The second in our Legally Blonde series this week:
“Ireland” introduces us to the hairdresser Paulette, who comforts Elle after Warner unexpectedly breaks up with her. Over the course of the song, Paulette narrates her own complicated romantic history, accompanied by her beloved Irish “Celtic Moods” CD. Key changes at 0:22, 1:15, 1:30, 2:05, and 2:23.
The first of our week-long series of tunes from Legally Blonde:
The opening song in the show, “Omigod You Guys” introduces us to Elle Woods and her fellow Delta Nu’s, who are helping Elle pick out a dress for her planned proposal to Warner Huntington III later that night. Key changes at 0:47, 1:14, 1:31, 1:54, 2:23, 3:04, 3:16, 3:36, 3:49, 4:28, 4:45, 4:51, 5:05, and 5:19.
“Capable Of” is from a new musical, Chaining Zero, that is currently in development. The show has had multiple readings and workshops, including a recent one in New York. The writers, Jeffrey James and Justin Halpin, have been releasing musical numbers on various social media platforms in a series, Chaining Zero Sessions, featuring notable Broadway performers such as Christopher Jackson, Jackie Burns, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Stephen Christopher Anthony. Key change from A to B at 2:56.
Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul, “Star Eyes” was initially recorded by Stephane Grappelli, praised by NPR as “one of the jazz world’s greatest violinists. Grappelli first found fame in France with Django Reinhart’s Quintette du Hot Club. He went on to an illustrious career playing with everyone from Oscar Peterson to Paul Simon to Yo-Yo Ma.”
In 1943, the tune became part of the soundtrack for the movie I Dood It. IMDB summarizes the plot of the wartime film: “A bumbling pants presser at an upscale hotel’s valet service nurses an unrequited crush on a Broadway star. He gets more than he bargained for when she agrees to marry him, to spite her womanizing fiance, and encounters Nazi saboteurs.” Variety gave the film a tepid review: “Metro has wrapped Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, among other names, around a popular Skelton radio phrase that’s used for the film’s title, and the net result is moderate entertainment. I Dood It is, by Metro’s usual standards, not one of its best musicals, but that’s due mostly to the screenplay. While the plot of a musical can generally be accepted only as a cue for the song-and-dance, the failing is particularly apparent in Dood It.”
Other than the soundtrack, a redeeming facet of the film is that it managed to feature jazz pianist Hazel Scott and triple-threat Lena Horne, two pillars of the African-American arts community (though Scott was born in Trinidad). Both women later became known for their civil rights activism.
After the tune starts in Db major with Bob Elberly on vocals, 1:32 brings a quickening tempo and a harmonically unsettled transition. At 1:52, the big band’s conductor, the one and only Jimmy Dorsey, stops keeping time and delivers an all-too-short alto sax solo in G major. At 2:19, it’s Helen O’Connor’s turn to shine, with a section in Bb major.
A big thanks to Jamie A. for another wonderful submission!
The 1983 film War Games targeted a teen demographic, but was well-reviewed as a thriller for general audiences. The film captured the Cold War zeitgeist of the US completely: nearly half of the country (100 million TV viewers) had just lived through the airing of the The Day After, a film about the dire consequences of nuclear war. From a review by the renowned film critic Roger Ebert: “Sooner or later, one of these self-satisfied, sublimely confident thinking machines is going to blow us all off the face of the planet. That is the message of War Games, a scary and intelligent new thriller … The movie stars Matthew Broderick as David, a bright high school senior who spends a lot of time locked in his bedroom with his home computer. He speaks computerese well enough to dial by telephone into the computer at his school and change his grades. But he’s ready for bigger game.”
David interacts with a supercomputer which just happens to belong to the United States Department of Defense; he unwillingly triggers it to play a “game” which leads DoD personnel to think that an actual nuclear attack on the US is underway. MovieThemeSong.com explains that the supercomputer “begins simulating endless nuclear war scenarios, every one ending with the result ‘WINNER: NONE.’ Eventually (it) comes to the film’s famous conclusion about nuclear war: The only winning move is not to play.”
The film’s score, written by busy film/TV composer Arthur B. Rubinstein (not to be confused with the noted classical pianist), included an instrumental closing credit entitled “Edge of the World.” This shorter version features vocalist Yvonne Elliman, perhaps most known for “If I Can’t Have You” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1977). The video features scenes of the nascent romance between David and his classmate Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), complicated by the very real risk that their world might soon disappear. Modulations are more the rule than the exception on this short track, starting at 0:28.
Variety reports that Rubinstein, who died in 2018 at age 80, reflecting on his career, said: “In classical music and jazz there is a constant, living swirl of wonder and discovery — both sensual and intellectual. As a composer and conductor, I’ve always tried, in some way, to be part of that swirl.”
For contrast, here’s the more expansive original version of the closing credits.
“With You I’m Born Again” (1979) was “the last Top 10 charting hit of Billy Preston‘s prolific career,” Songfacts reports. “He was active in music from the 1950s into the 2000s, and was then stopped only when he lost his battle with kidney disease. This song was done in duet with Syreeta Wright, a soul and R&B singer best known for working with and being married to Stevie Wonder.”
In addition to his own hits such as “Nothing from Nothing” and “Will It Go Round in Circles,” Billy Preston was also known for playing keyboards as part of the Rolling Stones’ touring band. He was honored with the title “fifth Beatle” for his intermittent work with the Fab Four.
Songfacts continues: “‘With You I’m Born Again’ was written specifically for the film Fast Break, a very routine sports-comedy film at the tail end of the ’70s from producer Stephen J. Friedman, who made a name for himself in comedy flicks, especially sports-related ones. Today, the song is the most notable thing people remember about the film, which tells you something. Songwriting credits here go to singer Carol Connors and songwriter/composer David Shire; Shire also had a hand in the scores to the films Saturday Night Fever and Return to Oz. As for Connors, she … co-wrote the theme to the 1976 film Rocky and several songs from Disney’s the Rescuers film series.”
The 2016 book Dynamic Duets: The Best Pop Collaborations from 1955 to 1999 (Bob Leszczak) recounts a story from songwriter Connors: “The late great Marvin Hamlisch told me that he was in the barber chair when he first heard the song on the radio and stood straight up in amazement, narrowly missing getting his throat cut by the scissors.”
Starting in D minor, the tune begins with a lazy, string-sweetened rubato with a lyrical flute countermelody (0:53 – 1:13). At 1:38, a groove is finally added to the mix for the second verse as the orchestration continues to build. At 2:51, a late modulation to Eb minor crashes down on us; at 3:19, returning to a gentle rubato, we close in Eb major.
If someone asked you to name artists whose repertoire features ingenious modulations, chances are Hannah Montana would not rank high on the list. But the writers of Miley Cyrus’ sensational Disney Channel show’s soundtrack (2006) created some intriguing compositions, especially in the sense of music theory and modulation. Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil formed a partnership around 2006 working for Disney and wrote often for Hannah Montana as well as some other hit Disney Channel productions, including High School Musical.
These two writers used modulations often in their tunes to create that intense burst of energy we all know and love. However, one tune in particular modulates in an extremely strategic and unique way — something not often done in commercial music, let alone youth television soundtracks. “The Other Side Of Me” is part of Hannah Montana’s first season soundtrack. The song has an extremely uplifting energy, constantly shifting and continuously engaging the listener. This engaging quality is driven by the harmonic contour of the song, which includes four keys in total! Rather than using the classic one-time key change at the end of the song, Gerard and Nevil employ a series of modulations to keep the tune moving forward and evolving harmonically, creating sectional contrast and an elevated sense of passion as Miley Cyrus moves through the song.
The tune starts out in the key of A major with a rockin’ V – iv – IV – I progression in the intro and first verse. The pre-chorus progression shuffles these chords but maintains a clear tonic of A major. Suddenly, a transition into the chorus brings the tune up a whole step to B major (0:38), where we remain for the chorus until moving back to A major for the second verse and pre-chorus (1:05). From here, the song modulates back to B major and then moves into the bridge, which includes a modulation to G major for the first half (1:54) and E major (2:02) for the second half. The final chorus brings listeners back to the third chorus in B once again, going out with a bang as the hook, “the other side of me,” plays in the chorus’s home key of B major.
The tune is absolutely genius and well thought out; the transitions among keys are seamless. Miley Cyrus handles the shifting tonality in her stride.
According to the American Film Institute, 1949’s The Kissing Bandit was a film whose production hit more than a few bumps in the road: The film went through many iterations of casting before the leads Kathryn Grayson and Frank Sinatra were finalized. “The film is set in the early nineteenth century. Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a robber known as the Kissing Bandit. He however is a shy, Boston-bred young man who does not know how to sit on a horse … the film became jokingly known as one of MGM’s biggest ‘flops’ and an acknowledged low point in the careers of Sinatra and Grayson.”
The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television reported that the film was a financial disaster, earning $969,000 in the US and Canada and $412,000 overseas, resulting in a loss to MGM of $2,643,000. This made it one of the least successful musicals in MGM history.
But given its lovely melody, “What’s Wrong With Me” survived as a standout from the production. With music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Earl K. Brent, the tune provided a good showcase for Grayson and Sinatra. A downward half-step modulation kicks in at 2:22 in the transition between Grayson’s and Sinatra’s respective solo sections.
Many thanks to Jamie A. for this contribution — hopefully the first of many!
Before Hamilton, composer/lyricist/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote In The Heights, a musical focused on a group of Hispanic immigrants living in Washington Heights, looking to create a sense of home and belonging while also maintaining a connection to their roots. Miranda began writing the show during his sophomore year at Wesleyan College in 1999, and it opened on Broadway in 2008, winning four of the thirteen Tony Awards it was nominated for. Like Hamilton, the score incorporates rap and hip-hop, and Miranda starred as the lead in the original cast. A film adaptation of In The Heights opened last week.
“Paciencia Y Fe” features two key changes — from D down to C minor at 2:00, and up to C major for the final 8 measures at 4:19.
Pasek & Paul’s 6-time Tony Award-winning, blockbuster 2016 musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in London in November 2019 before closing the following March due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it is scheduled to re-open this October. English actor Sam Tutty plays the title character in the production, and is featured here singing “For Forever” with three other Evans: Andrew Barth Feldman from Broadway, Robert Markus from Toronto, and Stephen Christopher Anthony from the national tour. The show’s music supervisor Alex Lacamoire produced and arranged the vocals, Dillon Kondor wrote the guitar arrangement, and Tim Basom and Ethan Pakchar accompanied for this performance.
A film adaptation of the musical, starring Ben Platt who originated the role of Evan, will be released this September. Key changes at 2:47 and 3:49.
modulationoftheday.home.blog 