Tag: pop

Tommy James + the Shondells | Crystal Blue Persuasion

“Some songs are written specifically for films or TV shows,” (American Songwriter) “Then there are those songs that seem like they’re tailor-made for just about any kind of filmed production. ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion,’ a mellow masterpiece from 1969 by Tommy James and the Shondells, falls into that latter category. … James proved to be a steady hitmaker for Roulette Records from the mid-60s on, deftly straddling the line between garage rock and bubblegum pop like few of his era. ‘As a songwriter, you’re always looking for interesting word combinations and stuff. And the title of this poem was Crystal Persuasion. I just thought that was a fascinating title. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded very profound.’

Dozens of filmmakers have taken their turns interpreting “Crystal Blue Persuasion” pretty much since it first hit the Top 5 in 1969 … Tommy James is all right with all of it. ‘On Breaking Bad, it meant crystal meth,’ he laughs. ‘But I guess you take it where you can get it. I can’t believe the reach that song has had over the years. It’s really a magical little record …’”

The half-step modulation at 2:27 is preceded only by a hand percussion break — no surprise there, as the track had no drum set in its instrumentation. A feature probably intended for album listeners, as opposed to the radio audience, is a surprising double-time section at 3:36, which amps up the energy just as the volume fades; most DJs likely didn’t play the tune to the very end.

Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi | Just Look Up (from “Don’t Look Up”)

“Just Look Up” is an original single written and performed by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi for the Oscar-nominated 2021 movie Don’t Look Up. The songwriters and other members of the film’s creative team, including director Adam McKay and Nicholas Brittell, who is also nominated for his score, discussed the song a behind-the-scenes video.

The tune starts out in A and shifts up to Bb major in a standard direct modulation at 2:42.

Cascada | Could It Be You

Cascada is a German eurodance band whose music has been viewed over a billion times on Youtube. They have released four studio albums, most recently in 2011, and are one of the most successful dance music acts ever. “Could It Be You” is featured on the 2009 album Perfect Day. The track begins in C# minor and dramatically modulates up a half step to D minor at 2:55.

Grace Potter | Love Is Love

American singer Grace Potter released her third solo album, Daylight, in 2019, featuring “Love Is Love” as the first track. “Daylight is an incredibly unfiltered musical expression of who I want to be,” Potter said in an interview with Billboard. “It’s a journal. It’s really personal. It’s a very powerful feeling to become a mother, to fall in love and also to watch and experience love falling apart and say goodbye to an entire era of your life.”

The tune begins in Ab and shifts up a step to Bb following the second chorus at 1:54.

Belinda Carlisle | Heaven is a Place on Earth

Belinda Carlisle, lead singer of the girl group synonymous with early 1980s pop, The Go-Go’s, later left for a solo career. Stereogum reports that in December 1987, “Carlisle had the #1 single in America, and she had it with a fiercely, fervently, almost defiantly mainstream song. Carlisle’s big hit is a simple, straightforward love song built around terms so overstated that they cross over into actual religious territory. In the video, Carlisle makes out with her husband, a Hollywood scion who was once part of the Republican political machine … (In the decade proceeding the hit), Belinda Carlisle went full normie. Along the way, though, she made a hell of an impact.”

“‘Heaven Is a Place on Earth’ is a glimmering, expensive-sounding pop record, with that shiny-synth/big-drum thing that you hear on practically every successful record of the era … On his Hit Parade podcast a couple of years ago, Chris Molanphy points out that (songwriters Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley) took that trick from Bon Jovi, who’d used it on ‘You Give Love A Bad Name.’ Later on, that chorus-up-front move became a go-to trick for late-’90s boy-band producers. It’s some effective shit! When a chorus is big enough, there’s no need to be subtle about it. You can just bludgeon it directly into somebody’s brain before the song even starts.” Songwriter Ellen Shipley sang backup on the song, as did Diane Warren and Michelle Phillips (of The Mamas and The Papas fame); synth-driven songwriter and music tech groundbreaker Thomas Dolby served as a session keyboardist for the track. Stereogum continues: “You almost certainly can’t pick out those individual voices or keyboard tones … but you can definitely hear that there’s money in the song … it’s the sound of ’80s blockbuster pop cranked all the way up to full power. It sounds like Top Gun.”

After a start in E major, 3:23 brings an unprepared shift upward to F# major — if “unprepared” is a broad enough term to include a bombastic instrumental chorus (starting at 3:09), plenty of percussion pyrotechnics, an insistent re-statement of the keyboard hook, and a 2/4 bar thrown into the 4/4 mix to bring us to the key change with the g-force of a hairpin rollercoaster turn.

Charlie Puth | Through It All

“Through It All” is the last track on American singer Charlie Puth’s 2018 album Voicenotes. In an interview with Billboard, Puth described the sound of the album as “like walking down a dirt road and listening to New Edition in 1989 — and being heartbroken, of course.” The album was nominated for a Grammy and reached the #4 spot on the Billboard 200.

The track begins in A and has a standard direct modulation up to B at 2:39.

Architecture in Helsinki | Contact High

Architecture in Helsinki was an indie pop band based in Australia, active from 2000 to 2018. “Contact High” is featured on their 2011 album, Moment Bends, which was nominated for Australian album of the year. Reviewing the album for the online music publication Pitchfork, critic Eric Grande wrote of the tune, “[lead singer Cameron] Bird’s breathy falsetto verses sound normal enough, but they turn into that odd, otherly voice of the Auto-Tuned on the chorus, singing, ‘I’ve got nothing to hide,’ with what might be the slightest smirk, sometimes tripled by an octave-lowered bass voice, sounding in the main like nothing so much as Owl City. And yet, it’s a terrific pop song, and the chorus, for all its strange sheen, is an undeniable pleasure.”

The track begins in Gb major, and modulates up a third to A at 2:56.

Steam | Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” (1969) was written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to a then-fictitious band they named “Steam”. It went all the way to #1 in late 1969. It was Billboard‘s final multi-week #1 pop hit of the 1960s, but also peaked at #20 on the soul chart. The track also went into the top 10 in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. By the beginning of the 21st century, sales of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” had exceeded 6.5 million records, reaching multi-platinum record status (Rolling Stone).

“But in 1977, as legend has it, the organist for the Chicago White Sox, Nancy Faust, started playing it when opposing pitchers were yanked from the game. The crowds began to chant along with the music, and a great taunt was born. Now (it’s) the anthem of taunt, sung in many languages and many sports, among them politics,” (Washington Post).

Songfacts provides more detail: “When this song became a hit, an entire album was commissioned and a group created for it, also with the name ‘Steam.’ But DeCarlo wasn’t invited to tour with it, even though he had recorded it. Indeed, he “was asked not to reveal that it was him on the record, since there was a different singer performing it at live appearances.” DeCarlo tried to capitalize on the song’s success as he continued his musical career, but was unsuccessful.

The tune starts with a distinctive vibes feature on the intro, followed by the iconic chant chorus, right out of the gate (C minor). The first verse (C major) runs from 0:17 – 0:48; the chorus then returns in the original key and the pattern holds throughout.

Marc Cohn | Walk Through This World

Asked in an interview with Goldmine about the origins of his music career, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Marc Cohn answered: “I didn’t have any other choice. I just didn’t have a choice. This is what connected with me from the time I was 7 or 8 years old, when I first heard The Beatles and The Stones, and Van Morrison and The Band. It wasn’t just that I liked it. I was obsessed with it. And I had an older brother who played piano and had a band that practiced in our basement, so I got to hear what Motown sounded like, and what Burt Bacharach sounded like, three feet away. My brother had a great ear, and he got most of the chords right, and it was just an obsession from the very beginning. And it was also an escape. And I had some ability. I could always sing, and I found I could write some words, too. It was just to be, I guess. I wouldn’t know what the hell else I’d do. It’s the thing that I was obsessed with for as long as I can remember — making records and writing songs.”

Best known for his top-40 hit “Walking in Memphis” (1991) from his platinum-selling eponymous debut album, Cohn won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1992. Utica, NY’s Observer-Dispatch describes Cohn’s material: “emotionally stirring compositions, deeply personal yet universal, and his easy, husky voice [have] earned him a devoted following and a reputation as a musician’s musician.”

Built in C major overall, “Walk Through This World” (1993) features an instrumental break (2:35 -2:56) which modulates to Bb major before reverting to the original key.

Billy Joel | Tell Her About It

“When Joel made 1983’s An Innocent Man, he was rich, famous, and single for the first time ever,” (Stereogum). He was dating supermodels like future second wife Christie Brinkley. He’d been asked to write a song for Easy Money, a Rodney Dangerfield movie, and he’d come up with a peppy, stagey facsimile of early-’60s soul. Joel was into it, so he just went ahead and made a whole album like that. With that album’s first single, Joel made it to #1 for the second time.

When he wrote ‘Tell Her About It,’ Joel was trying to pay tribute to the feeling of early Motown — an even more difficult sound to recapture than the doo-wop of ‘The Longest Time.’ As a songwriting exercise, ‘Tell Her About It’ hits its marks. Joel and his band effectively tap into the classic Holland-Dozier-Holland four-four big-beat stomp. Joel comes up with a memorable hook, and he keeps the structure sharp and uncluttered. There’s nothing revolutionary about it, but that fits the conceit. It’s pastiche. There’s not supposed to be anything revolutionary about it … In a period of great pop-music futurism, Billy Joel looked backwards. If The Nylon Curtain was Joel’s attempt to evoke the frustrations of working-class Reagan-era America, then ‘Tell Her About It,’ and An Innocent Man in general, are Joel capitalizing on the rose-tinted simpler-times nostalgia that helped Reagan get elected in the first place.”

After the tune starts in Bb major, the chorus shifts to F major at 1:11, then back to Bb for the intro to the next verse (1:32). From 2:25 to 2:46, the bridge drops to Ab major. The video, complete with its oddly Nixonian take on Ed Sullivan, only adds to the retro feel!