Tag: pop

Boney M. | Rasputin

“Although they never had much success in America, the Euro-disco group Boney M. were a European phenomenon during the ’70s” (AllMusic) “Fronted by German record producer Frank Farian, the group also included four West Indian vocalists who had been working as session singers in Germany … In October 1978, ‘Rasputin’ became one of the band’s UK Top Ten hits. Their music continues to sell well in Europe, with a compilation hitting the U.K. Top Ten in 1994 … Farian went on to create the late-’80s dance sensation Milli Vanilli.” The band was late-70s mainstay on the UK TV show Top of the Pops.

“Rasputin” (1978) certainly takes a unique approach towards Russian history. Dangerous Minds reports that “the Soviet Union banned the song, which probably didn’t bother Boney M. too much.” The lyrics from the chorus set the tone:

Ra ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
Ra ra Rasputin
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on

At the 0:40 mark, the key falls approximately a quarter-step to B minor: an unusual way of working its way out of an intro!

Jennifer Warnes | Right Time of the Night

Written and originally recorded by songwriter Peter McCann, “Right Time of the Night” was made a top ten hit by Jennifer Warnes on her eponymous 1977 album. Warnes wrote new lyrics for the second verse that she believed were more appropriate for a female performer, but McCann rejected her revision and wrote his own, which eventually made it onto the record. The track is Warnes’ most successful solo hit. Starting in Bb, the tune modulates up a whole step to C at 2:11.

The Grass Roots | Temptation Eyes

“Temptation Eyes” is featured on The Grass Roots‘ 1970 compilation album More Golden Grass. The tune spent 18 weeks on the charts, and lead singer Rob Grill dubbed the tune his favorite song the band ever released. The key fluctuates between A minor on the verses and A major on the choruses.

Linda Ronstadt | Still Within the Sound of My Voice

“For well over four decades, Jimmy Webb’s songs have helped shape the American musical landscape,” Rolling Stone‘s Anthony Decurtis writes. “And ‘landscape’ is the operative term. A native of Oklahoma, Webb imbues his songs with a cinematic expansiveness and a musical sophistication that smooths the edges of his rootsy sources. They sometimes evoke specific places – ‘Wichita Lineman,’ ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’ – but more often Webb’s songs summon an internal realm of the imagination. Yearning and regret loom large in Webb’s songbook, as does a particular kind of American loneliness, the emotional flip side of the country’s obsession with individualism.”

The Webb tune “Still Within the Sound of My Voice” is clearly related to the title of the 2019 documentary which recounts American singer Linda Ronstadt’s sweeping career. “She didn’t write her own songs, but she owned the ones she performed with rare authority,” (New York Times) ” … someone uses the word ‘auteur’ to describe Ronstadt’s relationship to her material, and it doesn’t seem exaggerated. Starting out in the ’60s at the crossroads of folk and rock,” over time, she performed styles from New Wave, Great American Songbook standards, Gilbert and Sullivan operetta (on stage and in film), and Canciones de mi Padre, “an album of traditional Mexican songs that explored a family heritage many of her earliest fans and collaborators never knew she had.” Ronstadt retired in 2011 due to Parkinson’s disease, which has profoundly affected her voice. But the documentary seems to speak most to her groundbreaking influence on many facets of contemporary music.

The 1989 release, a long overdue MotD debut for Ronstadt, is on the gentle side of the artist’s releases, but still features moments of her famously effortless belt. It begins in C major for verse 1, shifts to Eb major chorus at 1:07, touches briefly back down on C major at 1:22, then travels on to Ab major at 1:25. At 1:43, we’re back to C for verse 2, and the cycle repeats. At 2:43, there’s an interlude Ab major; at 3:15, chorus 3 steps up to F major. 3:43 brings an outro in Bb major as the tune fades toward the horizon.

Adam Ant | Goody Two Shoes

The Guardian proclaims that in 1980, Adam and the Ants “were a riot of makeup, feathers, tribal drums and surf guitars – and, for a spectacular moment, they became the biggest band in the UK.” But by 1982, the flashy glam-fueled New Wave band probably best known for 1981’s “Stand and Deliver,” had largely disbanded. Frontman Adam Ant “cast around for a new angle,” reports FreakyTrigger. “It was a moment in pop history when sudden changes of image and sound were respectable – even expected for some stars. Compared to today’s performers who tend to cover bandwagon-jumping with a figleaf of artistic intent, there was a refreshing honesty about this pursuit of a new look for a new season: pop and fashion were merging in a blare of colour.”

The tune went to #1 in the UK and Australia; top 5 in Canada, Germany and Ireland; and top 20 in Belgium the Netherlands, and the US.

Regular contributor Kent adds to his submission: “Not only it its entire ‘verse’ a simple cycle of tonic, supertonic, subtonic (which is already disquieting if your ear is trying to settle on the key), but it migrates through through other keys before returning to the original (A, 0:00; D, 1:56; B, 2:15; C, 2:25; A, 2:35)!”

Dionne Warwick | Walk On By

“Walk on By,” written by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David, ended up as a sizeable early-career hit for vocalist and Bacharach favorite Dionne Warwick (1964). JazzIz.com reports that it was originally a B-Side for “Any Old Time of Day,” but prominent NYC DJ Murray “The K” felt that “Walk on By” was the superior song, and played it instead.

“His insistence paid off. ‘Walk On By’ became a hit and went on to become one of Warwick’s most famous songs. It has also been covered by many artists, including numerous jazz artists, earning it jazz standard status. For example, guitarist Gábor Szabó included his own instrumental cover version of the song on his debut album as leader, Gypsy ’66 (1965). Vocalist George Benson released a jazzier version of the track on his 1968 album Giblet Gravy. More recently, it was featured on pianist and vocalist Diana Krall’s album Quiet Nights (2009). Bacharach thought of his songs as ‘three-and-a-half minute movies, with peak moments and not just one intensity level the whole way through.’”

You could listen to this tune for decades and never realize that you’ve been walked through a modulation multiple times — yet also feel that there’s a certain something which propels the song’s motion forward with unusual force. After starting in A minor, there’s a shift part-way through the verse (0:15) to the closely-related key of D minor. In keeping with Bacharach’s polished style, the shift happens just as the title is mentioned for the first time. At 0:54, we move on to verse 2 and the cycle repeats. There are many brilliant live performances of Dionne Warwick performing this classic, but we chose this one for the sound quality.

The Sylvers | Hot Line

“There were so many Sylvers,” Stereogum reports. “There were 10 Sylvers siblings … If you watch the Sylvers on any of the big TV shows of the era — The Midnight Special, Soul Train, American Bandstand — they make for a breathtaking spectacle: All these kids, most of them with towering afros, all doing complicated and busy dance routines while belting out some almost absurdly catchy music, looking like the damn Polyphonic Spree.”

Other than their smash #1 hit “Boogie Fever” (1975), perhaps the group’s best known single is 1976’s “Hot Line,” which made it to only #5. Stereogum continues: “The Sylvers played some kind of crucial connective role within pop music, acting as a bridge between early-’70s Motown and the disco explosion that followed. The Sylvers’ success couldn’t last, and it didn’t … In different permutations, the Sylvers kept recording until 1985, when they finally broke up.”

With a super-saturated arrangement and a tempo that percolates in the high 130 BPM range, this tune was hardly in need of a boost. But a half-step modulation does indeed drop at 2:01, with all of the siblings’ voices united in a huge syncopated kick.

Vicki Sue Robinson | Turn the Beat Around

One of the best-known disco classics of all time, “Turn The Beat Around” was written by Gerald and Peter Jackson and featured on Vicki Sue Robinson’s debut album Never Gonna Let You Go, released in 1976. The song, which held the number one spot on the disco chart for a month, was Robinson’s only hit, and won her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Gloria Estefan recorded a very similar cover in 1994, and both versions have been used in numerous movies and TV shows.

The track modulates up a half step, from F# minor to G minor, at 2:48.