soundtrack – Page 11

Deniece Williams | Let’s Hear It For the Boy

“Deniece Williams’ ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ … was a last-second addition to the Footloose soundtrack, (Stereogum) … Like Michael Sembello, another relatively anonymous artist who scored a #1 single by soundtracking a dance montage in an early-’80s blockbuster, Williams had gotten her start backing up Stevie Wonder … Williams recorded (the tune) with the producer George Duke, a jazz-fluent polymath who’d made records with Cannonball Adderly and Frank Zappa … (and) gives a whole lot of room to backup singers George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl and peak at #5 with ‘Waiting For A Star To Fall.’

As a singer, Williams is pretty great at conveying the idea of pure, overwhelming happiness. She’s the reason why ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ doesn’t carry the immediate threat of doom for this couple. When she sings about this boy, hopeless schlub though he may be, she sounds utterly transported with joy … Putting a gospel singer like Williams on a giddy dance-pop track like this is a smart decision. Whitney Houston, someone who will be in this column a ton of times, first became famous singing songs like that. After ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ Deniece Williams never came anywhere near the top 10 again. Instead, she pulled a reverse Whitney Houston: After spending years as a successful pop singer, she became a full-time gospel singer. She’s won four Grammys, all in gospel categories, and she seems plenty happy in that world.”

After a start in C major for the intro and the verse, the chorus pivots up to D major for the chorus (0:43). From 1:06 to 1:15, some instrumental connective tissue provides some space for the tune to sidestep back down into C. The pattern continues from there. From 3:07 and onward, Williams seems to have fun effervescing at the very high end of her four-octave range through the extended outro.

Gloria Gaynor | I Am What I Am

“‘I Am What I Am’, (Jerry Herman’s) signature anthem from La Cage aux Folles, is a song to be scaled whenever drink has been taken and identity totters: by a spangled diva in the spotlight, a club kid staking a claim, a bridesmaid clinging desperately to dignity,” (The Guardian).

“La Cage is a Feydeau farce with show tunes, pitting a cabaret queen against the moral majority, with a book by Harvey Fierstein (who later lent his gravel-pit register to the song on Broadway). When drag queen Albin is disinvited from his own son’s wedding, he refuses to shuffle out of the picture. One draft speech included the line, ‘I am what I am and there’s nothing I can do.’ Herman’s synapses rippled. ‘Hold everything,’ he exclaimed. ‘I want to take those five words, if you will give them to me … I can write you a first-act closer that will be a killer because I feel that emotion in me.’ The next morning, he gathered everyone in his 61st Street studio and sang through the mounting choruses. ‘The reaction was cataclysmic.’ … Away from the show, ‘I Am’ has been a lip-synch love bomb, of course it has … it provided the (2019) Pride theme for Belfast club Harland and Poof … It naturally slotted into Shirley Bassey’s repertoire – though the diva hardly struggles for self-belief – and attained disco fervour with Gloria Gaynor.”

Released in 1984, Gaynor’s version reached #82 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. After a poised rubato intro, the tune kicks into its groove gear at 0:37. After a long instrumental break, there’s a whole-step key change at 3:26 — and then another unexpected upward half-step skip at 3:48. The groove isn’t quite 100% disco, but its 1984 release date was certainly past the heyday of the disco craze. Nonetheless, this track was a club-driven hit.

Only Us (from “Dear Evan Hansen”)

“Only Us” is from the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen, which had its closing performance on Broadway this past weekend. The tune is performed here by Ben Levi Ross (who played Evan, Connor, and Jared on Broadway) and Taylor Trensch (who played Evan) in a new arrangement by music director Alex Lacamoire. Beginning in B, a modulation up to Db leads into the second verse at 2:06. That is followed by an unorthodox pivot up a perfect 5th to Ab for the final chorus at 2:48, where it remains until the end.

Renee Zellweger & Sam Smith | Get Happy

“Get Happy” was the first song composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Ted Koehler wrote together, and was made famous by Judy Garland in the 1950 film Summer Stock. In 2019, actress Renee Zellweger starred in the movie Judy, a biopic of Garland’s life, and recorded this arrangement for the soundtrack with singer Sam Smith.

The tune features a succession of three half-step modulations: from the original home key of G up to Ab at 1:08, rising to A at 1:52, and finally landing in Bb at 2:26.

Tell Her (from “13: The Musical”)

“Tell Her” is from the Broadway musical 13, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The stage version premiered in New York in 2008, and the show was recently adapted into a movie by Netflix and released on the platform last month.

“Tell Her,” performed here by Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl and the ensemble, comes near the end of the show and features multiple modulations. Beginning in G, the song shifts up a third to Bb for the second verse at 1:04, and then rises again a half step to B for the verse three at 1:52 before returning to G at 3:08.

Sally Mayes | Until Now (from “Camille”)

“Camille” is a little-known musical, with music by Rob Abel and lyrics by Chuck Steffan, that premiered in 2004 at the York Theatre Company’s Summer Developmental Reading Series. We are featuring Sally Mayes, a Broadway actress and noted cabaret singer, singing “Until Now” from the show. Key changes at 0:47 and 1:40.

Olivia Newton-John + Cliff Richard | Suddenly

Olivia Newton-John, a winner of four Grammy awards and an artist who sold upwards of 100 million albums worldwide, passed away today after a multi-year battle with cancer. We’re featuring a tune from one of the many high points of her multi-faceted career.

“Longtime Olivia Newton-John associate John Farrar composed ‘Suddenly’ for the soundtrack to the movie Xanadu in 1980,” (AllMusic). “Recorded in Los Angeles in March 1980, a somewhat slight ballad was transformed into a genuinely heartfelt duet between the Australian and Cliff Richard, with whom she had enjoyed a decade-long association as friend and occasional co-performer (she was a regular guest on his early-’70s TV series). ‘We do have a good relationship and I think it really comes across in the song,’ Richard mused. Indeed, released as Richard’s 79th British single, ‘Suddenly’ reached number 15 in that country, despite the general failure of the accompanying movie. It also became Richard’s fourth U.S. Top 40 hit in a year, when it reached number 20 in October 1980.”

Newton-John was always more than just a pretty face; the same could be said for her UK duet partner! Richard was a massive star in the UK by 1980s, but was beginning to catch on in the US market as well — with plenty of boyish pop cred belying his age (40 vs. Newton-John’s 32). “Suddenly” was a central part of the Xanadu soundtrack, but on the eve of MTV’s appearance in 1981, a promotional video featuring both singers was called for, rather than footage from the fanciful rollerskating-centric movie. If the US Top 40 somehow had a baby with the visual aesthetic of TV soap opera General Hospital, one of the largest media blockbusters of the era, this video would have been the result (move over, Luke ‘n’ Laura … Cliff and Olivia are super cute and have pipes!) The chemistry here might not have been entirely the result of acting: upon her death, Richard said of Newton-John: “‘We hit it off straight away. She was the sort of soulmate that you meet and you know is a friend for life. When I and many of us were in love with Olivia, she was engaged to someone else. I’m afraid I lost the chance,'” (Daily Mail).

After a somewhat aimlessly wandering intro (OMG, we have synths now! Let’s use them a lot!), Richard’s half of the verse begins in Ab major (0:16) but ends in B major; Newton-John’s half begins in Bb major (0:35) but effortlessly glissades into the Eb chorus (0:53). Lots of pivots continue from there.

Good Morning (from “Singin’ in the Rain”)

“’Making Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I’ve ever done,’ Debbie Reynolds wrote in her 2013 memoir, Unsinkable,” (Slate). “’The movie was actually harder, because it hurt me everywhere, mostly my brain and my feet.’ Reynolds was only 19 when she was cast alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in what would become one of the greatest Hollywood musicals … But she had no training in dance, and she was about to share the screen with two of Hollywood’s greatest hoofers. ‘I wasn’t a dancer,’ Reynolds wrote, ‘and I had three months to learn what Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor had been doing for years.’

Reynolds’ preparation was arduous, and Kelly, who co-directed Singin’ with Stanley Donen, was a stern and unforgiving taskmaster who had opposed Reynolds being cast in the part. At one point, according to Unsinkable, she wound up crying under the piano in one of MGM’s rehearsal rooms, where she was comforted by no less than Fred Astaire. ‘You’re not going to die,’ Astaire told Reynolds. ‘That’s what it’s like to learn to dance. If you’re not sweating, you’re not doing it right.’” It’s riveting to watch Reynolds, well known as a triple threat, keep up with dance legends Kelly and O’Connor — particularly given that the number was shot over a single 15-hour day.

“Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is the best musical of all time, according to the prestigious American Film Institute,” (The Guardian). “West Side Story came in at number two, followed by The Wizard of Oz and Cabaret.”

After a start in B major, we shift to G# major at 1:01. Several other key changes follow, beautifully presented by full orchestra.

Berlin | Take My Breath Away

Written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the 1986 film Top Gun, “Take My Breath Away” was recorded by the American new wave band Berlin.

There was tension within the group about whether to go forward with the song; lead singer Terri Nunn was all in, but John Crawford (the band’s founder, keyboardist and primary songwriter) was very resistant, not wanting outsiders to encroach on his turf. Ultimately the tune became one of their most popular hits, and won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

In 2017, ShortList named the song as having one of the best key changes in history. The unusual modulation, up a minor third from Ab to B, comes at 2:51.

One Knight (from “Wonderland”)

Frank Wildhorn’s musical Wonderland, based on the Lewis Carroll story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, played on Broadway for a month in 2011, plagued by a poor and confusing script. In his review of the production for The New York Times, critic Charles Isherwood called the score a “competent rendering of various pop styles.” This song, sung by the White Knight, comes early in Act 1 and modulates from F# major to A at 2:56.