Tag: pop

Les Flechettes | Les Gens

“People” has been Barbra Streisand’s signature song since its release in 1964. The tune was written by Bob Merill and Jule Styne for the musical Funny Girl, a play about the life of comedian Fanny Brice, with Streisand playing the lead in the original Broadway production. The producers did not much like the song, but Streisand’s compelling performance during try-outs made it a keeper. Streisand’s recording strikes a wistful, plaintive tone. The orchestral backing features sweet strings, and a plodding string bass marking the slow tempo. Her record won the 1964 Grammy for Song of the Year.

Nothing wrong with that, but enter Les Fléchettes (“The Darts” in translation), a French pop group consisting of two sisters and their cousins. They recorded a couple of albums in the late 1960s, including the 1969 tune here. The group later reformed as Cocktail, the French entrants for the 1986 Eurovision song contest.

“Les Gens” is based on “People”, though you might struggle to discern that. The French lyrics were written by Eddy Marnay, a songwriter and producer, who won the 1969 Eurovision song contest as a lyricist, and produced several of Celine Dion’s early albums. Those lyrics, while not a direct translation, retain the overall theme of the English version. The pop arrangement here is happy and bright, and the prominent electric bass offers a soupçon of funk. The key goes up a half-step at 2:06.

The B-side of the single is also a French version of a song originally recorded in English, the Turtles’ song “Elenore”. The deliberately-dumb lyrics of the original are replaced by conventional love-theme lyrics in “Une Fille Est Toujours Belle”. Like the original, it modulates between minor verses to major choruses.

Talking Heads | And She Was

“According to David Byrne, who is the only writer credited on the track, this was written about a girl he knew who used to take LSD in a field next to the Yoo-Hoo drink factory in Baltimore,” (Songfacts). “‘Somehow that image seemed fitting, the junk food factory and this young girl tripping her brains out gazing at the sky,’ he told Q Magazine in 1992. ‘But it wasn’t a drugs song at all and I don’t think people took it that way. I think it gives the impression of a spiritual or emotional experience, instantaneous and unprovoked. The sublime can come out of the ridiculous.’ Talking Heads never performed this live: They stopped touring in 1984 after their Stop Making Sense concert film was released.”

The video was the first created by Jim Blashfield, who pioneered a collage-animation style with his short film, Suspicious Circumstances. That got the attention of Talking Heads, which wanted a similar motif for their ‘And She Was’ video. The resulting clip earned MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Group Video and Best Concept Video. Blashfield was commissioned for more videos in this style; his work can be seen in ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ (Paul Simon) (and) ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’ (Tears For Fears).”

After a start in E major, the pre-chorus shifts into F major (0:29 – 0:44) before a return to E major for the chorus. The bridge (1:53 – 2:08) drops into B minor before returning to the overall pattern.

Teenage Fanclub | I Don’t Want Control of You

“Initially lauded for the sonically dense, guitar-driven anthems that heralded them as unexpected stars of the alternative rock era, the perception of Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub transformed over time, eventually earning the group a reputation as pop craftsmen famous for a distinctive brand of classicist ’60s- and ’70s-style power pop and folk-rock,” (Qobuz). “Originally centered on the talents of three singer/songwriters — Norman Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley — Teenage Fanclub emerged in the late ’80s mixing sludgy guitar riffs and memorably hooky choruses that drew inspiration from iconic guitar rock bands like Big Star, Badfinger, and the Byrds.

… The band broke through with its 1991 Geffen major-label debut, Bandwagonesque, which hit #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, and spawned three Top 20 modern rock hits … They eschewed larger pop culture trends like grunge and Brit-pop in favor of further honing their sparkling, guitar-based sound, a choice that only worked to endear them to their loyal cult fan base.” The Glasgow-based band has pursued a “continued dedication to writing heartfelt songs imbued with timeless lyricism, nuanced maturity, and warm vocal harmonies.” In 1991, “they joined Nirvana on tour, after which Kurt Cobain was famously quoted as saying they were the ‘best band in the world.’ By year’s end, Bandwagonesque had landed at the top of Spin Magazine’s Best-Of list, surpassing Nirvana’s Nevermind … and R.E.M.’s Out of Time.” The band has continued to release albums into the 2020s.

Released on the 1997 album Songs From Northern Britain, “I Don’t Want Control of You” features a dense guitar-centric arrangement, a broad harmonic vocabulary, and tight vocal harmonies. The single reached only #43 in the UK, the only place where it hit the charts. An economical guitar solo (1:48 -2:06) doesn’t hit many notes — just the right ones. Some 6/4 measures are mixed in with the otherwise standard-issue 4/4 meter rock feel, including right before the key change. Determining the power pop pedigree of mid-tempo tracks is an inexact science, but the dense tapestry of this track seems to qualify.

The Beatles | If I Fell

“John Lennon wrote this song, which may have been influenced by the ambivalence he felt during his first marriage,” (Songfacts). “Lennon called this song ‘my first attempt at a ballad… it’s semi-autobiographical, but not consciously.’ Lennon and McCartney sang together into the same microphone when recording this song. John sang the lead on the intro, then Paul sang in a higher lead while John sang harmony.” The tune “was used as the B-side of ‘And I Love Her.’

Paul McCartney said of his songwriting partner: ‘People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really, which he didn’t like to show too much in case he got rejected. We wrote ‘If I Fell’ together but with the emphasis on John because he sang it. It was a nice harmony number, very much a ballad,'” (BeatlesBible.com).

The intro of the 1964 track, a single from the Hard Days Night album, is largely in C major, but transitions to to C# major at 0:34, where it stays for the balance of the tune.

The Cyrkle | Red Rubber Ball

The Cyrkle was a pop band that met as college students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s. Their business manager was Brian Epstein who, of course, also managed the Beatles; the affected spelling of their name was suggested by John Lennon. The group had the opportunity to open for the Beatles for some of their 1966 US tour dates.

“Red Rubber Ball” was their first and biggest hit (Billboard #2 in 1966). The song was written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley of the Australian group The Seekers. Simon offered the song to the group during the time they opened for Simon and Garfunkel on tour.

There are several other notable recordings of the song. The Seekers recorded their own version of the song in 1966. Simon and Garfunkel performed the song at Lincoln Center in 1967, the recording of which was released in 1997. The most notorious cover of the song comes from the Canadian punk group The Diodes. In an interview, Paul Simon had made disparaging comments about punk rock, so The Diodes took that as an invitation to record their punk cover.

While none of these covers features a key change, The Cyrkle’s version offers a half-step modulation at 1:21.

Junior Senior | Take My Time

“Junior Senior were a Danish pop duo. The duo consisted of Jesper ‘Junior’ Mortensen and Jeppe ‘Senior’ Laursen,” (Discogs). “They were well known for their 2002 single ‘Move Your Feet,’ which gained worldwide success in 2003, most notably in the United Kingdom.” The track barely made a scratch in the US, peaking at #45 on the US Dance chart — the band’s most prominent release in the States. But the tune reached #4 in Denmark, #20 in Australia, #11 in France, and #3 in the UK.

The duo’s 2005 release “Take My Time,” from the album Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, sounds like an update on the sound of the US-based band B-52s because … it is: B-52s vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson are both featured on the track.

Sounding for all the world like a late ’80s/early ’90s B-52s hit with a bit less frenetic energy, a lot less intra-band banter, and a broader harmonic vocabulary, “Take My Time” is a pop/funk fête delivered by a band that brings “joyful energy … mix(ing) all kinds of genres in a melting funky pot with a big smile on their faces,” (MTV). The track features half-step modulations at 2:48 (with an uninterrupted groove) and 3:14 (after what seems like a false ending — until the decrescendo shifts into reverse and the groove returns).

Gayle McCormick | It’s a Crying Shame

“Gayle McCormick’s music career had begun in the mid-60s in Missouri, where she performed with Steve Cummings + the Klassmen,” (Exclaim.ca). “She moved to California with the band, but left the group upon arriving on the West Coast. From there, she hooked up with an act called the Smiths (not to be confused with the later group from the UK), who changed their name to Smith by the release of 1969’s debut album, A Group Called Smith.

The record’s biggest hit was their cover of the Burt Bacharach-penned ‘Baby It’s You.’ While the song had been recorded by the Shirelles, the Beatles and more, the smooth, soul rock groove Smith grafted to the piece gave the tune its highest chart position, climbing to #5 in late 1969.

Smith followed up their debut with a sophomore collection in 1970, but they disbanded, leaving McCormick to start a solo career. She yielded a minor hit with ‘It’s a Cryin’ Shame’ from an eponymous solo set in 1971.” The energetic track features a mid-phrase modulation up a half-step at 2:07.

Huey Lewis + The News | The Power of Love

“Back To The Future, the biggest hit at the 1985 box office, is a beautifully assembled Swiss watch of a movie, a perfect little machine full of subliminal clues that pay off much later,” (Stereogum). “Director Rob Zemeckis and his co-writer, producer Bob Gale, find small and clever little ways to convey information, and we get a lot of those in the film’s first few minutes. We also get the big, pumping jam that would become the first #1 hit for Huey Lewis And The News, a band that was already on fire …

‘The Power Of Love’ is a goofy song, but it’s a catchy one. Lewis mugs hard all through it, and he wails out nonsensical cocaine-logic philosophical nuggets about how love is tougher than diamonds, rich like cream, and stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream. When you’re making good bubblegum, you can get away with refusing to make sense, and ‘The Power Of Love’ is good bubblegum. The track has hooks on hooks on hooks, with all the keyboard stabs and shiny-bluesy riffs in the exact right places.”

The verses are in C minor, but the choruses (first heard from 3:12 – 3:30) shift to C major. Between 4:11 – 4:33, the bridge transitions to Eb major. True to HL+TN’s trademark sound, there’s plentiful helpings of everything: the generous guitar solo, the wall-to-wall huskiness of Lewis’ lead vocal, the up-in-the-mix drums, and synth kicks just about everywhere. The band might have been somewhat less delicate than a Swiss watch, but it was nonetheless one of the most perfect pop machines of its era, scoring 19 top ten hits overall. “Power of Love” reached #1 for two weeks in August 1985 and was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Haley Reinhart | The Letter

“The Letter,” originally written and recorded (and a #1 hit) in 1967 by the American rock band The Box Tops, is featured on Hailey Reinhard’s 2017 album What’s That Sound?

Reinhart, whose career jumpstarted with her third-place finish in the 10th season of American Idol in 2010, said in an interview with Variety that the song “is such a cool, timeless tune. One of my earliest memories is crowding around my grandma’s piano listening to my Aunt Janice and Uncle Tom sing and play it. My uncle can sound just like Alex Chilton and the Box Tops with his guttural, sandpaper-like tone, while my aunt would harmonize with her soulful pipes. I thought it would be really neat to bring it up a couple of keys and give a woman’s take on the tune. It’s such a unique, upbeat song with gritty vocals, horns and sweeping strings. It’s become a pop standard to many and I’m so happy I got to put my own spin on it.”

Reinhart has performed and toured with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, and is preparing to tour on her own later this year.

The track is in D minor and briefly shifts up to Gb major at 1:41 for the outro.