Tag: pop

Selena | El Chico del Apartamento 512

Billboard magazine named Selena the greatest female Latin artist of all time; although she wasn’t able to break through to mainstream North American pop music market during her lifetime, she was beloved by millions of fans. From LoveSelena.com: “The New York Times praised Selena as a ‘young artist with unlimited possibilities.’ According to TIME magazine, Selena ‘was the embodiment of young, smart, hip Mexican-American youth, wearing midriff-baring bustiers and boasting a tight-knit family and a down-to-earth personality, a Madonna without the controversy.’ … Dubbed by her fans as the ‘Queen of Tejano‘ … the posthumous release of the album Dreaming of You gave a clear indication that Selena was, in fact, on her way to becoming a star in the English market as well.”

Selena was only in her mid-20s when, in 1995, she was murdered by an employee who was later convicted of misappropriating and embezzling the artist’s funds. The LoveSelena site continues: “Since her passing, Selena’s life has inspired a hit movie, a Broadway bound musical, and a successful clothing line … People magazine’s commemorative issue of Selena, which sold a record number of copies, ultimately spurred the creation of the now-popular magazine People En Espanol.”

“El Chico del Apartamento 512 (The Guy from Apartment 512),” reports EMI Latin, “is a Spanish-language cumbia with influences of Colombian and South American music.” According to Billboard, the tune describes a woman who knocks on the apartment door of a prospective love interest. His sister answers, but is mistaken for his girlfriend. Justino Aguilar of Billboard described the track as one of Selena’s most memorable; released just a few months before her death, it was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. There are unprepared half-step modulations at 2:14 and 2:44.

Many thanks to longtime MotD fan Alex M. for this submission!

Mariah Carey (feat. Joe + 98 Degrees) | Thank God I Found You

The final track on Mariah Carey‘s 1999 album Rainbow, “Thank God I Found You” features guest vocals from R&B singer Joe and the American boy band 98 Degrees. The track was Carey’s fifteenth number one hit, and the sole chart topper for 98 Degrees.

“She’s got ‘Thank God I found you’ and that’s about it,” producer Jimmy Jam said, reflecting on writing/recording the song. “She sang the melody. We usually have [producer] Big Jim Wright sit in on those kind of sessions to work out chords. He wasn’t there so I had to work out the chords myself. So I’m playing and there was a part where I said, ‘Man, what chord am I supposed to do here?’ and Mariah has such a good ear, she sang me the chord.'”

The track modulates up a minor third, from Bb to Db, at 3:18.

Astral Drive | Onebiglove

Phil Thornalley is known as a co-writer (along with Scott Cutler and Anne Preven) of Natalie Imbruglia‘s international smash single “Torn.” The tune reached #2 on the UK Singles chart in 1997, led airplay around the world, and maintained a #1 position on the Billboard Airplay chart for 14 weeks. Thornalley, a UK native, is also known for his early-80s stint as a producer — and for a time, the bassist — for The Cure. In various production roles, he also worked with several other bands, including Duran Duran, Prefab Sprout, Graham Parker, and XTC.

In an interview for Sound on Sound magazine, Thornalley examined his place in the music ecosystem: “My natural inclination has always been to make pop. Having had such success with Natalie, I suddenly was a pop writer and producer, and I’m not unhappy about that at all. The artists that I worked with … all have their own artistic voice, but I don’t think I ever had that. I’m not ashamed to say that. I have always felt that I am a craftsman: I like to make things. Some people know how to make a chair or a table, and if someone comes to me with a request to make something in music, I go: ‘Oh, yes, I know how to do that.’ Of course I respect artists: my biggest influence is Todd Rundgren; but I’m not an artist or protest singer.” Despite Thornalley’s modesty, ArkansasOnline‘s review of his 2018 release (as Astral Drive) suggests that the work indeed rises to the level of art: “Astral Drive feels dreamy and pre-punk, shot through with sunshine with just a hint of melancholy. It’s sonic virtual reality, something you can get lost in. It transports. It connects. And so it succeeds.” The 2021 release, while distinct from the Astral Drive debut, operates on or near the same axis.

The 2021 track “OneBigLove” features a gentle intro built on compelling yet ambiguous compound chords, a regular feature of the Rundgren liturgy. At 0:15, now firmly in A minor, the verse features an insistent eighth-note groove with a prominent sub-V Bb major kick at 0:24, just in case you weren’t paying full attention yet. At 1:03, an early syncopated start to the lead vocal line opens a trapdoor into the next verse, this time in B minor. We can’t locate liner notes, but longtime Rundgren bandmate, Utopia co-vocalist, songwriter, and free-range bassist Kasim Sulton has collaborated on recent Astral Drive tracks and his distinctive tenor seems to be in strong evidence on backing vocals. During a mini-bridge starting at 2:06, the groove falls away, but returns again at 2:17 as the key shifts to C# minor. The long fade, more than 30 seconds, suggests that this track was a party that nobody wanted to bring to an end.

Many thanks to our stalwart mod scout JB for this submission!

Janet Jackson | Let’s Wait Awhile

Featured on Janet Jackson’s 1986 album Control, “Let’s Wait Awhile” represents a departure from the sexually provocative themes typical of Jackson’s output. “I didn’t think at the time we were sending out any kind of significant message,” Jimmy Jam, who helped co-write the song, said. “For us it was more like a love song. It got interpreted as maybe more of a statement than it was intended to be. It’s a very simple love song and it was just saying, ‘Let’s wait. I’m not going anywhere, so let’s just take our time.’ Lyrically, that was Janet’s concept and we shaped the music to fit.”

Released during the AIDS crisis in the United States, the song was also frequently employed as a teaching tool to encourage abstinence. Critic Danyel Smith commented in the magazine Vibe that “on the fragile [ballad], Jackson’s tender, hesitant delivery conveys all of the trepidation and wonder felt by a young girl on the brink of losing her innocence.”

Jackson included the track on two of her greatest hits albums, and performs it regularly on tour. A modulation from Db to D occurs at 3:14 (the tune briefly returns to Db in the outro at 4:24.)

Brian David Gilbert (2Wins2) | Just One Day

For a guy who’s racked up five-million-plus views on a video entitled “I Read All 337 Books in Skyrim So You Don’t Have To” on the Youtube channel for the popular gaming site Polygon, Brian David Gilbert is orders of magnitude more musical than you’d have any right to expect. But then multiply that sentiment by many, many Polygon videos, combine it with an effortlessly musical one-man sendup of classic late 90s/early 2000s boy band cliches, and <scene>.

Members of the thankfully fictitious sibling boy band 2Winz2 apparently focus on drive-by insults as much as they do on their latest single. The 2021 release “Just One Day” suggests that quartet member Dale’s days in 2W2 might be numbered — and not by his choice. The lyrics are not to be missed.

At 2:30, the much-maligned Dale earnestly dives into the bridge: his moment in the sun has arrived. By 2:43, a key change kicks in — but is rendered almost completely inaudible by thoughtless use of a blender, followed by an intra-band quarrel that shows Dale’s future with the group is in serious question.

Many thanks to first-time contributor Alex D. for this hilarious tune!

Moody Joody | Lockeland

Alternative pop/rock duo Moody Joody might not be mainstream, but their new and unique sound caught the attention of Spotify, which placed the 2021 single “Lockeland” on one of its most followed curated indie-pop playlists. This intense focus put the track on top of Moody Joody’s profile as the duo’s most streamed song, and rightfully so! 

The chill-but-driven groove doesn’t align with the flamboyance typical of most key-changing tracks. But the “driving with the windows down” adventure vibes of the song definitely warrant the beautifully executed key change at 2:41. When all the instruments drop out and the vocals make a surprise a cappella entrance — an energizing whole-step up — you can feel the wind in your hair. 

Young Rascals | How Can I Be Sure

The Young Rascals’ “How Can I Be Sure” was a 1967 follow-up to “Groovin‘” and was influenced by The Beatles, for whom The Young Rascals opened their landmark 1965 Shea Stadium concert, the Montgomery News reports: “The only reason we were brave enough to do that (release a ballad in ¾ time as a single) was The Beatles did ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday.’” remembers co-writer Felix Cavaliere.

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die puts the band in context with its era: “Though The Young Rascals started as a down-and-dirty garage-rock band with an R&B fringe, by 1967, bandleaders Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brigati, and Gene Cornish—like the rest of their songwriting generation—were looking to push pop into the psychedelic era, while loading it up with some of the sophisticated elements that had charmed their parents decades earlier.”

The tune reached #4 on the US pop charts and #1 in Canada and is certainly a departure from the band’s harder-edged origins. According to Songfacts, “The Young Rascals’ original version didn’t hit in the UK and the first time it charted was in 1970 when a revival by Dusty Springfield scraped into the charts at #36. Two years later David Cassidy, who was at the time along with The Osmonds the most popular teen idol in the UK, went all the way to the top of the British singles chart with his cover.”

The tune flips back and forth between D major and D minor throughout and pivots to C major briefly at the end of the chorus (for the first time at 0:47 – 0:51).

Sweet Dreams | I’m Never Giving Up

According to SongsforEurope.com, the group Sweet Dreams was convened specifically to perform “I’m Never Giving Up” in A Song for Europe 1983, the United Kingdom’s preliminary round to the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. The BBC reported that “on the night of Eurovision 1983, held at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, Sweet Dreams performed third in a field of twenty. They finished the contest in sixth place.”

From Eurovision.tv: “The host for the evening was Marlene Charell, who presented the show in three languages: German, French and English. Due to the trilingual presentation, the contest lasted more than three hours for the first time ever.”

One of MotD’s earliest supporters, HC from Copenhagen, submitted this track years ago. But the message unfortunately got stuck in the bottom of the clunky inbox system for Facebook pages and was essentially lost for nearly a decade. HC’s take on the tune: “Here’s one I particularly like, complete with bar stool choreography. Everything about this song is awesome: jogging costumes, catchy chorus, full orchestra in 144 bpm shuffle, inside-a-toaster scenography, the ass-shake ending … Only Great Britain in the 80s!”

The tune starts at the 0:40 mark. After plenty of reiterations of a sprightly hook from the flute and piccolo, an upward whole-step modulation hits (3:04) after colliding with a downward synth glissando, the aforementioned bar stool move, and a two-beat suspension of the frenetic groove. Many thanks to HC for this submission — and for his supreme patience!

The Nolans | I’m in the Mood for Dancing

“I’m in the Mood for Dancing” was released as a single by the Irish pop group The Nolan Sisters (later known as The Nolans) in 1979, and featured on their debut album that year. The track reached the #3 spot on the UK Singles in 1980, and is the most successful song the group ever recorded (it was so successful in Japan that they recorded the tune again in Japanese.) The tune modulates at 1:38, and returns to the original key at 2:15.

Crash Test Dummies | In the Days of the Cavemen

From Sputnik Music‘s review of “In the Days of the Cavemen,” from Crash Test Dummies‘ 1993 album God Shuffled His Feet: “Oh Canada! Hail to my neighbor to the north. I praise you because not only have you shared with us some major musical talents over the years, like Rush and Joni Mitchell (for which I am eternally grateful), but you’ve also given us a host of quirky smaller bands throughout the last four or five decades, so many of whom I’ve enjoyed: Bands like Klaatu in the seventies, and Martha and the Muffins in the eighties. Oh, and in the nineties — Crash Test Dummies!

Although they made a nice little career for themselves in the great white north, God Shuffled His Feet was this band’s only internationally successful album … (It) took off around the world … powered by the success of one unconventional single, a slow and poignant track about how it feels to be different, the oddly- titled ‘Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm'”.

Brad Roberts’ voice is quite unusual for a frontman, given its edge-of-the-bell-curve bass/baritone range. Adding to his immediately recognizable sound are the relatively slow pace of the lyrics and his habit of over-enunciating: it often seems as if he’s passing on time-sensitive directions on how to diffuse a bomb — over the phone, to a middle school student. Roberts also was central to the band as an instrumentalist. Frequent contributor JB adds: “The bassline is exquisite throughout the whole tune: clean and melodic, but the same can be said of almost every bass part played by Brad Roberts.”

The tune is set in B major for the verses and the chorus; there’s a big jump to G major for a bridge at 1:35 – 1:54 (or rather a bridge-like section, because it happens again at 2:37 – 3:16).