American singer Grace Potter released her third solo album, Daylight, in 2019, featuring “Love Is Love” as the first track. “Daylight is an incredibly unfiltered musical expression of who I want to be,” Potter said in an interview with Billboard. “It’s a journal. It’s really personal. It’s a very powerful feeling to become a mother, to fall in love and also to watch and experience love falling apart and say goodbye to an entire era of your life.”
The tune begins in Ab and shifts up a step to Bb following the second chorus at 1:54.
“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” (1969) was written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to a then-fictitious band they named “Steam”. It went all the way to #1 in late 1969. It was Billboard‘s final multi-week #1 pop hit of the 1960s, but also peaked at #20 on the soul chart. The track also went into the top 10 in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. By the beginning of the 21st century, sales of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” had exceeded 6.5 million records, reaching multi-platinum record status (Rolling Stone).
“But in 1977, as legend has it, the organist for the Chicago White Sox, Nancy Faust, started playing it when opposing pitchers were yanked from the game. The crowds began to chant along with the music, and a great taunt was born. Now (it’s) the anthem of taunt, sung in many languages and many sports, among them politics,” (Washington Post).
Songfacts provides more detail: “When this song became a hit, an entire album was commissioned and a group created for it, also with the name ‘Steam.’ But DeCarlo wasn’t invited to tour with it, even though he had recorded it. Indeed, he “was asked not to reveal that it was him on the record, since there was a different singer performing it at live appearances.” DeCarlo tried to capitalize on the song’s success as he continued his musical career, but was unsuccessful.
The tune starts with a distinctive vibes feature on the intro, followed by the iconic chant chorus, right out of the gate (C minor). The first verse (C major) runs from 0:17 – 0:48; the chorus then returns in the original key and the pattern holds throughout.
Asked in an interview with Goldmine about the origins of his music career, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Marc Cohn answered: “I didn’t have any other choice. I just didn’t have a choice. This is what connected with me from the time I was 7 or 8 years old, when I first heard The Beatles and The Stones, and Van Morrison and The Band. It wasn’t just that I liked it. I was obsessed with it. And I had an older brother who played piano and had a band that practiced in our basement, so I got to hear what Motown sounded like, and what Burt Bacharach sounded like, three feet away. My brother had a great ear, and he got most of the chords right, and it was just an obsession from the very beginning. And it was also an escape. And I had some ability. I could always sing, and I found I could write some words, too. It was just to be, I guess. I wouldn’t know what the hell else I’d do. It’s the thing that I was obsessed with for as long as I can remember — making records and writing songs.”
Best known for his top-40 hit “Walking in Memphis” (1991) from his platinum-selling eponymous debut album, Cohn won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1992. Utica, NY’s Observer-Dispatch describes Cohn’s material: “emotionally stirring compositions, deeply personal yet universal, and his easy, husky voice [have] earned him a devoted following and a reputation as a musician’s musician.”
Built in C major overall, “Walk Through This World” (1993) features an instrumental break (2:35 -2:56) which modulates to Bb major before reverting to the original key.
Owsley was born William Reese Owsley III in 1966 in Alabama. According to his website, “he was raised in a musical household; his mother was a singer and stage actress, his father the drum major for the marching band of University of Alabama, his sister a classically trained pianist and his brother a rock guitarist.”
In his early 20s, he moved to Nashville to work as a touring guitarist. At the same time, he worked on writing his own material. In seeking a record deal, he made sure to emphasize that he didn’t want a record label shifting the emphasis of his work: “I had heard the story of Tom Scholz of the band Boston recording his first album and taking it to the record company, where he told them that it was finished and they could take it or leave it. And I thought, ‘What a cool idea!’ I didn’t want anyone else coming between me and what I was trying to accomplish.” Owsley also worked as a guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter and producer with artists including “Charlotte Church, Kenny Loggins, Amy Grant, Michael McDonald and Rodney Crowell. He also wrote and produced for many Disney stars – among them Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and the Jonas Brothers – and went back on the road as a guitarist for Amy Grant’s touring band. He once described himself as having moved ‘not up or down in the music industry, but sideways.'” He died at the painfully early age of only 44.
After a start in C minor, the chorus for “Coming up Roses” (1999) shifts to C major at 0:29. At 0:55, verse 2 reverts to C minor. The pattern continues throughout, with strings and a catchy wordless sing-along hook joining the mix as the fade ending leads us down a Beatle-esque path.
“If you want to see the platonic ideal of a rock band, go to YouTube and search ‘Thin Lizzy Rainbow 1978’,” (The Guardian) ” You’ll find the band’s classic lineup … in full flight, and even the degradation of old dubbed recordings can’t diminish their power. Gorham and Robertson flank Lynott, the trio in motion, the two guitarists criss-crossing and taking to the monitors, Lynott in the centre, bass held high, a beautiful, heavy-lidded man half seducing his audience and half assaulting it.”
The Irish rock band is probably best known for their 1976 release “The Boys are Back in Town,” which was a top 10 hit in the UK, Ireland, and the US; it placed 272 on the 2021 edition of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
1979’s “Do Anything You Want to Do,” from the album Black Rose: A Rock Legend, reached #25 on the Irish charts and #14 in the UK. The tune starts in a de-tuned G major, shifts to Bb major at 1:37, then alternates again between the two keys.
“Look What You’ve Done To Me” was originally written for the 1980 motion picture Urban Cowboy. Penned by Scaggs and legendary producer David Foster, the tune peaked at #14 on the Billboard Top 100, and features background vocals by The Eagles.
The song fluctuates between E minor for the verses and instrumental interludes, and its relative major, G, for the choruses.
“I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” was the third single released by the Swedish band ABBA for their eponymous third studio album, recorded in 1975. The trade magazine Cash Box praised the tune for its “richly textured vocals, [which] give this fifties sounding shuffle an extra push, push, push, push.”
Beginning in C, the song modulates up to Db for the last chorus at 2:22.
“Ten Summoner’s Tales is, far and away, (Sting’s) best solo album, both as a whole and for the sum of its parts. Released in 1993 and produced by Sting and the brilliant producer Hugh Padgham, the disc is a fusion of elements from pop, jazz, rock, country, classical and numerous other styles … The disc is a unified whole, with a single sound and aim; the song themes generally concern romance, and are written and performed in a similar vein,” (Sputnik Music).
“January Stars” didn’t make the cut as an album track for Ten Summoner’s Tales (best known for the singles “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” and “Fields of Gold”), but made an appearance as a B-side track.
After the tune starts in C minor, an instrumental interlude in A minor enters at 1:54; we then return to C minor at 2:10. But there’s a recurrence of A minor at 2:24 — all the more striking this time as the vocal melody outlines the downward modulation.
Sting also cranked out a tune with the same instrumental parts — but featuring an entirely separate set of lyrics and a largely new melody — called “Everybody Laughed But You.”
Mrs. Green Apple is a Japanese rock band, based in Tokyo. In 2016 they released their first full record, Twelve, on the Japanese label EMI records; they have also written music for popular anime series.
“Love Me, Love You” was the sixth single released by the group, and peaked at #19 on the Oricon chart in 2018. The tune modulates from F up to Ab at 3:36.
According to the video description on George Harrison’s Vevo channel, in honor of the 50th anniversary of George Harrison’s classic solo album All Things Must Pass, “a suite of new releases including a stunning new mix of the classic album by Grammy Award-winning mixer/engineer Paul Hicks, overseen by executive producer Dhani Harrison,” George’s son.
“…That’s the problem with being a really good songwriter in a band with two great ones,” (American Songwriter). “Since Harrison was only allotted one track per side of a typical Beatles album, his accumulation was substantial as the group disbanded around September of 1969. When he started recording what most consider his first solo project in 1970 … those tunes gushed out of him … The resulting collection is on anyone’s shortlist of finest Beatles solo releases, many placing it near the top.”
After starting in E major, “My Sweet Lord,” considered by many to be the centerpiece of the album, shifts to F# at 2:33. The video, released this month, stars dozens of noted actors, artists, and musicians, including Mark Hamill, Fred Armisen, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Jon Hamm, Shepard Fairey, Olivia and Dhani Harrison (George’s widow and son), and many others. Many thanks to our contributor Ziyad for this submission!
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