pop – Page 45

The Hollies | Bus Stop

“Bus Stop,” The Hollies’ 1966 hit, “was written by Graham Gouldman, who went on to form the band 10cc, best known for their hit ‘I’m Not In Love,’ (Songfacts). Gouldman was just 19 when he wrote ‘Bus Stop,” but he had already written three Yardbirds songs: ‘For Your Love,’ ‘Heart Full of Soul‘ and ‘Evil Hearted You.’

According to Gouldman, this song’s middle eight was one of the few instances in his songwriting career when he had a sudden inspiration rather than having to resort to hard toil. He explained to Mojo magazine in a 2011 interview: ‘You have to be working to make something happen. Occasionally you can wait for some magic, like McCartney waking up with ‘Yesterday’ already written in his mind, which does happen — it’s like a gift from your own subconscious. Or sometimes, it’s like a tap’s turned on.’ The middle eight section ‘all came to me in one gush, and I couldn’t wait to get home to try it. When that sort of thing happens, it’s really amazing. But that’s rare. Mostly, you have to do the slog.'” The tune reached #5 on the UK Singles chart and was also the band’s first US top ten hit, peaking at #5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966.

After a start in A minor, that lucky middle eight (0:35) shifts to E minor before reverting back to the A minor at 1:03. During that section, the melody shifts from a lower, smaller range to a more emphatic, higher one, while the melody’s compelling syncopation continues throughout. From 1:31 – 1:45, there’s an instrumental interlude which ends in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it piccardy third before the transition into another middle eight.

Donna Summer | I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt

“Donna Summer’s title as the ‘Queen of Disco’ wasn’t mere hype,” (AllMusic). “Like many of her contemporaries, she was a talented vocalist trained as a powerful gospel belter, but she set herself apart with her songwriting ability, magnetic stage presence, and shrewd choice of studio collaborators, all of which resulted in sustained success. During the ’70s alone, she topped the Billboard club chart 11 times … After (the disco) subgenre was declared dead, Summer was very much part of the evolution of dance music. Through the feminist anthem ‘She Works Hard for the Money’ (1983), she became an MTV star, and she continued to top the club chart with disco-rooted house singles through 2010, 35 years after her breakthrough. Summer died from cancer in 2012 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the next year.”

“I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt” was a track from the 1989 album Another Place and Time; Summer hired the UK production team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman for the project. The album produced her last major pop hit with the 1989 Top Ten single “This Time I Know It’s for Real.”

After an intro in C minor, the verse kicks in at 0:17 in A minor. The chorus 0:49 reverts to C minor. The pattern continues from there.

Sanna Nielsen | Undo

“Undo,” written by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger, and Hamed “K-One” Pirouzpanah, was recorded by Swedish singer Sanna Nielsen and selected as Sweden’s entry in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Nielsen later included the track on an EP, also released in 2014.

The song begins in Eb minor and shifts up a half step at 2:21.

Mary Hopkin | Those Were the Days

“Who could possibly predict that a five-minute recording of a Russian romance song composed in the early 1900s with English lyrics written in the early ’60s, recorded in July 1968 by a green 17-year-old Welsh folk artist, produced by a Beatle, and arranged by a jazz nerd with unlikely instrumentation would result in a Number 2 on the Billboard charts? (MixOnline) Engineer Geoff Emerick says ‘Those Were the Days,’ produced by Paul McCartney and sung by artist Mary Hopkin, appealed to the public because of those unique qualities. ‘It was so different for the time,’ Emerick says. ‘Everyone loved it … Who knows about these things? We were always looking for something different, something spectacular every time we worked.’

(Arranger) Richard Hewson and McCartney spoke about what the producer had in mind for the arrangement, which only amounted to an instrument called the cymbalum. Interestingly, the percussion teacher with whom Hewson had been studying had a cymbalum. ‘It’s a Hungarian instrument that is like a piano without the lid on, hit with hammers,’ Hewson explains … As Emerick recalls, ‘I think we took a day out of the Beatles’ schedule so Paul could do this. We did it in Studio Number 3, Abbey Road.'”

The klezmer-style clarinet and rubato feel of the verse lend the tune its antique feel right off the bat, although the chorus picks up a consistent groove. At 3:12, Hopkin is joined by a children’s choir for a wordless trip through the chorus, followed by a brass-driven mixed-meter interlude which unexpectedly pushes us into the new key at 3:42.

Ariana Grande | Pink Champagne

Ariana Grande recorded the demo for “Pink Champagne” at 17. The track didn’t make the cut for inclusion on Yours Truly (2013), but Grande promised her diehard fans that “when she hit 10 million followers on Twitter she would release the studio version. Upon reaching the magic number on October 1, 2013, Ariana popped the champagne and dropped the song,” (Songfacts).

“Grande wrote the song with Pebe Sebert: ‘I knew Ariana well enough because I feel like it’s all about trying to know the person to know what’s going to be a real look for them,’ she said … ‘She was 17 and portraying this kind of goody-two-shoes on the Nickelodeon series. We didn’t want to go too far from that image at that age … You almost have to have a little movie that you’re writing in your head.'”

After a 30-second spoken intro from Grande, the effervescent, bouncy track unfolds amid Grande’s trademark upper-range ad libs and embellishments. Very close to the tune’s end (3:24), a half-step modulation hits between two choruses. Many thanks to regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!

Lauren Spencer-Smith | All I Want

Canadian singer/songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith released her debut album, Unplugged, in 2019, and appeared on the 18th season of American Idol in 2020. Her big break came in 2022 with the single “Fingers Crossed,” which charted in the top 20 in the United States and other countries. “All I Want” is featured on her 2020 EP Mixed Emotions. The tune, a plaintive song with just piano and voice, begins in Db and deceptively transitions to Eb at 2:14, with the vocal reaching up to the fifth scale degree. It stays in Eb till the end.

Rickie Lee Jones | Last Chance Texaco

“With her expressive soprano voice employing sudden alterations of volume and force, and her lyrical focus on Los Angeles street life, Rickie Lee Jones comes on like the love child of Laura Nyro and Tom Waits on her self-titled debut album (1979),” (AllMusic).

The personnel on the album leaned heavily towards players from the jazz genre, creating a sound that “follows the contours of Jones’ impressionistic stories about scuffling people on the streets and in the bars. There is an undertow of melancholy that becomes more overt toward the end, as the narrator’s friends and lovers clear out … But then, the romance of the street is easily replaced by its loneliness. Rickie Lee Jones is an astounding debut album that simultaneously sounds like a synthesis of many familiar styles and like nothing that anybody’s ever done before.”

“Last Chance Texaco” starts out with an apparent focus on auto maintenance — and its elevated importance as one’s location grows increasingly remote. But it later becomes clear that the focus is much broader, even though the automotive euphemisms endure throughout. Intermittent swelling and fading hints of a lonesome highway are evoked instrumentally during the verses, joined by Jones’ own multi-layered wordless backup vocal around 3:30. The easy 6/8 feel of the F# major chorus transitions to a poignant, restive chorus in E minor (first heard from 1:01 – 1:39). Make sure to check out the gorgeous lyrics, as Jones’ delivery varies hugely in both volume and clarity.

It’s her last chance
Her timing’s all wrong
Her last chance
She can’t idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin’ out of the last chance Texaco
The last chance

Backstreet Boys | Everyone

Written by Swedish producer/songwriters Kristian Lundin and Andreas Carlsson, “Everyone” was featured on the Backstreet Boy’s 2000 album Black & Blue. Rolling Stone critic Barry Walters described the song as “a celebration of the [group] and the power of their audience.” The album was hugely successful, selling over 5 million copies in its first week of sales.

The tune remains in C minor until shifting up a step to D minor for the final chorus at 2:33.

Jacob Collier (feat. Lizzy McAlpine + John Mayer) | Never Gonna Be Alone

“For ‘Never Gonna Be Alone,’ his first single since the award-winning Djesse Vol. 3, Jacob Collier enlisted the help of Lizzy McAlpine and John Mayer to create a celestial soundscape that spans the depths of isolation, loss and memory,” (NPR).

“There’s much to experience over the course of this one multifaceted and emotional song. ‘It speaks to my experience of the world as a hugely beautiful and fragile place,’ Collier writes in a press statement, adding that the song ‘has helped me process some of the grief I think we’re all feeling for our pasts and futures, in a myriad of different ways.'”

From the video description on Collier’s YouTube channel: “After eighteen months of FaceTime and virtual collaboration, we got to play this song in real life! Performed live at Lizzy’s show at the Troubadour on October 7th 2022.” After a few verses and choruses in C major, 2:21 brings a masterful but understated guitar solo from Mayer. At 3:02, the end of the solo intersects with a few chords outside the key, but the overarching key is unchanged. McAlpine’s crystalline soprano leads a soft-spoken mid-phrase modulation up a half-step to Db major at 3:19.

Dakota Moon | Looking For a Place to Land

“Dakota Moon is an unusual urban R&B group, one that’s equally influenced by Boyz II Men and ’70s soft rock, such as Eric Clapton and James Taylor … The quartet met at a recording session in Los Angeles for producers Andrew Logan and Mike More. The musicians had such a chemistry that they decided to form a band,” (AllMusic). ” … Before they made their debut album, they toured as Tina Turner’s opening act in 1997. By the end of the year, they had recorded their debut … the resulting record, entitled Dakota Moon, was released in April 1998.”

A Place to Land (2002), the band’s second release, features a “somewhat uncanny synthesis of early-2000s urban pop and ’70s soft rock. The album-opening title track (sounds) like half Backstreet Boys and half Eagles.”

“Looking For a Place to Land” certainly does inhabit territory somewhere between pop, rock, and r&b — with even a few brief country touches thrown into the mix. The verses feature several singers taking turns on lead; the choruses are a mix of vocalists combining for richly stacked vocal harmonies. A short drum break hits the re-set button before a half-step modulation kicks in at 2:49.