“Brown Eyes” was included on Survivor, the third studio album released by the R&B group Destiny’s Child. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart in May of 2001, received three Grammy nominations (including Best R&B album), and was ranked at #70 by Billboard of their 200 Best Albums of the Decade. Straight-forward direct modulation from F to Gb at 3:33.
Tag: pop
Chicago | Make Me Smile
“(‘Make Me Smile’) was written by James Pankow, a founding member of Chicago, whose primary instrument is the trombone,” reports Songfacts. “What made him smile was the thought of a beautiful relationship: ‘Relationships, if they’re good, put a big smile on our faces. Love songs have always been a powerful ingredient in the song’s process – the songwriting process has often taken writers to that place.’
(The 1970 single) is the first section from the 13-minute musical suite ‘Ballet for a Girl from Buchannon’ on the group’s second album (‘Colour My World‘ is also part of this suite). Without the band’s knowledge, their record company excerpted the ‘Make Me Smile’ section and pushed it to AM radio stations, which had thus far ignored the band. The band had mixed emotions upon hearing their musical masterpiece chopped down for radio play, but were thrilled when the song became their first hit. The first Pankow heard this song on the radio was when he flipped on the mighty Los Angeles radio station KHJ-AM in his car and the song came on. He had no idea the record company had packaged it as a single.”
This album version includes an extended intro not found on the single version (0:00 – 0:38), as well as an extended outro (3:44 – 4:10) before the single version’s ending picks back up at 4:11. Both the intro and the outro are unsettled, giving the horn section free rein over meters that shift on a dime; a settled 4/4 is reached as the first verse starts at 0:42, before the most noticeable key change hits as the bridge starts at 2:14. The band’s trademark horn-saturated kicks and ambitious multi-layered backing vocals were well on their way to icon status with this hit track.
Many thanks to our diligent stringer JB for contributing this tune!
Josh Groban | To Where You Are
Written and produced by Grammy-winning producer and performer Richard Marx with Linda Thompson, “To Where You Are” appeared on Josh Groban‘s 2001 debut album, and reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Chart. Groban frequently sings the the song in live performance, and it has also been performed on numerous reality television voice programs such as American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent. The track seamlessly alternates between Bb in the verses and C major for the choruses at 1:09 and 2:50.
Taylor Swift | Love Story
One of the best-selling singles of all-time at 18 million worldwide sales, Taylor Swift‘s “Love Story” was released in 2008 as the lead single from her second studio album Fearless. Considered to be her signature song, it tells the story of a love interest of Swift’s who was not popular among her family and friends. The track peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top 100 and has been certified 8x Platinum by the RIAA. Key change is snuck in right at the end at 3:18.
Rufus Wainwright | Trouble in Paradise
A July 2020 piece in FLOOD magazine suggests that singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright is “the reigning king of elegant, earthen and sophisticated art pop. He still has a knack for crooning smartly piquant, yet deeply emotional lyrics with cosmopolitan melodies that come across more Tin Pan Alley, London Palladium and Topanga Canyon than something out of today’s more nebulous and steely AutoTune universe”
His 2019 song “Trouble in Paradise” is the lead single for his most recent album, Unfollow the Rules. In an American Songwriter interview, Wainwright said “After the opera world and natural aging, I can now sing at the full power of my abilities, and this record really shows that off.” He also shared a this synopsis of the song for his website: “Drum beats herald a romp through the inner mind of a bob-haired fashion doyenne on her drive from the town to the country. She reflects on the true price of glamour, and weighs its spiritual costs while eyeing her future legacy, and eternity.”
Typical of Wainwright, the arrangements are layered and ornate — but never overpower what FLOOD calls his “slippery, oboe-like vocals.” Starting in Bb major, the tune modulates up a half-step at 2:13. At 2:49, the song ends in an ambiguous swirl of layered notes, somehow suggesting falling and ascending simultaneously.
The Association | Cherish
The Association, AllMusic reports, “was one of the more underrated groups to come out of the mid-to-late ’60s. Creators of an enviable string of hits from 1966 through 1969 … the group’s smooth harmonies and pop-oriented sound … made them regular occupants of the highest reaches of the pop charts for two years. Their biggest hits became instant staples of AM radio play lists, which was a respectable achievement for most musicians at the time. That same sound, along with their AM radio popularity, however, proved a liability as the music environment around them changed at the end of the decade.”
“Cherish” reached #22 on BMI’s list of the 100 Most Played Songs on Television and Radio of the 20th century. Written by Terry Kirkman, the track reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, holding that position for three weeks. Billboard reported it as the #7 song of 1966. According to reporting by the Myrtle Beach Sun News, the band’s record label originally claimed that the tune sounded “too old and archaic.” But original band member Jim Yester retorted that the band “showed we can have archaic and eat it, too.”
Regular mod scout JB adds a few words about this submission: “It truly is an iconic song; the modulation at 2:18 — with its bridge build-up starting at 1:50 — has enough wattage to power LA for a day. Truly a piece of pop perfection!”
The Chicks | You Were Mine
Earlier today, the American country band The Dixie Chicks announced they would be dropping “Dixie” from their name, becoming simply The Chicks. The change was made without much fanfare; in a brief statement on its new website, the band states simply: “We want to meet this moment.” To accompany this news, they dropped a new single from their upcoming album Gaslighter (due out next month — the group’s first album in fourteen years) titled “March March,” featuring images of current and historical protests — for women’s rights, gay rights, environmental causes and Black Lives Matter.
While the new track doesn’t have a key change, we thought it would be an appropriate day to feature The Chicks. “You Were Mine” was released in 1998, the fourth single from their hit album Wide Open Spaces. The song is notable for being the first to feature Natalie Maines as the lead vocal; the Erwin sisters were so impressed with her performance on the original demo that she would go on to replace Laura Lynch in the band. It is also a deeply personal song for the group as the lyrics describe the breakup of the Erwin sisters’ parents. It spent two weeks in the #1 spot on the US Country Singles chart, and reached #34 on the Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. Key change at 3:03.
Brenda Russell | Piano In The Dark
“Piano In The Dark” was the first single released from Brenda Russell‘s 1988 album Get Here. The track earned Russell two Grammy nominations in 1989, including one for Song Of The Year, and went on to be her biggest hit, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When asked about the genesis of the song in an interview, Russell said:
“Piano In The Dark” was a wonderful experience. I had two co-writers on that song. Scott Cutler and Jeffrey Hall. And they had sent me this music. And I’m a person that collects song titles. You know, if I hear a good title, like talking to a friend or whatever, I’ll write it down. I keep a little song title book. I always think that in every title there’s a song somewhere, and you’ve just got to thin it out. So when they sent me this music, I thought, Whoa, it’s so haunting and beautiful, I love that. And I was flipping through my title book and I just thought, piano in the dark, I wonder if that would go with that music I heard. That’s as easy as that happened. I had that title and I thought, Hmmm, maybe that’ll work.
…[the song is] about this woman. Her lover plays piano. And she wants to leave him, because she’s really kind of bored. But every time she does that, he sits down and starts playing. And it sucks her right back in. She’s so in love with the way he plays. And he plays in the dark, theoretically. It’s not that literal, necessarily. But that’s what keeps her to him, basically, is his music. And I just found that was an interesting story to write about.”
The verses are set in F minor, and Russell modulates seamlessly to the parallel major for the choruses at 1:03, 2:06, and 2:59.
Kajagoogoo | Too Shy
Another tune from our frequent contributor JB: Kajagoogoo’s 1983 hit “Too Shy” is “both harmonically interesting and a completely formulaic relic of the epoch in which it was made: a lush, synth-dominated arrangement, big hair, vaseline-on-the-lens music video, etc.”
According to AllMusic, the track reached #1 in the UK and #5 in the US. But between lead singer Limahl’s departure for a solo career and the UK group’s “similarities with Duran Duran and Naked Eyes — they were pretty and played immediately accessible, polished pop,” the band wasn’t destined for a sustained string of hits. “Kajagoogoo was essentially a synth pop variation of a bubblegum group.”
With the overall key flattened from A 440 by more than just a few cents, the tune has an extended intro built around ambiguous suspended chords, settles into Bb minor for the first verse at 0:47, and shifts to Eb minor at the chorus (1:13). At 2:18, the suspended chords from the intro return for a wordless bridge — but this time are clarified by a more complex Bb major bassline. At 2:53, we return to the chorus for the duration.
Mariah Carey | Always Be My Baby
The fourth single released from Mariah Carey’s fifth studio album, Daydream, “Always Be My Baby” was the most played song on the radio in 1996, and the first single to debut at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The lyrics describes the lingering attachment the singer retains towards her former lover, even as they both go their separate ways. The track is one of Carey’s most successful, reaching Triple Platinum status with well over 2 million sales.
The key change is at 3:01. Many thanks to MotD fan Rob Penttinen for this submission!
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