“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!
“Rick Derringer was just 17 when his band The McCoys recorded the #1 hit ‘Hang On Sloopy’ in the summer of 1965, knocking ‘Yesterday’ by The Beatles out of the top spot.” He’s worked with Alice Cooper, Richie Havens, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, Barbra Streisand, and more.
In the mid-80s, Derringer’s work with ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic was central to Yankovic’s success, resulting in several Grammy awards. Derringer produced Yankovic’s Michael Jackson parodies, including the #1 hit ‘Eat It.'”
“Don’t Ever Say Goodbye,” from Derringer’s 1979 album Guitars and Women (produced by Todd Rundgren), features a whole step key change at 2:23.
Berklee describes its Indian Ensemble: “What started out as a class at Berklee College of Music in 2011 has become one of the hippest global acts to emerge from Boston … Founded by Indian Berklee alumna and faculty member Annette Philip ’09, the ensemble provides an open and inclusive creative space for musicians from all over the world to explore, study, interpret, and create music influenced by the rich and varied mosaic that is Indian music today.” The Ensemble has garnered more than 200 million YouTube views, at one point comprising over 50% of Berklee’s total. “‘Indian music wasn’t being taught in Berklee as formally as other genres, so we founded this ensemble … The idea is to nurture the next generation of musicians from India and given them a pathway into the global music scene. We have people from 44 countries in this ensemble,'” Philip explained in an India Today interview.
From the 2019 video’s description: “In December 2018, the Berklee India Exchange team got an unusual request: to reimagine and interpret a Metallica classic of our choice. The Berklee Indian Ensemble has always been known to experiment, but this one took us by surprise. The brainchild of Mirek Vana, the Metallica Project at Berklee is a Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music collaboration featuring a contemporary dance reimagination of Metallica’s songs, arranged, recorded, and performed in four different musical styles, the fourth being Indian music … ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ felt like a natural fit, and soon, a new version came to life.”
After starting in E minor, there’s a shift to a quieter instrumental interlude in C# minor (3:40 – 3:57) before the original key returns.
Many thanks to uber-regular contributor JB for this submission! For anyone who was alive — and less than retirement age — in mid-1970s America, “Carry On Wayward Son” was nothing less than inescapable.
“I’ve always thought Kansas was an interesting hybrid of two different genres: Prog vs. ‘trad’ rock … I remember hearing a surprising amount of Kansas at frat parties during college, mixed in with the Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd — you’d never hear Genesis or Gentle Giant in a frat basement, but there was Kansas, WAY more rhythmically and harmonically complex than the other hard rock songs … a sheep in wolf’s clothing, as it were.”
LouderSound reports that “the track peaked at #11 in the US (1976), helping to propel parent album Leftoverture to #5 in the Billboard Hot 100 … Four decades on, it’s become more even famous than the band that recorded it, its meaning almost lost to ubiquity. It was the second most played track on US classic rock radio in 1995, topping the same chart in 1997, and at the last count, having appeared in TV comedy shows and films that include South Park and Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, has logged up more than two million downloads during the digital era.”
After the tune begins in A minor, 4:14 brings a shift to E minor.
The 1995 track “Alice Childress” by the “guitarless, and seemingly numerically-challenged, indie-pop trio Ben Folds Five,” (The Delete Bin) … “does without many indie-pop conventions of the time, yet is packed with ironic humour, punk energy, and in this tune in particular, a profound sense of pathos, too.” The band’s music, “centered around Ben Folds’ sardonic lyrics and jazz-influenced piano, is infused with a sense of irony that undercuts the way it might be perceived on the first go-round as straight-ahead pop music. As such, the trio wasn’t exactly the darling of North American radio at the time this record was released, even if they had a strong grass roots appeal on college radio.”
The song was co-written by Folds’ then-wife Anna Goodman. It “seemingly name-checks American author and playwright Alice Childress,” but is actually about a woman who was under Goodman’s care at a mental hospital where Goodman worked. “… the song was once centered around a specific experience, Folds took it to another plane, telling a tale of separation and alienation between two lovers who’ve come to grow in different directions, both geographically as well as emotionally. There is a certain irony here, given Folds’ relationship with Goodman, which ended a few years before this song appeared on the band’s debut record.”
Starting and ending in B major, the tune shifts to G major from 2:16 – 2:43, with plenty of compound chord sleight of hand throughout. Many thanks to our mod wrangler extraordinaire JB for this submission!
“Hard to Say I’m Sorry” was the American rock band Chicago’s number one single, and held the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 100 for two weeks in September 1982. Written by the band’s bassist Peter Cetera, the track was included on the album Chicago 16 and nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category.
Musically the song represents a departure from Chicago’s typical horn-dominated texture, featuring synthesizer and guitar more prominently (producer David Foster, who co-wrote the song, is the keyboard player.) Staying in E for the most part, a modulation up to G occurs near the end at 2:52.
“Record labels and radio in the U.K. were grudgingly forced to allow new-wave and punk sounds to edge onto the airwaves in the late-’70s, long before their U.S. big brothers would even consider such an experiment. The Jags were perfectly suited to seize that moment.” (Magnet Magazine)
“The Jags’ sound in 1979 was jangly and based around clean, ringing guitar, with slashing rhythms, quick musical changes and expertly precise three-minute arrangements. Their original songs were upbeat, full of hooks, elegant melodies and guttural rock energy: a perfect model of power-pop/new-wave fun. (The UK press) quickly tagged the band as ‘Elvis Costello imitators,'” a comparison which the band wasn’t able to transcend.
After a start in E major, “Back of My Hand” (1979) features a downward shift to G major during an instrumental break (2:03), then a return to E major at 2:14 for a bridge that pivots about as if it might modulate to F# major at 2:29 — but doesn’t. According to AllMusic, the tune had “a chart life of 10 weeks and peaked at #17 in the UK. In the US, the song peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.”
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