pop – Page 9

Theme from “WKRP in Cincinnati”

“Today, TV shows feature all sorts of contemporary Rock and Pop songs. It has become a way to break new music,” (CityBeat). “But WKRP in Cincinnati (1978 – 1982) was one of the first shows to have the songs on its soundtrack (usually snippets of what the station’s DJs were playing) drawn primarily from current FM Rock hits … And it was always fun to spot some weird new band on the many posters decorating the fake radio station.

The quirky little sitcom that many outsiders still bring up any time ‘Cincinnati’ is mentioned … was on for three years before MTV debuted, but in many ways it reflected that cable channel’s spirit in its infancy, integrating Rock music with an entertaining visual component and whacky personalities (DJs/VJs) and helping to bring some relatively cutting edge sounds into America’s living rooms.

The show’s theme song, given the catchy title ‘WKRP In Cincinnati Main Theme,’ was a breezy Soft Rock ditty that earned a singer named Steve Carlisle one-hit wonder status (if you even consider peaking at No. 65 on Billboard a ‘hit’).” The FM single was quite a bit longer, with several key changes back and forth between D major and Eb major — until E major and F major make their appearances at 2:02 and 2:27, respectively. The shorter version that aired as the actual show intro featured only one upward shift in key (0:38). Both are posted below. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

The TV show’s intro/theme:

The single:

Rita Lee | Lança Perfume

Rita Lee’s “Lanca Perfume” was a 1980 smash hit in Brazil. Lee was the granddaughter of an American citizen living in Brazil. Her father, Charles Fenley Jones, was a dentist born in Brazil who was the son of an American. Her mother, of Italian origin, was born in Brazil as well. Lee was born on December 31st, 1947, and passed away in 2023 at the age of 75.

Lee was a pioneer female rocker in Brazil; she was one of the original members of the famous Brazilian psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes. Later she went solo, married and formed a performance duo with another musician (Roberto de Carvalho), and wrote many soap opera theme songs for Globo TV.

“Lança Perfume” features the same keyboard-driven pop sound which was so popular in the US during the same era. The track shifts up a whole step at 2:24.

Many thanks to one of our Brazilian readers/listeners, Julianna A., for this submission to MotD — her eighth!

Ace of Base | The Sign

“Within the grand narrative of global pop music, the Swedish quartet Ace of Base were a blip, a one-album wonder who came and went,” (Stereogum). “Between 1993 and 1994, Ace of Base essentially conquered the world, and their hits from that album will always work as strange, anachronistic reminders of a very specific early-Clinton moment. AoB themselves were not terribly important, but the group’s short-lived success stands as a kind of proof of concept. In Sweden, a certain form of sleek, shiny, bulletproof computer-pop music was just starting to come into existence, and that sound would rule the pop charts in the century to come. AoB gave some indication that this new hybrid style could work.

… Ace of Base emerged just shortly after the heyday of Roxette, a duo who were, in their time, the most successful Swedish group in the history of the American pop charts. Roxette’s astonishing four #1 hits were defined by a certain cheerful inanity — colossal hooks, absurdist lyrics, slick textures, hard riffs. AoB essentially did the same thing, though they sounded nothing like Roxette. The sound of American pop music had shifted since Roxette’s run, and AoB reflected that. ‘The Sign,’ AoB’s one American chart-topper, is a strange and hypnotic combination of sounds and ideas — chirpy and effervescent bubblegum melodies over deep digital-reggae beats. This particular mad-scientist crossbreed should not exist, and yet it resonates.

After “The Sign” (1994) completes its instrumental intro in G minor, 0:39 brings a verse in the parallel key of G major. At 1:21, an instrumental interlude mirroring the intro takes us back into G minor. subsequent verses switch back to major. The pattern continues throughout as off-beat synth-reggae keyboards propel it all relentlessly forward — at least for the single’s short run time of just barely over three minutes!

Dan + Shay | Show You Off

“Just as the line between gospel and classic country was blurry in the Louvin Brothers’ heyday, it remains possible to pull off a certain Saturday night/Sunday morning thing in the modern country and Christian markets simultaneously,” (Stereogum). “There is no shortage of overlap within these worlds, demographically speaking. Sonically, too, both genres have gravitated toward arena rock grandiosity over the years, alienating traditionalists while still appealing to vaguely traditional notions of faith, family, the heartland, etc. Dan + Shay’s music feels targeted to this intersection. They give off big worship leader energy …

It’s working out well for them. The duo is one of country music’s biggest pop crossover success stories in recent memory. Not only did their 2018 self-titled album spin off three country #1 hits in ‘Tequila,’ the storybook-wedding ballad ‘Speechless,’ and ‘All to Myself’ … they also sent two of those songs to the top 10 at adult contemporary radio. They won awards at just about every ceremony within their reach: Grammys, Billboard Awards, Teen Choice Awards, CMAs, ACMs, you name it.”

The duo’s 2014 release “Show You Off,” performed here live with just the two singers and minus a lot of the contemporary Nashville shininess, shifts up a whole step (2:24) after a a brief bridge.

Connie Francis | Pretty Little Baby

“Connie Francis was one of the reigning queens of the Billboard Hot 100 in its early days,” (Billboard). “The late-’50s and early-’60s pop star scored a whopping 15 top 10 hits on the chart, including three #1s: ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,’ ‘My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own’ (both 1960) and ‘Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You’ (1962). And over six decades after her commercial peak, Francis is once again having a big pop culture moment – but it’s not with any of those charting singles.

‘Pretty Little Baby,’ a non-single (written by Don Stirling and Bill Nauman) from Francis’ 1962 album Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love, has caught fire on TikTok in the past month. Users have been lip synching along to the ‘You can ask the flowers/ I sit for hours/ Telling all the bluebirds/ The bill and coo birds/ Pretty little baby, I’m so in love with you’ verse of the song, often while wearing cute retro outfits and/or singing to actual babies, with over a million videos being created to the song … the song has already begun to cross over from TikTok to streaming in massive numbers … a (recent) gain of over 7,000% … (and) could soon be threatening a Hot 100 debut, a mere 63 years after its initial release.”

At 1:19, a textbook half-step upward key change appears in the midst of the diminutive tune, which features a run time of only 2:22 in total.

EDIT: Connie Francis passed away at the age of 87 on July 16, 2025, one day after we posted this tune.

David Soul | Don’t Give Up On Us

“The newish Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is full of fascinating little period details, and one of my favorites is the idea that everyone in 1969 watched the same TV shows,” (Stereogum). “The washed-up movie stars, the psychotically violent hippies, the ailing cowboys — they all go home at night and tune in to the same cheesy procedurals. They don’t have options. Cable doesn’t exist yet. Neither, obviously, does the internet. There are three networks. If you’re looking for some kind of routine and vaguely comforting diversion, the shows on those three networks are all you really have … That was still the case in 1977. The ABC buddy-cop show Starsky & Hutch wasn’t even an especially big hit in its time. It did decent ratings, stayed on the air for four seasons, and stuck around in syndication for a while. Starsky & Hutch wasn’t a landmark TV show. It didn’t change the game. But it was on. So pretty much everyone in America at least had some vague idea who those two Bay City, California detectives were.

If you were, let’s say, an actor who’d never managed to get your music career off the ground but who was on TV every week, that exposure could change everything. You could record a forgettable ballad, and that forgettable ballad, combined with your own familiar face, could propel a record to #1. Starsky & Hutch was in its second season when David Soul, the chiseled and squinty actor who played Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson, released ‘Don’t Give Up On Us.’ That year, Starsky & Hutch was airing against The Mary Tyler Moore Show and regularly getting wrecked in the ratings. But that didn’t matter. David Soul was just famous enough … (UK songwriter) Tony Macaulay produced the song for Soul, slathering it in dramatic strings and woodwinds. (It) has a hook strong enough to linger. It’s got a full, luxuriant arrangement … But ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’ remains a sleepy nothing of a ballad. It fills space, and it does nothing else.”

After a start in A major, the piano-driven track shifts up to Bb major at 2:43. The vocals seem a bit dicey through the transition in terms of pitch, but close enough for a 1970s pop ballad(?) — apparently! Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this track.

Al Stewart | Year of the Cat

“By the time Al Stewart finally achieved his commercial breakthrough with 1976’s ‘Year of the Cat,’ it was the culmination of a decade-long odyssey to bring the song to completion,” (Guitar Player). “Its bones date back to 1966, when Stewart penned a set of lyrics titled ‘Foot of the Stage.’ ‘It was about British comedian Tony Hancock,’ the Scottish folk-rocker recalls. ‘But the American record company had never heard of Tony Hancock and asked me to rewrite it.’ Stewart responded with a new set of lyrics about Princess Anne called ‘Horse of the Year.’ Not surprisingly, he says, ‘they requested another rewrite,’ … Luck would finally prevail on the third try. ‘I had a girlfriend who had a book on Vietnamese astrology, and it was opened on a chapter called Year of the Cat,’ Stewart reveals.

… A hallmark of the song is Stewart’s use of a major-seventh chord throughout the main progression, which imbues ‘Year of the Cat’ with a rich, wistful nostalgia. ‘Major sevenths are great and kind of cool,’ he exclaims. ‘I’ve probably never met a major seventh I didn’t like,’ … Released as a single in the U.S. in October 1976, ‘Year of the Cat’ climbed to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Stewart his first U.S. charting single … (and) remains a staple in the guitarist’s live set. He believes the song’s film noir undertones and varied instrumentation are pivotal to why the song continues to enthrall audiences. ‘The song’s longevity affirms that one should write about what one is interested in, without regards to fashion or favor of the crowd. Which is exactly what I did.’”

Built in E minor overall, the bridge (2:47 – 3:07) flips the emphasis over to the relative major key of G before the original minor key returns for an extended series of solos. The tune’s leisurely pace, lush textures, and storytelling focus somehow added up to hit status for the track, which at 6:4o clocked in at nearly twice the length of many singles.

Nat King Cole | L-O-V-E

In the 1950s, “the studios had been trying to get (Cole) from behind the piano and sing more … despite being hailed as one of the key greats,” (PSAudio) ” … As this played out there was an outcry from the diehard jazz community, especially jazz publications like Downbeat and Metronome. (Cole reported): ‘For years we did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people,’ he said. ‘…we practically starved to death.’

Despite Cole’s disdain for his voice, he was a classic crooner, a beautiful master of a phrase with flawless enunciation and perfect pitch. His recordings during the late 40s and the 50s are some of the most perfect and iconic love songs ever recorded … Nat Cole’s career barely lasted 20 short years, but in that time he collected 28 Gold Record awards and was inducted into every Hall of Fame imaginable, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence. Cole was an inspiration as a man and a performer.”

“L-O-V-E,” the title track from a 1965 album of the same name, was released by Cole shortly before his death and became his final release. The tune begins in G major, shifts up to Ab major for an instrumental verse at 0:57, then changes keys again to A major at 1:21, remaining there for the balance of the track. Many thanks to Scott, a new visitor to MotD, for this submission!

Engelbert Humperdinck | A Man Without Love

“In a career spanning over 50 years, Engelbert has generated sales in excess of 140 million records, including 64 gold albums and 35 platinum, four Grammy nominations, a Golden Globe, and stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Las Vegas Walk of Fame, and Leicester Walk of Fame,” (artist website).

“He has performed for the Queen four times, several presidents and many heads of state. He has recorded everything from the most romantic ballads to movie theme songs, disco, rock, and even gospel … Engelbert exploded on to the music scene with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones … He became great friends with Elvis and the two legends often performed each other’s songs.”

1968’s “Man Without Love” by the UK native, the title track of an album of the same name shifts keys several times: up a half-step at 0:34, back down a half step to the original key at 1:26, then back up a half step again at 2:21 for the balance of the tune. The album reached high points of #3 in the UK and #12 that year.

Chad Price | Somehow, Someway

” … ‘Somehow, Someway’ … is soulful, uplifting and hopeful, impassioned and achingly expressive; this song aches in all the right ways – all because of Price’s radiant voice, his soul-stirring lyrics, magnificent instrumental work, and the talent he’s surrounded himself with.

‘(It’s) a song that feels confessional to me,’ Price tells Atwood Magazine. ‘It feels like me confessing that I often feel lost, out of control, at the end of my rope, and like an imposter. It feels uncomfortable, because I really do struggle with opening up about my emotions and being vulnerable. But the weight we carry around feels a lot lighter when we become strong enough to face our darkness/demons/trauma…whatever you choose to call it … head on. When we actually look at it, it can become less scary. That’s what this song is to me. It’s about freeing myself from myself, realizing that I am not broken, and to continue moving forward no matter what.”

After a gentle intro apparently played on a long-untuned piano, the 2022 track begins in earnest at 0:55. Following a grand pause, the tune returns a half-step higher at 3:36. The track has won wide acclaim for Price, a Toronto native.