle rose to fame as a contestant on the third season of the reality singing competition Britain’s Got Talent singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the blockbuster musical Les Miserables. Her debut album of the same name, released in 2009, quickly became the UK’s best-selling album of all time, and with over 10 million copies sold is now one of the best-selling records of the 21st century. Boyle has gone on to release seven additional albums.
The tune begins in Eb and dramatically modulates up a whole step to F at 1:44.
“Released in 1969, ‘One Tin Soldier’ became a popular song during the Vietnam War and was often heard as an anti-war anthem,” (CountryThangDaily). “It was first recorded by the Canadian pop group The Original Caste and was later on recorded by various artists,” including the band Coven.
“Interestingly, the song charted every year from 1969 to 1974 on various charts, not only in the United States but also in Canada. It went to #6 on the RPM Magazine charts … and peaked at #34 on the American pop charts in early 1970. The song was even a bigger Adult Contemporary hit, reaching #25 in the United States and #5 in Canada.”
The story-based song features a gentle start and a gradual build which is eventually led by a rich winds section in addition to the traditional rock instrumentation. A half-step modulation kicks in at 1:39. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!
“I Say Yeah” is featured on the eponymous 2000 debut album by the American boyband Dream Street. The group, which originally formed in 1999 and broke up in 2002, reunited last year and released a single this past June. It is unclear if or when they will release another full album.
This track begins in D and modulates up to E at 2:14.
“Mary Weiss, who in 1964 was the lead singer of the Shangri-Las’ No. 1 hit, ‘Leader of the Pack,’ extracting every ounce of passion and pathos available in a three-minute adolescent soap opera, died last week at her home in Palm Springs, CA. She was 75.” (New York Times).
“‘Leader of the Pack,’ the Shangri-Las’ second and biggest hit, was narrated by a young woman who falls in love with a motorcycle-riding tough guy without her parents’ approval — ‘They told me he was bad/But I knew he was sad’ — and is then left bereft when he dies in a road accident on a rainy night. Produced and co-written by Shadow Morton, the single featured call-and-response vocals, full-tilt teenage angst and motorcycle sound effects. It was excessive and melodramatic, requiring acting as much as singing, but Ms. Weiss sold it with her yearning performance. She was just 15 when it topped the charts.’
After a dialog intro and the start of the iconic heartbeat groove in a detuned Db major at 0:30, there’s a shift to the relative minor for the spoken bridge at 1:31. The next verse starts in D major at 1:47.
“If you’re looking for reasons to make fun of ’80s pop music — the fashion, the keyboards, the blaring guitar leads, the almost disarmingly terrible band names — then (Richard) Page’s band Mr. Mister makes for a great target,” (Stereogum). “Mr. Mister didn’t rock. They made ultra-produced, vaguely worded expensive-digital-studio music, and they embodied a moment when that was what pop radio wanted.” After working with Andy Gibb, REO Speedwagon, Amy Grant, Al Jarreau, Neil Diamond and DeBarge, “around the time Mr. Mister got together, Page turned down some big job offers … he claims that he was recruited for lead-singer roles in some bigger bands — replacing Bobby Kimball in Toto, replacing Peter Cetera in Chicago. He turned both gigs down, and he may have regretted it” — perhaps not surprising, as Mr. Mister wouldn’t break big until the release of its second album, Welcome to the Real World (1985).
Regarding the album’s lead single, “Broken Wings:” Stereogum continues: “(the) level of drama is absurd, almost fantastical, and it pulls it off … The song is all ominous churn, and it never really kicks in. Instead, it captures a state of sustained anticipation. The synths drone and sigh. The guitars whine and howl. The bassline mutters dejectedly to itself. Little funk-guitar ripples glide across the surface. Even when the drums come thudding in, they’re off-kilter, never quite locked-in. ‘Broken Wings’ works as a five-minute digital gasp. It’s like the whole song is holding its breath, waiting to see if the whole ‘take these broken wings’ line is going to save this relationship.”
Central to that ominous churn is the use of sus2 chords, which keep the listener on the edge of her seat while somewhat obscuring the song’s tonality; all of the chords appearing before the 1:04 mark (the intro and verse 1) are sus2 chords. Sus2 chords were all over pop music during the 1980s, but “Broken Wings” is a particularly good example of the sound. After a start in G# minor, there’s a brief change of weather during the instrumental bridge from 2:31 – 3:10, when the keys of F# minor and its relative A major alternate. Unusually, this is a modulation which is more noticeable as it ends than when it begins, likely affected by the sudden change in texture as we move to a new verse (featuring yet more spartan sus2 chords)! All of the complex songcraft and meticulous production paid off — the tune reached #1 for two weeks and has become a true classic of its era.
Whitney Houston’s classic, originally recorded in 1987, is covered here by singer/songwriters Will Gittens and Bren’nae. Gittens, who boasts 60 million views on YouTube, grew up in Nashville and graduated from Berklee College of Music. Drawing his inspiration from Stevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson and others, Gittens has released two albums of acoustic covers. Bren’nae Debarge was a contestant in season 8 of the NBC reality series The Voice.
The track begins in Eb and modulates up a step to F at 2:47.
The Jacksons’ 1980 release Triumph kept Michael Jackson in the forefront among his brothers. In retrospect, the track “Heartbreak Hotel” (later changed to “This Place Hotel” to avoid confusion with Elvis Presley’s hit song) was a clear precursor to the pop/r&b/funk/horror blend so clearly on display with Thriller, Michael’s subsequent smash hit solo album.
“… ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ … plods along nicely, loaded with strings and lead guitars,” (PopRescue). “There’s an odd repeated noise that made me pause the record to see if it was a problem with my house pipes… but no, it’s there in the chorus for some reason. When released as the album’s second single, this track stumbled at #44 … Overall, this album is a slick production, showing the Jacksons as well-versed musicians and vocalists.”
Bass lines aren’t always the first choice to host a hook, but the Jacksons make it happen here. Amplified by syncopated piano kicks, the rangy bass line takes center stage from the first moment, when it’s first stated as a rubato cello line, followed by an extended intro that takes us up to the 0:50 mark. E minor is the overall key, although an interlude from 3:28 – 3:42 takes us on a diversionary path through a series of cascading keys of the moment. From 4:42 – 4:56, the diversion returns, but this time we emerge out of the rapids into a peaceful string-sweetened rubato piano feature that wraps up the tune in B major.
“How Much Do You Love Me” is the lead track on the 2022 album Here We Go Jack, featuring American singer Jacob Jeffries (who also co-wrote the song.) The funk-inflected tune begins in Db and modulates up a half step to D at 3:00.
“… on his debut album (1991), Seal is an ambiguous, mercurial entity—not so much a singer as a pure source of heat and light,” (Pitchfork) “For all the marvels of his voice, the music surrounding him is just as opulent; his singing is just one thread in a vast tapestry of crushed velvet, raw silk, and spun gold. (To paraphrase Project Runway host Heidi Klum, who was married to Seal from 2005 until 2012, it sounds expensive.)
… Though Seal had already written some of the album’s songs on guitar, in (producer Trevor) Horn’s hands, the material became far more ornate. (On) ‘The Beginning,’ the album’s most straightforward club-centric cut … Horn manages a more multidimensional sense of space; light-years stretch between the string pads, funk guitars, and layered percussion … From the first moment we hear Seal arcing upward across the stereo field, it’s clear that Horn knew exactly how precious this particular instrument was … Seal may have idolized literary writers like Dylan and Mitchell, but you don’t come to Seal for poetry; you come for that voice and the way it navigates Horn’s productions, like a bird surfing springtime’s swirling air currents.”
The lush percussion layers of “The Beginning,” repeated nearly to the point of trance, suddenly disappear as an unexpected downward modulation kicks in between 3:30 and 3:46, returning as the tonality returns to the original key.
“38 Special guitarist Jeff Carlisi wrote “Second Chance” with the Los Angeles songwriter Cal Curtis … It was the biggest chart hit for 38 Special; while it didn’t have the Classic Rock staying power of their songs like “Caught Up In You” and “Hold On Loosely,” it was the biggest Adult Contemporary hit of 1989,” (Songfacts). “… When Billboard published their list of the top AC songs of all time in 2011, this came in at #24.”
The song was the highest-charting Hot 100 single the band ever produced, peaking at #6 and spending 21 weeks on the chart. The song hit #5 on the Singles Sales chart, #9 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and became the band’s first No.1 single on the Adult Contemporary chart. It later became Billboard magazine’s Adult Contemporary Song of the Year for 1989 (Billboard).
The midtempo tune starts in Bb major and shifts up a half-step with a very late modulation at 4:05, well after the bridge.
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