Tag: pop

Nik Kershaw | L.A.B.A.T.Y.D.

After his polished New Wave/sophistipop sound gave him a fast ascent to the top of the UK pop charts and some notoriety in the US as well, Radio Musicola (1986) “was Nik Kershaw’s chance to … deliver a big-budget, endlessly-fussed-over studio ‘project’…” (MovingTheRiver). “Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his meteoric rise to fame, the main themes of the album are press intrusion and tabloid sensationalism … in a neat irony, the rise of technology-led, assembly-line music was also in Kershaw’s sights, despite Musicola making liberal use of all the latest sampling and synthesizer technology …

An interesting album which clearly fell between the stools of art and commerce, Radio Musicola reached a barely believable #46 in the UK album chart, just over a year after Kershaw had played Live Aid. It disappeared without trace in the US … But Kershaw didn’t seem bothered about his new ‘selective’ popularity; in fact, he seemed genuinely relieved, but wondered how MCA were going to sell him now that he was focused on being a musician rather than a pop star.

‘LABATYD’ (Life’s a Bitch and Then You Die) is pure class, a half-time shuffle …” Starting in E minor and marching in place for nearly an entire minute, the track’s initial focus is its infectious groove. But at 0:53, Kershaw throws a spanner in the works, tumbling the chorus into an improbable Eb major. 1:21 brings us back to E minor for another relatively static verse, this time dressed up with a few additional flourishes from the horn section. At 2:13, we jump the tracks again into Eb major for the next chorus. At 2:48, an instrumental chorus wafts up into E major; as the groove is finally extinguished, a C lydian chord closes the tune at 4:00.

Roxette | It Must Have Been Love

“This breakup ballad was written by Roxette’s instrumentalist, Per Gessle. Despite the somber lyric, the song proved very pleasing to the ear and became a huge hit,” (Songfacts). “Recorded before Roxette started working on their 1990 Joyride album, ‘It Must Have Been Love’ was reworked for the movie Pretty Woman, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The movie was an enormous hit, and so was the soundtrack … Released in March 1990, Pretty Woman developed a huge following, which helped send this song to the top of the US Hot 100 in June, where it stayed for two weeks.

The Swedish group had been popular in Scandinavia for years before they hit it big in the US: “It wasn’t until an American student studying in Sweden brought a copy of their second album home to Minneapolis, and persuaded a local radio DJ to play ‘The Look,’ that they achieved international fame,” (BBC). In 2019, the duo’s vocalist, Marie Fredriksson, passed away at age 61 after a 17-year battle with cancer.

The verses’ melody is simple and contained, but the choruses bring a greater range. Building on that trend, a resounding modulation up a perfect fourth hits on a chorus at 2:59.

Barbra Streisand & Blake Shelton | I’d Want It To Be You

“I’d Want It To Be You” is featured on Streisand’s 2014 album Partners, comprised of duets with various male vocalists. Streisand originally recorded the song with Willie Nelson, but it was not finished in time for the release so a version with country singer Blake Shelton was included instead (the Nelson cut was released in 2021.)

The track begins in Eb and shifts up a half step to E following the bridge at 2:50.

Eydie Gormé & Los Panchos | La última noche

“La última noche,” written by Bobby Collazo, was featured on the 1964 album Amore by American singer Eydie Gorme and the trio Los Panchos. Gorme, who was born in New York, grew up speaking Spanish, and “Blame It On The Bossa Nova” is one of the songs that helped establish her as a mainstream star. Los Panchos, generally regarded as one of the most influential Latin American music groups of all time, sold millions of records and also appeared in more than 50 films.

The following is from an interview Gormé did with The Arizona Republic about the album:

“I knew a lot of them,” Gormé says. “I didn’t even realize I knew them until we worked on them, and they were songs I knew from my house growing up.” She has other memories of making the disc; specifically, of Los Panchos. “They were drinking a lot of wine on those sessions,” she says with a laugh. “They were lovely people. Drunk, but lovely.” Whatever the reason, the artists had a once-in-a-lifetime chemistry.

The track alternates between F minor and F major throughout.

The Sandpipers | Come Saturday Morning

“The Sandpipers were a male vocal trio that recorded a handful of easy listening pop hits in the mid-’60s,” (AllMusic). “The group was distinguished by its light, breezy harmonies, which floated over delicate, breezy string arrangements, as well as the occasional appearance of a wordless female backing vocalist who drifted in and out of the music. Though they didn’t manage to have a long, sustained career, the group did have one Top Ten hit with ‘Guantanamera’ in 1966.

In 1970, they contributed songs to the film The Sterile Cuckoo (“Come Saturday Morning”) and Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Though the Sandpipers continued to record into the ’70s, their audience diminished with each successive year. After spending five years without any chart success, the group disbanded in the mid-’70s.”

Released in September 1969, “Come Saturday Morning” reached #83 on the Pop chart and #9 on the Easy Listening chart. The tune was subsequently covered by Liza Minnelli, Chet Baker, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, and Patti Page, among other artists. Starting in D major, the lilting 6/8 track shifts to F major at 1:51, but by 2:19 the tune has returned to its original key.

Many thanks to MotD regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Ann Hampton Callaway & Melissa Manchester | New Eyes

“As a new year begins, I am excited to release a song called “New Eyes”, which I joyfully wrote and recorded with my friend, the legendary Melissa Manchester,” said Ann Hampton Callaway. “We created a moment when two people get a new lease on life by letting go of the past and looking at each other with ‘ new eyes.'”

The track is featured on Callaway’s new album Finding Beauty, her first record of all original material. The verses are set in Bb, and the choruses start up a step in C before quickly modulating again to Db.

Lou Reed | Perfect Day

“Lou Reed’s low-key, optimistic, and earnest ballad about spending a casual, but perfect day with his partner is arguably his most enduring,” (GoldRadioUK). “Given the nature of rock ‘n’ roll artists at the time, and his previous outlandish experimentalism with The Velvet Underground, ‘Perfect Day’ was a bit of an anomaly for Reed. With the media, Reed was notoriously obnoxious, obtuse, and twisted journalists in circles as to not reveal the true meaning behind his words.

Featuring on his David Bowie-produced 1972 album Transformer … Reed wrote the lyrics to ‘Perfect Day,’ the slow, piano-based balled which details a typically amorous day out with his partner … The song’s lyrics flit between seemingly simple, conventional devotion to his partner in ‘Oh, it’s such a perfect day, I’m glad I spent it with you,’ to Reed’s true feelings about himself: ‘You made me forget myself. I thought I was someone else, someone good.'”

After a verse in Bb minor, the chorus brings a shift to Bb major between 0:51 and 1:18; the pattern continues from there. The placement of this humble, earnest ballad as a double-A-side single with “Walk on the Wild Side,” the uptempo oddball love letter to the NYC world surrounding Andy Warhol’s Factory, likely caused more than a few cases of whiplash among listeners.

USA for Africa | We Are The World

“We Are The World” was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson as a benefit for African famine relief. Richie and Jackson, along with producer Quincy Jones, assembled a supergroup of singers, including Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper and many others, to record the track in January 1985. It quickly became the fastest selling pop single in US History, and raised over $80 million. Last month, Netflix released The Greatest Night In Pop, a documentary chronicling how the recording session came together and including footage from the studio.

The tune begins in E and modulates to F at 4:03.

Laura Mvula | I’m Still Waiting

“The word ‘comeback’ is overused, but in Laura Mvula‘s case, it really does hold true,” (NME). “Though her impressive second album, 2016’s The Dreaming Room, earned her MOBO (the UK’s Musician of Black Origin award) and Mercury Prize nominations plus an Ivor Novello award, she was unceremoniously dropped by RCA Records six months after it came out. The supremely talented Birmingham-born musician later revealed that she received the bad news in a forwarded seven-line email.

Having dusted herself off – writing the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2017 production of Antony & Cleopatra must have helped – Mvula is back on a new label, Atlantic, with an overhauled sound. Where her 2013 debut Sing to the Moon largely blended soul with orchestral pop and The Dreaming Room introduced a touch of funk and disco to the mix, Mvula has called Pink Noise (2021) an album ‘made with warm sunset tones of the ’80s’. She isn’t overselling it.”

“I’m Still Waiting,” was first a #1 UK hit released by Diana Ross on her 1971 album Everything is Everything. Mvula’s cover starts in C major; the second half of the first verse features an unprepared modulation at 0:18, settling into Eb major at for the duration. With an accompaniment full of sighing pauses and comprised only of keyboards and feathery layers of backing vocals, the focus falls all that more squarely on the storytelling of Mvula’s poised lead vocal.

Ross’ original, in Eb major, features no key changes and a gentle but more consistent groove throughout.

The Lemon Twigs | They Don’t Know How to Fall In Place

“Child actors turned gifted multi-instrumentalists, Long Island brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario formed The Lemon Twigs in their mid-teens,” (LouderSound). “Flamboyantly dressed purveyors of Baroque pop, power-pop and glam, they swap duties across guitars, drums, lead vocals, and more … Todd Rundgren, Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way are among their fans.” 

“Musical pastiche can be dangerous,” (The Guardian). “When you go beyond having influences to embodying those influences, artists can easily slip into self-parody. You need spectacularly good songs to pull it off … The songwriting never dips below classic … in an age of copyright lawsuits, there are still so many new and perfect songs waiting to be written. In love with the past but making the present so bright, the Lemon Twigs are, in the end, timeless.”

“They Don’t Know How to Fall In Place,” from the duo’s fifth album A Dream is All We Know (2024), settles into F major for its first verse. At 0:35, we’re led through a rapid cascade which finally gravitates to the terra firma of B major. 1:03 brings an emphatic C7 chord, dropping us back into the next verse in F major. The bridge brings some more harmonic shifts before returning us to the main form.