Tag: r&b

Archie Bell + the Drells | I Could Dance All Night

“While their funky Texas (and later Philadelphia) sound was often overshadowed by the music coming from Detroit and Memphis, (Archie Bell + the Drells’) contribution to the musical landscape of the time was significant … ” (SoulTracks).

In 1968, the band’s release ‘Tighten Up,’ … (reminiscent of the sound James Brown was popularizing at the time) … turned into an international smash.” Later, the band worked with “songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and became the an important foundation for Gamble & Huff’s fledgling production empire and, later, their Philadelphia International Records label. ” After a string of hits, “The Drells broke up in the early 80s, but Bell continued on as a solo artist and then with a reconstituted set of Drells, playing the oldies circuit.  By the mid-90s, Bell was solo again, singing his classic hits at venues in the U.S. and internationally.”

1975’s “I Could Dance All Night” is a good example of tunes that became popular during the Hustle dance craze, a prominent dance style within the Disco era. At 1:53, the groove falls away, returning as the key elevates by a whole step.

Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

For reference, here’s the band’s 1968 sadly modulation-free tune “Tighten Up” in a trippy-looking live performance. The backup singers didn’t have a chance to hit even one note, but still should have received overtime pay for the dance moves alone!

Aretha Franklin | Freeway of Love

“Freeway of Love” (1988) “was written by Narada Michael Walden and Jeffrey Cohen,” (Songfacts). “Walden is the guy you call when you need to produce a diva: he has written and produced hits for Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Diana Ross. When we asked him about the one song that had the greatest impact on his career, he told us it was ‘Freeway of Love’ by Aretha Franklin … This is one of the most famous driving songs of all time,” but Franklin wasn’t a driver!

“Aretha Franklin has an astonishing 20 #1 R&B hits – more than any other artist – and this song was the last of them. It was also a huge pop hit and revitalized her career. When she recorded her Who’s Zoomin’ Who? album, she hadn’t been in a studio in two years, and hadn’t had a Top 10 on the Hot 100 since ‘Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)’ in 1973.” Bruce Springsteen’s saxophone player Clarence Clemons played on this track, which was also produced by Walden. The tune won Grammy Awards for Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, as well as reaching #3 on the US pop charts and topping the Hot Black Singles chart for five weeks.

Spin‘s Armond White put the track into context within Franklin’s long career: ” … a highway of life song, proclaiming Aretha’s longevity … confirms her as the mother/master of much that is current. She’s still the Queen of Soul.” A whole-step modulation holds off until 3:40 — nearly the end of the tune.

Commodores | Sweet Love

“R&B purists have often argued that the Commodores did their most essential work before 1977,” (AllMusic). “It was in 1977 that they crossed over to the pop/adult contemporary audience in a major way with ‘Easy,’ and subsequent hits like 1978’s ‘Three Times a Lady’ and 1979’s ‘Still’ (both of which reached number one on Billboard’s pop singles charts) certainly weren’t the work of R&B snobs.

… the song that 1975’s Movin’ On is best remembered for is the laid-back, gospel-drenched hit ‘Sweet Love.’ Written by Richie, ‘Sweet Love’ is one of those secular soul tunes that isn’t really gospel but borders on it; when Richie belts out the lyrics, ‘You got to keep on searching/harder/day by day,’ you feel like you’re in the front row during an AME church service. And even though Movin’ On is an LP that R&B purists rave about (rightly so), you can’t say that it was ignored by pop audiences — ‘Sweet Love’ was a number two R&B hit, but it also reached number five on Billboard’s pop singles chart.”

The mid-tempo track features soft, shimmeringly delicate sections — but also passages with the saturated sound of a full compliment of horns and strings joining the band’s regular instrumentation. A powerhouse whole-step key change hits at 3:49.

Margie Joseph | Show Me

” … Margie Joseph’s legacy has been nearly buried by the inaccessibility of her music,” (PopMatters). “For far too many years, finding her music has been the wont of voracious crate-diggers. Only the most dedicated listener would pony up for pricey import re-issues or seek out the few rare compilations that currently exist.

(Producer) Arif Mardin treated Joseph like a soul queen on her eponymous debut for Atlantic in 1973, earning her inevitable comparisons to label mate Aretha Franklin.” Al Green liked one of Joseph’s tunes so much that he asked her to tour with him; she also received praise from Paul McCartney. Of her collaboration with Mardin, Joseph said “’I would just hear these melodies. Arif was so patient. He’d sit there and listen to me sing a line of a song out of the blue, and he’d create something out of it.’ … The signature Margie Joseph sound … strength and sensitivity intertwined in one powerhouse set of pipes.” Joseph also went on to work with Lamont Dozier and Narada Michael Walden.

Starting in C major, the off-kilter intro/verse 1 junction of 1968’s “Show Me” features an odd meter just before the lead vocal’s entrance, warning us from the get-go not to get too comfortable. 1:26 brings an upward half-step shift, followed by another leading into the fading outro at 2:07. This horn-driven knockout punch weighs in at only just over 2.5 minutes, but is nothing short of a lyrical mic drop throughout.

Marvin Gaye + Tammi Terrell | Your Precious Love

“Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye melded their melodious performative perfection for ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ like a pair of songbirds delivering a twittering Sunday service,” (FarOut). “The cover of the classic Ashford & Simpson track launched them as the soul-extolling duo about to give loving joy to a generation.”

Tragically, Terrell was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was only in her early 20s, but kept performing for a time, releasing ‘Your Precious Love’ with Gaye in 1967. In 1970, “at the tender age of 24, Terrell passed away. At her eulogy, Gaye delivered one final performance of ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. He later would comment: ‘I had such emotional experiences with Tammi and her subsequent death that I don’t imagine I’ll ever work with a girl again.'” Gaye went through a mourning period for Terrell during which he stopped performing altogether. However, he couldn’t have channeled his grief any more productively: his 1971 solo release, the legendary What’s Goin’ On, is touted by Rolling Stone as its #1 album of all time.

“Your Precious Love,” once again written by Ashford and Simpson, reached #5 on Billboard Pop Singles chart and #2 on the R&B Singles chart. Members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra added dimension to the usual band instrumentation. After a start in Bb major, the short choruses lift into Db major first heard from 0:43 – 0:58) before reverting to the original key.

Hall + Oates | She’s Gone

In an interview with American Songwriter, John Oates, songwriter/guitarist/vocalist for Hall and Oates, spoke about “She’s Gone,” from the band’s 1973 album Abandoned Luncheonette (re-released to larger acclaim in 1976): “I don’t know if it’s the best song we’ve ever written, but it’s certainly one of the most enduring songs. I think it’s a song that is certainly emblematic of our collaborative relationship … We knew it was a good song. We knew it was unique. But really that song – don’t confuse that song with the record. The song was the thing that happened in our living room with him on the piano and me on the acoustic guitar. The record is what happened when we went into Atlantic studios with the legendary producer, Arif Mardin, and this incredible collection of musicians who he surrounded us with and his string arrangement and the chemistry. I call it the perfect storm of creativity. It turned that song into a classic record that has really stood the test.”

From Songfacts: “This is one of the duo’s favorite Hall & Oates songs. Daryl Hall told Entertainment Weekly: ‘It’s very autobiographical. What we wrote about was real, even though it was two different situations. And it’s very thematic with us: this soaring melody and uplifting chord progression, but about a very sad thing.'” In Songfacts‘ 2011 interview with John Oates, he explained: “‘We started out as songwriters. And both Daryl and myself, individually and collectively, have a wide variety of musical tastes. Just because the music we made may have fallen into a certain category doesn’t mean we weren’t aware of and interested in other kinds of music. When Hall & Oates got together, I brought a traditional American folk-y approach, and it was something Daryl wasn’t really even aware of. And Daryl brought a lot more of the urban R&B side. And when we blended those together, we eventually created a sound.'”

In what might be a high water mark for the duo’s vocals, lead vocal duties are shared and harmonies alternate with octave unisons. Although the single peaked at only #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, it also placed in the top 10 on the Canada Top Singles chart and both the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts. It only reached #93 on the US R&B chart. Though the duo’s unprecedented run of early-80s hits almost entirely arose from the pop genre, this earlier outing was textbook blue-eyed soul. Between 4:08 – 4:34, a late instrumental bridge brings three half-step modulations, ushered in with a IV/V compound chord in each new key.

Little Anthony + The Imperials | Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop

New York City-based singer Jerome “Little Anthony” Gourdine joined a group called The Chesters in 1957 “as the lead vocalist. The group recorded ‘Tears on My Pillow,’ which became an instant success. The Chesters changed their name to Little Anthony + The Imperials in 1959, and released their second hit single, ‘Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop,’ which sold one million records,” (TheHistoryMakers.org).

The group went on to more success with songs including “‘I’m Outside Looking In,’ ‘Goin’ Out of My Head,’ and ‘Hurt So Bad.’ They appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show, the Kraft Music Hall Television Show, and Dick Clark’s television specials. In 1969, Little Anthony + The Imperials signed with United Artists and recorded several chart singles. Gourdine left the group in 1975 to begin a sixteen year long acting and solo singing career.”

“Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop” features several half-step key changes during its run time of less than two minutes.The first modulation hits at 0:58.

The Dukes of September | Who’s That Lady (live)


The Isley Brothers recorded “That Lady” twice. Songwriters Ronald, O’Kelly, and Rudolph Isley, the original family trio, released the first version in 1964.

Besides the sweet vocals, the prominent features of the song are the insistent cowbell (!), and the supporting horn riff towards the end.

But it was the Isleys’ 1973 version that made the song famous (Billboard #6 that year). By then, younger brother Ernie Isley had joined the group, and it’s his fuzzed-out guitar that’s the hook in that version. For that release, the lyrics were embellished, and the superior recording quality reflects the improved technology of the day. Neither of the Isleys’ versions featured a key change, however!

Donald Fagen (of Steely Dan), Michael McDonald (of the Doobie Brothers), and Boz Scaggs toured as The Dukes of September from 2010 to 2012, playing hits from their own bands and some of their own favorites, like the song here. Guitarist Jon Herington, who had recorded and toured with Steely Dan, manages to capture the flavor of Ernie Isley’s solo in this performance at Lincoln Center in 2012.

In the Dukes’ version, there’s a half-step modulation at 2:36 — although this shift seems bigger due to an interruption of the groove, some unexpected kicks, and flourishes from the horn section.

Al Wilson | The Snake

“In this song, Wilson sings about a woman who finds a worn-down snake on the streets. She takes him in and cares for him, but instead of showing gratitude, he bites her. She is understandably upset, but he reminds her that she knew he was a snake when she took him in,” (Songfacts).

“Wilson was a popular soul singer who had his biggest hit in 1973 with ‘Show And Tell,’ produced by Johnny Rivers, who signed Wilson to his Soul City record label (and) is known for his 1966 hit ‘Secret Agent Man.’ In 2008, ‘The Snake’ was used in British TV commercials for Lambrini Perry,” a pear cider!

The horn-drenched r+b track, released on Wilson’s 1968 album Searching for the Dolphins, shifts up a half step at 1:37 and again at 2:21.

The Fantastic Four | As Long As I Live

“One of the more underappreciated vocal groups of their era, the Fantastic Four … was powered by impassioned lead singer ‘Sweet James’ Epps,” (ClassicMotown.com). “They came to Motown as established R&B hitmakers in 1968. Although their career somewhat stalled for two years at Hitsville, they released strong singles, recorded an unreleased album, and a passel of additional tracks still prized by Motown collectors and Northern Soul aficionados.

Recording for (the) Ric-Tic label, the quartet consistently connected with fans through a string of singles with devotional lyrics – some echoing themes of classical literature – perfectly suited for “Sweet” James’s near-breathless and deeply soulful delivery, which bears some resemblance to that of David Ruffin. They placed six songs on the R&B charts (three of which also hit the pop charts) between early 1967 and mid-1968 … (including) ‘As Long As I Live (I Live For You)’ (which became) a regular presence on soul music-formatted radio stations.” The band’s songs “were regularly played on Detroit/Windsor’s 50,000 watt powerhouse station, CKLW (The Big 8). They continued to record for Motown, releasing several singles under its Soul subsidiary label, until 1970, when they went into semi-retirement,” (SoulfulDetroit).

After pivoting between G# minor and the relative major key of B major, 2:15 brings a late modulation up to C# major before the fade out of this short single.