As always, we kick off the holiday season with Whitney Houston‘s inimitable cover of “Joy To The World,” originally recorded for the 1996 film The Preacher’s Wife. This arrangement hits the mark in every way — there are key changes at 0:43, 1:48, 2:22, 3:00 and 3:12, as well as a false ending at 3:37.
Tag: soundtrack
Mama Cass | Different (from “PufNStuff”)
“Cass Elliot didn’t just sing on a kids’ show,” (Kendall LeJeune). “She turned a children’s puppet fantasy into pure camp gospel. The way she sings ‘Different’ as a spell, equal parts lullaby and incantation. That’s presence. That’s control … she transforms a TV cameo into a cultural artifact. Witch hat, velvet cape, full vocal power. She knew the audience would remember. And we do.”
“‘Different’ is the sixth song in the soundtrack of the movie Pufnstuf (1970) and is the first of two songs which are sung the antagonists of the movie,” (Fandom.com). “During the Witch’s Council, after the Boss Witch’s assistant starts the record player, Witch Hazel sings about how she discovered from a very young age that she was different from other people and how she used her difference to her advantage before meeting the other witches. During the course of the song, Hazel is joined by the other witches in refrains of certain words in the verses and for three quarters of the song’s chorus. After the song is finished, while the other witches applaud Hazel, Witchiepoo acts unamused, since Hazel is also up for Witch of the Year.”
The track begins in F major, shifting to G major for a second verse at 0:23. The chorus, starting at 0:38, leads up to a melodically surprising ending. 0:58 brings a G major interlude which connects us to another verse which reverts back to F major (1:01). The pattern continues from there.
Below is a video with high audio quality, but also check out the second posted video of the actual footage from Pufnstuf. For a synopsis and review of the film, check out the 366 Weird Movies site — it was too dense with detailed descriptions to choose an excerpt!
Many thanks to Maureen BZ for calling our attention to this one-of-a-kind track.
And no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you: this footage does include a Nazi rat character who happens to hang out with witches:
Wang Chung | To Live and Die in L.A.
“… A strong case can be made that To Live and Die in LA is (director William) Friedkin’s masterpiece … Friedkin (director of The French Connection and The Exorcist) gave the British pop group, Wang Chung, near free rein and the results chime perfectly with the gritty neon tinted vision of a city enslaved by Reagan era greed,” (Sense of Cinema). “The title track lays down the unsparing tone in the pre-credit opening. A presidential motorcade moves through the sun scorched streets towards a Beverly Hills hotel. Cut to night time; President Reagan can be heard giving a speech advocating tax cuts to a well-heeled banquet room crowd as his security team warily moves through the hotel …
With its fatalistic lyrics (‘I wonder why we waste our lives here / When we could run away to paradise / But I am held in some invisible vise’), the title track is not so much a love theme as a requiem for the casualty rate that ensues in the film. The song makes clear that Los Angeles in the mid-‘80s is a place whose glamour is out of reach for most inhabitants, but addictive all the same … Wang Chung’s music makes the film’s resonance with the grotesque Malthusian tenor of Trump’s America all the more haunting, but mercifully tinged with a hint of grace and absolution.”
Within the overall bounds of 1980s pop, the film’s atmospheric theme song “To Live and Die in LA” (1985) couldn’t be much more different from Wang Chung’s marquee hits (the relentlessly energetic “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”). The intro starts in F minor and transitions to a verse in Bb minor (0:32), punctuated by a rapid-fire, percussive keyboard hook. After a grand pause grants us a moment to breathe, a gentler chorus begins at 1:09, shifting among several tonalities. At 1:31, the pattern repeats with another verse, followed by another chorus at 2:16. In the middle of an interlude (2:42), the track climbs up a whole step to G minor, for another verse and chorus (3:05). From 3:27 to the track’s end, we’ve returned back to the original F minor for an outro/chorus.
Journey On (from “Ragtime”)
“A turn-of-the-century tale of race, class, and hope … Set at the dawn of the 20th century, Ragtime intertwines the lives of three families in pursuit of the American Dream,” (Show-Score.com). “Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black pianist, and his beloved Sarah navigate a society rife with racial tensions. Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia, seeks a better life for his daughter amidst the challenges of assimilation. Meanwhile, a white upper-class family grapples with their own evolving ideals. Their stories converge, painting a vivid portrait of a nation on the cusp of change.” The musical was composed by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally. Based a novel of the same name (1975) by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime initially opened on Broadway in 1998. The show has enjoyed several revivals, including a current Broadway run.
“As the characters’ lives collide, a world wracked by racism, anti-immigrant hate, social inequality, and violence comes into unsettling view,” (New York Theatre Guide). “You don’t have to squint to see Ragtime’s enduring relevance. That’s a great thing about the show, though not about the state of current events.”
After a protracted spoken intro, the melody of “Journey On” begins at 0:58 in E major. At 1:36, a shift up a whole step to F# major underscores a change in the storytelling’s focus, then again upward to G# major at 3:13.
Limahl | Neverending Story
“In 1983, Limahl was abruptly, unceremoniously fired as the lead singer of Kajagoogoo, only a few months after the British new wave band had scored a massive hit with ‘Too Shy.’ But the following year … Limahl met super-producer Giorgio Moroder at the Tokyo Music Festival and was invited to test his voice on Moroder’s theme song for the epic fantasy film The NeverEnding Story.” (Yahoo Entertainment). “And a new chapter began. ‘The NeverEnding Story’ ended up being Limahl’s only major worldwide solo hit, but it has stood the test of time.
And now the kaleidoscopic pop song is adding yet another chapter to Limahl’s career story and finding new fans of all ages. That’s all due to its placement in an adorable Stranger Things scene … (when) Stranger Things Season 3 premiered, “The NeverEnding Story” shot to No. 4 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral 50 chart, with on-demand audio and video streams for the track surging by more than 2,000% and YouTube views increasing by 800%. Interestingly, this revival (coincided) almost exactly with the 35th anniversary of the film’s U.S. theatrical release on July 20, 1984.”
After a start in C major, the tune shifts quickly to Eb major for the chorus (first heard at 0:28). At 0:44, C major returns while the end of the chorus is still in progress. At 1:47, an interlude starts in G major before shifting to Bb major at 2:02; 2:22 brings a return to the original key with another verse. At times, vocalist Beth Andersen takes over the melody while Limahl harmonizes. Although it only reached #17 in the US, the track was a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in Sweden, Spain, and Norway and top 10 status in a dozen other countries, including Limahl’s native UK.
21 Guns (from “American Idiot”)
“When young dirtbag punk trio Green Day signed to a major label in 1994, their first album, Dookie, captured the small pleasures of a disconnected working-class youth that was fast running out of options,” (The Guardian). “Their songs about getting high, jerking off and defiantly refusing to participate in the system were relatable and catchy – pleasingly melodic with 1950s doo-wop influences, coupled with California punk-style bass and drums. Pop-punk would later explode as a genre, in part to emulate Green Day’s singable raucousness.
Their ideas back then were scattershot, more informed by feeling than sociopolitical thought. But 10 years later, the band found their political voice and released their manifesto: American Idiot. Billed as a “rock opera”, the album was a sophisticated, horrified portrait of America in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the conservative Bush presidency, and rapidly disappearing opportunities for those living close to America’s poverty line. American Idiot was a smash, selling 15 million records – and in 2010, a stage adaptation landed on Broadway. The album’s driving rock structure was coupled with songs from Green Day’s next album, 21st Century Breakdown, and caressed into soaring, edgy vocal arrangements and new orchestrations by the band and composer Tom Kitt, whose musical Next to Normal picked up a Pulitzer prize that same year.”
The original “21 Guns,” released on 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, was written in one key throughout. But the Broadway version, while built around the same repeating melodic phrases and lyrics-forward delivery, features several changes in tonality. Starting in G minor, the tune shifts (after two verses and a chorus in the relative Bb major performed by female vocalists) to D minor as Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong takes the reins. For the second chorus, the key flips over to the relative F major at 2:34. More key changes follow throghout.
The original video by the band is included after the cast version from the 2010 stage producion, below.
Neil Diamond | Hello Again
“If 1980’s Bob Gaudio-produced The Jazz Singer marks the point at which Diamond crossed over from respected, rugged torch balladeer to schmaltzy cabaret act, he could take solace in phenomenal sales,” (BBC). “His biggest in the States, it shifted over six million. This despite the fact that the film which it soundtracked, in which Diamond starred as a Jewish singer opposite one Laurence Olivier, was generally panned. (It was a conceptually bizarre remake of the Al Jolson classic.) Still, it spawned songs as emotionally domineering as ‘Love on the Rocks,’ ‘Hello Again,’ and the patriotic (and therefore enormously commercial) ‘America.’
Neil’s acting gained him nominations for both a Golden Globe and the first ever Razzie Award for Worst Actor (he won the latter). To add painful injury to insult, he’d recently been wheelchair-bound for months, having had a tumour removed from his spine. So for all its gaudy sentimentality, The Jazz Singer was a personal triumph over adversity. If he now traded in the tingling presence of his earlier, rawer recordings, he hit on a polished soft-rock sound that even today is being rehabilitated by hungry ironists. ‘Hello Again’ is a Lionel Richie-style weepie, the lady in question awkwardly addressed as ‘my friend.’ It became Diamond’s calling card for the next few years.”
‘Hello Again,’ released as a single in 1981, was co-written by Diamond and Alan Lindgren, hit #70 on Billboard’s year-end singles chart. After a cinematic intro whose sustained chords at first seem to be written in G major, 0:17 brings an apparent shift to F major. But at 0:25, C major takes over. Neil’s voice is beyond center-stage — it’s absolutely primary, with a gentle piano-and-strings ensemble backing him up. At 3:11, a half-step shift up to Db major unfolds. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!
If I Sing (from “Closer Than Ever”)
“The angst of American middle-age – when many of us question the paths we’ve taken and the ones we’re moving toward – has never been as tuneful as in the (1989) show Closer Than Ever,” (WHYY). “The smart, sophisticated musical revue opened Off-Broadway (35) years ago, when we had yet to know the real power of a pixel and only the birds sent a tweet. But Closer Than Ever is as current today as it was then … It consists of 24 songs – a dozen in each act – that reflect the cycles running through most (and maybe all) of our lives: staying in love or not, parenting, parenting your parents, figuring out what the right thing is and doing it, doing the wrong thing and paying for it.
… We have the power couple trying to figure out who can take the baby for an afternoon in the absence of a nanny, and the divorcees who now date and hate it. (“Churning out the small talk with someone who is all talk.”) One character later sings that “the visions seep in my head of the life I could have led.” Why, sings Deirdre Finnegan, “are patterns haunting every move I make?” … If this appears to come down on the side of dreariness, it doesn’t … these ultimately come across as songs about connection and new experiences. The music is by David Shire (Baby, the film Saturday Night Fever) and Richard Maltby Jr. (Baby, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Miss Saigon).”
Beginning in F# minor, “If I Sing” transitions to A major at 1:04, among other harmonic shifts. This tribute to familial love, shared tradition, and humbleness in the face of the passage of time is — ultimately — about connection.
The Archies | Time for Love
” … A real rocker wouldn’t be caught dead with his picture in magazines like Teen Beat, and it goes without saying that a band can’t be anything like The Archies,” (Spectropop) “A cartoon studio group with its own Saturday-morning TV show is just about as uncool an image as you could ever want. So it comes as no surprise that rock critics have been trashing Archies records for 30 years now.
Wouldn’t they be surprised, though, if they ever took the time to really listen to Archies records? They’d discover that this ‘bubblegum’ band cut more than a few great songs. Between September of 1968 and September of 1971, The Archies gave Saturday-morning TV its best rock ‘n’ roll since the animated Beatles crashed the kiddie airwaves three years earlier. Adults never realized how good it was . . . or so it seemed, until a song called ‘Sugar, Sugar’ was released, and rocketed into the stratosphere.”
Another track by this fictitious yet also real band was “Time for Love” (1968). Anyone who’s heard the smash hit “Sugar, Sugar” will recognize the lead vocal (Ron Dante) and the band’s distinctive overall sound. The first key change, up a minor third, hits at 0:14 — the first of many packed into the track’s compact 2.25-minute runtime! Many thanks to our regular contributor, Julianna A. from Brazil, for this delightful submission — her ninth in total for MotD.
Three Dog Night | Easy to Be Hard
“‘Easy To Be Hard’ appeared in the stage musical Hair (1968). It became a smash American Top 40 hit in its own right,” (Last.FM). “It was played frequently by Top 40 radio stations well into the summer of ’69. The track spoke to the milieu of the late ’60s: Social consciousness and social injustice. For that reason, young America embraced it.” From Sleepless Critic’s review: “Before cell phones, the internet, and alternate forms of digital communication invited people to text and talk on a computer screen as an alternative to seeing someone in person, Hair highlights the value of in person camaraderie, especially when things seem to be falling apart. Set in war-torn 1968 and focusing on a tribe of hippies that could possibly be drafted, emotionally and physically holding onto each other helps them cope in a world gone mad.”
The tune was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni and was first released by Suzannah Evans, Linda Compton, Paul Jabara and the company of the musical Hair in October 1967 (SecondHandSongs). It was then released as a single by Three Dog Night in July 1969.
Starting with a vamp alternating between a conflicting C major and A major, the tune eventually settles into D major partway through the verse. At 1:33, the chorus begins in G major, shifting to A major at 1:44. The verse returns and the pattern continues from there, until the final chord shifts unexpectedly to B minor.
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