“‘A Night to Remember’ was the second single from American disco group Shalamar (members are Howard Hewett, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel), and their sixth studio album Friends (1982).” (StoryOfSong). “It was written by Nidra Beard from American band Dynasty, as well as Dana Meyers and Charmaine Sylvers from The Sylvers. The song is also associated with the introduction of the moonwalk dance by Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel, when the group performed the track live on UK music show Top of the Pops in 1982.
… The music video for the track was released in 1982 … ‘A Night to Remember’ hit charts in only the UK and the USA, charting at #5 in the UK Singles chart, and #44 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #8 on the US Billboard Hot Soul Singles, and #15 on the US Billboard Dance chart.”
After a start in D minor, the tune shifts to Eb minor from the 2:02 mark to the track’s end. As for the moonwalk moment on Top of the Pops: most of the band couldn’t make it the UK, leaving Jeffrey Daniel to wow the crowd with his solo dance moves (see second video below).
“Grammy-nominated a cappella group Kings Return, made up of vocalists Vaughn Faison, Gabe Kunda, JE McKissic and Jamall Williams … (focus on) a mix of genres, including gospel, jazz and pop, and feature songs from their new album, Rove,” (Dartmouth.edu). “The group is well-known for videos posted online of their rehearsals in the stairwell of a Dallas church. ‘[The group] just happened to go in [the stairwell to rehearse],’ Faison said. ‘It sounds nice. It wasn’t anything that was preplanned. We tried going up and down [the stairs], but it doesn’t sound the same. It’s a three-floor stairwell; we’ve gone to the bottom floor and it doesn’t ring the same, especially when we’re singing ballad-y or classical. [The stairwell] allows everything to ring out really nicely.’
… Given that Kings Return found their start as undergraduate students themselves, one of the group’s main goals is to inspire students. ‘We’ve been inspired by so many that came before us,’ Williams said. ‘It’s cool to use all of the training that we gathered over the years and come together to be an inspiration. The future is in [students’] hands, so we want to make sure we’re doing our part to put forward positive energy.’ The group believes education is essential to art, and hope that by making themselves visible, kids might be inspired to never stop learning. ‘They won’t give up learning music if they see someone who looks like them or grew up like them reading off of sheet music,’ McKissic said. ‘We love giving back to students; music education was a big part of how this group formed.'”
The quartet’s cover of Earth, Wind + Fire’s legendary R&B power ballad hit, “After the Love is Gone” (1979), written by David Foster, Jay Graydon, and Bill Champlin, is marked throughout by harmonic and rhythmic precision that would be impressive even if the tune stuck to one key. But in addition to EWF’s complex original, Kings Return’s version features a striking intro and outro that are fully new and original to their arrangement. After the tension-filled, close-voiced intro, the verse begins in F major with a bass voice feature. At 0:59, the tri-tone shift to B major leads us into the multi-key chorus at 1:08. At 2:50, the stairstep climb up to a bouquet of keys, landing momentarily in B major on “found.” The pattern of EWF’s composition continues until 3:22, when the groove falls away and the arrangement suddenly veers away from the original.
There is next to no information available on the web about the late-1960s Philadelphia-based vocal group called The Fidelics. A few comments on this video from the Youtube account @funkadelphiarecords might be as close as we can get:
“An underground Philadelphia classic, the Fidelics recorded ‘Lovers In the Park’ in 1967 at Frank Virtue’s Virtue Studios, where so many Philadelphia based groups recorded one-offs … the fact that this rare Philadelphia TV footage of the Fidelics even exists is a true miracle … Notice how all four members take a bow at the very end, as if they all knew this would be their one and only TV appearance … a class act.”
Starting in Ab major, the tune then features a dramatic multi-key interlude, starting at Bb minor, at 1:06. At 1:30, we land in A major for another verse, continuing through to the end of the track.
“William Bell was born in Memphis in 1939, and began singing as a child in church,” (ArtsATL). “By the time he was 14, he was performing in clubs and soon joined the blues band helmed by Phineas Newborn Sr. that included future jazz and R&B legends Phineas Newborn Jr. (piano) and saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Hank Crawford … Bell was one of the first artists signed to the Memphis label Stax Records and his debut single, ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ in 1961, became a soul classic. He never reached the heights of other Stax artists — namely Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and The Staple Singers — but he was one of the label’s foundational figures as a vocalist and songwriter and guiding light.
Bell co-wrote ‘Born Under a Bad Sign,’ the signature tune of blues guitarist Albert King and one of the greatest blues songs in history. There is irony in the lines, ‘I can’t read, didn’t learn how to write’ because King could neither read nor write. In the studio for the recording, Bell stood behind King as he sang the vocals and whispered each lyric to him. ‘He just nailed it,’ says Bell. ‘And it came to life when he put his guitar on it. I was going, Wow! It became Albert’s song instead of mine.’ Bell’s songs have also been recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Warren Haynes, Bruce Springsteen and The Byrds. And his music has been sampled in recent years by Ludacris, Jaheim and Kanye West.
Bell moved to Atlanta in 1969 and continued to record, including the #1 R&B single ‘Tryin’ To Love Two’ in 1976.” The tune unexpectedly shifts up a half-step toward the end of a phrase, rather than between sections of the tune, at 1:51.
“In the early ’70s, the legendary jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd was teaching at Howard University in Washington,” (Popdose). “In 1974 he decided to assemble a group made up of top student players from the university’s music program. With Byrd as their inspiration, and a deal with Fantasy Records, the Blackbyrds would record and tour for nearly ten years, finding a good deal of success along the way. Although the group would record eight albums for Fantasy, there is no doubt that the high point of their career was the release of the single “Walking In Rhythm” in 1975. The song, written by guitarist Barney Perry … was produced by Donald Byrd, who gave it a smooth, jazz-inflected sound with plenty of soul in the mix.
“Walking In Rhythm” was recorded at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles in September, 1974; by March of the following year, it was on the charts. There it would eventually make it all the way to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling a million copies, and winning a gold disc award. The record was also nominated for a Grammy that year, and the track was on the band’s second album, Flying Start, which was released in 1975. There would be other hits in the years to come. Most of them would climb the R&B chart, but a few crossed over to the Pop chart as well. The most successful Blackbyrds singles included “Flyin’ High” (1975), “Happy Music” (1976), and “Rock Creek Park” (1976). The latter song, which appeared on the City Life album, has been sampled numerous times by hip-hop artists like De La Soul, NWA, Eric B. & Rakim, and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.”
The tune’s structure is a bit unusual, starting with its short chorus in Bb major. The group must have really loved that chorus, because it’s repeated until 1:15, when the first verse (in G minor) begins; at 1:50, the verse ends with a false upward half-step key change but falls back into the G minor at 1:53. An instrumental chorus hits at 1:54. This section arguably includes one of the best flute features in all of 1970s pop or R&B — an era which featured plenty of flutists who sound like they first picked up the instrument a few weeks prior. 2:28 brings another vocal verse, which ends at 3:02 with a half-step shift upward to B major — but this time the key change sticks.
“Recorded live at Friendship Baptist in Yorba Linda, California, Brent Jones and the Best Life Choir’s rafter-raising ‘Praise in the Choir Stand’ (2025) offers Sunday morning gospel chock full of R&B influences,” (Journal of Gospel Music). “There’s a swaggering confidence in Jones’s voice, a gospel impresario on the best of terms with the musicians, singers, and the congregation. The full-throated Best Life Choir—which is so good, it should have received co-billing on the album cover—thunders its support like an ‘80s mass choir, especially on the title track … Like Jones’ previous release Live Your Best Life, Praise in the Choir Stand offers the spiritual and physical thrill of a live gospel program.”
After a start in Bb minor, there’s a shift to C# minor at 1:28 which persists to the end — through a grand pause and a huge sonic buildup by the ensemble.
R&B singer Mary J. Blige featured English vocalist Jessie J on her cover of “Do You Hear What I Hear,” the ninth track on her first holiday album, A Mary Christmas, released in 2013. The track starts in Ab and subtly shifts up to A at 1:56
“Known as Zoom in the UK, the Commodores’ eponymous fifth LP … very much a transitional work, highlighting the greasy southern funk that the group so ably practiced before pianist and saxophonist Lionel Richie firmly took centre stage.” The album included the hits “Brick House” and “Easy” and “was a huge hit in the US, setting the Commodores fair for their chart-topping scene stealing as the 70s became the 80s,” (BBC). “In the UK, the reaction was a little more muted. However, ‘Easy’ paved the way for ‘Three Times a Lady’ and ‘Still,’ and Lionel Richie’s unshakeable place as a favourite artist of millions.”
“The fifth album by the first self-contained band signed by Motown at the start of the 1970s,” (Motown.com). “Commodores became the first of the Commodores’ three consecutive Top 3 albums on the pop charts during 1977-78 … (it) spent a year among the Billboard best-sellers, including eight weeks at Number One on the R&B rankings. The Commodores graduated into Motown’s biggest group during the second half of the ’70s, not least due to their creative collaboration with record producer James Anthony Carmichael, and the astute leadership of their manager, Benny Ashburn. ‘One reason we’ve been successful is that we treat it like a business,’ Ashburn once told Billboard. ‘After a show, people will come up and ask, Where’s the party? It’s all right to have fun, but every day when people go to work, do they party? The guys have to get rest to do it tomorrow in the next town. If you treat it as a business, it will treat you well.'”
“Won’t You Come Dance With Me,” adorned with plenty of shifts in texture and groove, pivots among several closely-related keys. After a short intro and a chorus-first section in E major, A major at 0:25 and F# minor at 0:58 are also visited before the pattern repeats at 1:19 with an intro-mirroring interlude and another chorus.
“The legacy of The Supremes is so firmly established today — from the group’s influence on fashion, to music, to Broadway musicals and films — that is seems impossible to imagine a time when it didn’t exist,” (Diana Ross Project). “From 1964 until the end of the decade, The Supremes would become the savior of American music, almost single-handedly defending a corner of the industry from the British Invasion while conquering the rest of the world through sell-out tours and hit singles. The group’s astounding string of a dozen number one singles (racked up in just five years) is something modern pop acts still struggle to match, and those hits continue to win over audiences though appearances in movies, commercials, and through radio airplay and album reissues.
But success wasn’t overnight for Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard (and, in the beginning, Barbara Martin) … after signing with Motown Records, the group suffered through eight lackluster singles before finally striking gold with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964. The earliest of those singles were collected and released as Meet The Supremes in late 1962, an album that’s basically a patchwork of songs recorded during various sessions at the beginning of the decade … Perhaps the most recognizable song on Meet The Supremes, ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ is a widely covered Smokey Robinson tune first recorded by The Miracles in 1960. This was one of the earliest songs recorded by The Supremes at Motown; it had been placed on the b-side of the group’s second single, “Buttered Popcorn,” released in 1961 on Tamla (the single failed to chart) … it’s raw and imperfect, dominated by a high, ‘go-for-broke’ lead vocal by Diana Ross over a bluesy, oil-smudged track … Diana was still a high school student when the song was recorded.”
Built in F major overall, the tune shifts briefly to the relative D minor during its bridge (1:20 – 1:50) before returning to the original key.
“Herman Griffin was a dynamic live performer who would wow audiences with his outrageous physical dances; his jumps, splits, somersaults and back-flips not only captivated the crowds in the predominantly white clubs he played, but also caught the attention of Berry Gordy, who wrote a song for him in 1958 (‘I Need You’).” (Motown Junkies). “Gordy also provided an ‘in’ for Griffin to cut another single with Berry’s big sister Gwen’s label Anna Records in 1959 (at the time, a bigger and more successful label than Tamla or Motown), and finally produced and released this single on Tamla in 1960.
… Griffin turns in a likeable enough slice of late-Fifties rock ‘n’ roll, with some excellent guitar work courtesy of composer Don Davis, later Johnny Taylor’s intuitive producer at Stax and Columbia … The song is poorly produced – as happened with Smokey Robinson on the first version of the Miracles’ Shop Around, his delivery is too forceful and too loud for the primitive recording technology available in Hitsville Studio A to cope, causing massive amounts of hiss and distortion. Either that, or he was just far too close to the microphone. … Griffin would go on to record one more Motown single, Sleep (Little One), in 1962, spending two more years as part of the label’s live show setup … “
Starting in Bb major, the 1962 track shifts to the relative G minor for the bridge between 1:10 – 1:33. Then just like that, this early Motown-era miniature is over, with a total run time of only 2:13!
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