Tag: pop

Michael Callen | Love Don’t Need A Reason

“Love Don’t A Reason” was written by Michael Callen, Peter Allen, and Marsha Malamet, and first performed at an AIDS Walk in New York City in 1987. Each of the composers subsequently recorded it for their own albums, and the song was also included in the 1998 musical The Boy From Oz. Callen’s cover, from his 1988 debut album Purple Heart, is featured here. The track begins in E and modulates up a whole step to F# at 2:43.

The Zombies | This Will Be Our Year

The Zombies were part of the early 1960s British Invasion with top hits like “She’s Not There”  (Billboard #2, 1964), and “Tell Her No” (Billboard #6, 1965). Their last hit recording was “Time of the Season” (Billboard #3, 1968), which appeared on the album Odessey and Oracle. The title of the album was an unintentional misspelling by the artist who created the LP cover art. Oh, well. Despite that orthographic sin, AllMusic calls the album “one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s.”

The song here, “This Will Be Our Year”, is taken from that album. It was written by bassist Chris White, one of two principal songwriters in the group, along with keyboard ace Rod Argent. It’s a neat, concise slice of British pop, featuring Argent’s piano, and the vocals of Colin Blunstone. There’s an half-step modulation from A to Bb at 0:59.

Edison Lighthouse | Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes

The inclusion of Kate Bush’s distinctive mid-80s track “Running Up That Hill” in the streaming video hit Stranger Things might be the most prominent digital-age revival of a decades-old song — but it was hardly the first. “Proving that essentially all of pop history is now fair game for a TikTok revival, one of the biggest-growing streaming hits of 2022 now belongs to Nixon-era one-hit wonder Edison Lighthouse, with their bubblegum smash ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),'” (Billboard) … “The song, which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1970, has seen an explosion in its streaming consumption after the song started getting adapted into a TikTok meme of users posting clips and photos of themselves to accompany the song’s lyrics … ” Streams were up by 1,490% and the song also moved onto Spotify’s daily US top 200 chart, just outside the top 100.

“’Love Grows’ marked one of just two Hot 100 appearances for the British pop/rock quartet Edison Lighthouse — the other coming in early 1971 with the No. 72-peaking ‘It’s Up to You Petula.’ The group’s frontman, Tony Burrows, was perhaps the most prolific bubblegum singer of his era,” scoring hits under his own name as well as an anonymous vocalist for the groups White Plains, Brotherhood of Man (‘United We Stand,’ 1970), The Pipkins, and First Class (“Beach Baby,” 1974). “He also provided backing vocals on a pair of early Elton John classics ‘Levon’ and ‘Tiny Dancer.'”

The track shifts up a half-step at 1:57.

George Michael | Freedom ’90

“Freedom ’90” was the second single from George Michael’s 1990 album Listen Without Prejudice. The album attempted to accomplish the nearly impossible task of following up on Faith, Michael’s global smash 1987 album that produced multiple hit singles and was among the top 50 best-selling albums of the 1980s.

Billboard’s review of the track included some colorful prose: “Platinum pop star waxes both cynical and philosophical on this well-worded stab at his early days of fame.” From The Daily Vault: “Its catchy chorus and uptempo, jangling instrumentation, coupled with his signature soaring vocals, make this confessional a striking example of Michael’s newfound independence.” From Music and Media: “… a stirring Bo Diddley beat, a gospel approach, and a great piano riff are the main features of this addictive hit candidate.”

Completely independent of radio airplay: the focus on a pantheon of the world’s top supermodels at the height of their own careers, rather than Michael singing to the camera, sent the video into the highest strata of popularity. The fact that all of the cover art iconography of Faith — the leather jacket, the jukebox, and the blonde hollow-body guitar — ends up spectacularly reduced to ashes didn’t hurt, either.

Beginning in a slightly uptuned C major, the verse is followed by some relatively delicate syncopation of the vocal line during the C minor pre-chorus (1:46). At 2:07, C major comes roaring back for the monstrously huge sing-along chorus. 3:30 brings another minor pre-chorus; at 4:52, a minor bridge also provides a contrasting lead-up to the chorus.

Debbie Gibson | Lost In Your Eyes

“Lost In Your Eyes” is featured on American singer Debbie Gibson’s second studio album, Electric Youth, released in 1989. The song, which Gibson wrote and produced, was her most successful single and sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks. Writing for the former British music newspaper Record Mirror, critic Betty Page said, “Golden larynxed Debs hits us with the big moodsome ballad, proving that she’s shaping up to be the Barry Manilow of the Nineties.”

The track begins in C and modulates to D at 2:14.

Robyn | Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)

“Robyn Is Here (1997) was a generic album in the best sense, proof that this budding newcomer could tackle a bunch of different things without making a big show of it, despite the obviously formidable acrobatics in her voice and the less obviously steeled songcraft, which is as listenable and lightly touched as anything Blige or Brandy themselves has ever done,” (Billboard). “It doesn’t feel like a great album — that smallness to it really is a double-edged sword — but there isn’t a speck of filler on it either … There are also surprising touches, like the (sampled?) Mellotron that cues up the awesome Swedish Top Ten hit ‘Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect),’ like it’s ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or something.”

Produced by Max Martin, a fellow Swede, just as his production and writing career was breaking wide open via his work with acts such as The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Westlife, “Do You Really Want Me” bears Martin’s trademark sheen, vocal-forward mix, and eminently singable choruses. In fact, the opening notes of each chorus resemble a singsong schoolyard taunt, an effect only magnified by Robyn’s girlish vocal timbre.

After a start in C major, the tune shifts up to Eb major at 3:17, jumping downward to a surprise key change into Db major at 3:36 for a last runthrough of the chorus before the fading outro. Many thanks to our regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!

Bee Gees | Bodyguard

“The Bee Gees made a commercial comeback outside the U.S. with 1987’s E.S.P. and its single, ‘You Win Again,” (AllMusic). One (1989), on the other hand, had an improved chart showing in the U.S., while sales fell off elsewhere. The Bee Gees are remarkable pop craftsmen … say what you will, “One” and “House of Shame” are convincing pop music. ([the single] “One” was a Top Ten comeback hit that topped soft rock radio playlists.) This stuff works as pop for the same reason “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” and “You Should Be Dancing” did: the melodies are catchy, the hooks are deathless, and the vocals convey emotion over meaning. It may be weightless, but it’s polished.”

“‘I’m the last man standing. I’ll never be able to understand that as I’m the eldest,'” said Barry Gibb (SmoothRadio.com). All three of his brothers (twins Robin and Maurice of the Bee Gees, and much younger brother Andy) passed away between 1988 and 2012. “‘Nobody ever really know what the three of us felt about each other; only the three of us knew … It was such a unifying thing, the three of us became one person. We all had the same dream. That’s what I miss more than anything else.”

The disco grooves that propelled the Bee Gees to international superstardom were long gone by the time of this 1989 release, but “Bodyguard” features the fraternal vocal trio still firing on all cylinders. At 3:09, a whole-step modulation leads into a short guitar feature before the vocals return. Many thanks to Brazilian contributor Julianna for this submission!

Bill Wurtz | Meet Me in September

The Internet Music Genius You’ve Never Heard Of: “(Bill) Wurtz’s content stretches back to the early internet of 2002, and looking at the breadth and depth of his work highlights exactly how ahead of his time he was—and continues to be. Wurtz has become a massive success by melding bipolar shitposts, philosophical reflections on existence and legitimately exciting music with whiplash-inducing animation, (MelMagazine). It’s exactly what the democratizing force of the internet, and platforms like YouTube, was intended to nurture.

‘It’s funny because some of the people who become most famous on the internet aren’t the ones trying to capture that popularity, but ignore it. That’s Bill,’ says Taylor Lorenz, who writes about digital culture for The Atlantic. ‘Absurdist, quirky, lo-fi humor is very mainstream now, but the internet kind of caught up to Bill in a sense. I see him having a long-term dedicated fanbase when the trends pass, too. When you do something so consistently for so long, you create diehard fans. And he’s been true to his art for a long time.’

To watch a Bill Wurtz video is to explore the head of an idiosyncratic man—one who makes you struggle with preconceived notions of what coherent art is supposed to be. Wurtz flashes talent on all sorts of instruments, including piano, bass, drums and his own voice, which is a silky tenor with range and energy. He produces animated videos that sparkle with neon text, dancing stick figures and vaporwave-y transitions. He also wades in Weird Twitter, offering punchlines designed to inspire confused laughs.”

Released today on Youtube, Wurtz’s tune “Meet Me in September” is a 3.5-minute stream-of-consciousness meditation somehow grafted onto a travelogue of the USA, percolating along with consistent energy but never presenting the listener with much of an energetic peak or valley. “I’m greedy, so I’ll make more than my fair share of bad choices” is a representative lyric. Angular syncopations, multi-layered percussion, and ear-catching trills coming from all corners of the instrumentation are all part of the mix. After a start in E major, we shift to F major at 0:56. At 1:33, we’ve fallen back into E major via a short instrumental transition that sounds like a warped slinky making its fitful way down a stairway after it’s been run over by a bicycle. There are more shifts in tonality to follow; listen to it all, then join Wurtz’s growing legion of listeners in asking “WTF was that?”

The Tubes | Tip of My Tongue

Stylistically, it would be difficult to ask for a rock band more diverse than The Tubes. Over time, they’ve released punk-adjacent rave-ups, guitar-driven straight-ahead rock, keyboard-saturated power ballads, and more. Several prominent producers have worked with the band in the studio, including David Foster and Todd Rundgren.

“In 1983, after the huge success of their previous album The Completion Backward Principle, The Tubes released Outside Inside, another catchy offering, again with David Foster at the helm,” (Fozfan.com). “Foster, who was responsible for making the band’s sound more suitable for rock and pop radio, brought in many of his friends from Toto, plus other session greats like Nathan East and Freddy Washington to help raise the level of  musical sophistication in the Tubes’ sound. The voices of Patti Austin, Bobby Kimball and Bill Champlin were also smart additions to support Fee Waybill’s strong vocals. The overall sound of Outside Inside was a slick mix of rock and funk. It included a series of gems like ‘She’s a Beauty,’ that zoomed to the top of the charts, the powerful ‘No Not Again’ and the classy up-tempo ‘Fantastic Delusion.’

The second single was ‘Tip of My Tongue,’ a tight, funky affair co-written with (Earth, Wind + Fire’s) Maurice White, who also sings some uncredited ad-libs. This song definitely echoes the sound of EWF. Sure, the lyrical content fully belongs to the best Tubes’ tradition, but musically it could have come off any EWF album of those years.” The band has generally written its own material, but “Tip of My Tongue” is an exception. The tune’s allusions to oral sex go a bit beyond the point of double-entendre, which is right down the fairway for the band; much of its material seems to be written with its bull-in-a-china-shop stage shows in mind.

After starting in C# minor, a bridge in F# major (1:50), and a drum/bass break at 2:19 which hammers on C natural with a side order of mixed harmonic signals, “Tip of My Tongue” returns us to F# at 2:34; 2:50 drops us back into C# minor; thereafter, a series of choruses repeat and fade to the end. The horn section is full of swagger throughout, frequently shifting its complex filigree to the last bar.