soundtrack – Page 2

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.

Mame (from “Mame”)

“The musical Mame was a hit in the 1960s, originally starring Angela Lansbury … The musical leads us through New York in the Prohibition Era and the Great Depression,” (Mancunion.com). “It follows an orphan boy named Patrick, who is sent to live with his last remaining relative, his bohemian aunt Mame, who declares to him: ‘Life’s a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death.’

.. Although disapproved of by the trustees of Patrick’s late father’s estate, Mame is incredibly loving to her nephew and progressive by our modern standards: in her group of artist friends, we see several same-gender couples; she proclaims sexual liberation for women, and later vows to open a home to support single mothers. Other than some outdated language, Mame translates well into the twenty first century … Mame is a show that features many platonic relationships between women – something that is rare in musicals – and also emphasizes the comedic abilities of actresses.”

Both the music and lyrics of the title theme of the 1966 musical were written by Jerry Herman, also known for Hello Dolly and La Cage Aux Folles. Starting out in Bb major, the iconic tune shifts to B major (1:17), C major (2:24), followed by a frenetic instrumental section featuring several other keys, landing in Ab major at 4:24 and then — finally — A major at 5:20.

Theme from “A View to a Kill”

“The gold standard of poppier James Bond songs … is Duran Duran’s title track for A View To A Kill. Band and film were a perfect match for the Roger Moore era— playboy lifestyle, playboy attitudes,” (Aidan Curran). “Duran Duran’s stock-in-trade of cinematic videos, supermodel consorts and gibberishly portentous lyrics meant the thing virtually wrote itself, shouting ‘DANCE! INTO THE FI-YER!’ right out of the womb. Each stab of brass is the delivery mechanism for a cheesy grin. Plus, ‘the name’s Bon … Simon Le Bon!’ was a pun too good not to happen … “

Released in May 1985, the track peaked in Duran Duran’s native UK at #2. In the US, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remains the only Bond theme to achieve that distinction. “The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001. It was performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985, their final performance together before their first split,” (Wikipedia).

The tune begins in C minor and transitions from 0:54 -1:09, when the chorus starts in Ab minor. At 1:47, the next verse begins in C minor after some electronic flourishes that scream “1985” — there are plenty of cheesy grins on offer, for sure. The pattern continues from there.

Maureen McGovern | Different Worlds (opening theme from “Angie”)

“Philadelphia coffee shop waitress Angie Falco (Donna Pescow) starts a romance with customer Bradley Benson (Robert Hays), a pediatrician,” (ABC.fandom.com). “While she assumes he is a struggling young doctor, he reveals that he is actually rebelling against his wealthy family, presumably residents in the Main Line region of the city’s suburbs. The other Falco family members are Angie’s mother Theresa (Doris Roberts) and her younger sister Marie (Debralee Scott).

… Angie and Brad later marry, merging their two very different families: the blue-blooded Bensons and the urban Italian-American Falcos … Angie premiered on February 2, 1979 (and ran for) two seasons and 36 episodes.”

The show’s theme song, “Different Worlds,” was performed by Maureen McGovern. Written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, the tune was released by McGovern as a single from her eponymous fourth studio album in June 1979. The track peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was #1 for two weeks on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Starting in C major, the tune shifts to Eb major at 0:25, wearing its late-disco era on its sleeve. Many more key changes follow — more than anyone could reasonably expect from a 90-second opening theme!

Ben Folds | It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown

“Up until this February, alt-pop veteran Ben Folds was an artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra.” (Stereogum). “When Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center, Folds resigned his post, writing, ‘Not for me.’ Fair enough! It’s not like Folds wasn’t making his own music when he had that job; he released the Christmas album Sleigher last year. Now, Folds has another new project ready to go. He’s co-written the song for Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, a new special coming out on AppleTV+ this summer.

According to an Apple press release, the forthcoming 40-minute special Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical is ‘the first Peanuts musical in 35 years.’ It’s about the Peanuts gang going to summer camp. Jeff Morrow, Ben Folds collaborator on the songs, has scored a number of more-recent Peanuts specials, as well as films like Disney’s live-action Snow White and The Little Mermaid remakes. Ben Folds, a regular Schroeder, has been in the Peanuts system before; he wrote and performed the theme to the 2022 AppleTV+ special It’s The Small Things, Charlie Brown.” The production of Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical will debut 7/18 on AppleTV+.

“It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown” finds Folds indeed channeling the warmup moves of the Peanuts franchise’s resident pianist before he digs into the tune. Starting in G major, the track features Folds’ trademark vocals-forward sound. After the quieter texture of the bridge starts at 2:20, there’s a late key change up a whole step to A major at 2:50.

Artie Shaw | Alone Together

“Jean Sargent introduced “Alone Together” in the Broadway musical Flying Colors … (which) opened at the Imperial Theater on September 15, 1932, produced by Max Gordon and directed by Howard Dietz,” (JazzStandards.com).

“The late Artie Shaw had impeccable musical taste. He was an obsessive perfectionist, and his clarinet playing and the bands he led performed exceptional, quality music. Many of the tunes he selected for his big bands of the 1930s and 40s became standards years after he recorded them. Shaw was the premier jazz musician to record “Alone Together.” The first reading was with his standard “reeds, brass, rhythm” band in 1939. He recorded it again in 1940 with a group including strings and with a different arrangement. Although both versions lean towards the smooth, instrumental, dance band style of that era, it’s Shaw’s brief clarinet expositions that reveal the improvisational potential of the song.”

The AABA tune, built primarily in D minor, shifts to the closely-related key of G minor for the B section before returning to the original key for the final A section.

Sunrise, Sunset (from “Fiddler on the Roof”)

“Set in a shtetl in czarist Russia in 1905, the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof has been staged hundreds of times around the world since its Tony Award-winning Broadway debut in 1964 … As for Fiddler’s enduring popularity, it’s perfectly written as a comedy and a tragedy and shows tradition in such a beautiful way, with the Sabbath candles and the family sitting around the table … tradition is also at the root of heartbreak: Tevye’s daughter Chava must choose between her family and her non-Jewish love,” (Jewish Journal).

“Lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who collaborated with composer Jerry Bock on Fiddler’s songs, spoke about the musical’s appeal in a telephone interview. ‘It’s a family show. It’s about a father and his children. So many people can identify with the problems of fatherhood and raising a family,’ he said, calling the musical’s success ‘astonishing. It’s the most popular and the most performed of everything that Jerry Bock and I did. I’m very surprised and very gratified.'”

Perhaps the most memorable of all of Fiddler‘s tunes is the waltz ballad “Sunrise, Sunset.” According to NPR, Harnick remembers “‘ … when we wrote ‘Sunrise Sunset,’ the first person we played it for was Jerry Bock’s wife… and when I finished, then I looked at Jerry’s wife Patti and I was startled to see that she was crying. And I thought, my goodness; this song must be more effective than we even know.'” Starting in Eb minor, the tune shifts up to E minor at 4:08.

Say No to This (from “Hamilton”)

“I don’t mean to suggest that you’re unpatriotic if you aren’t moved by Hamilton … but in order to dislike it you’d pretty much have to dislike the American experiment,” (Vulture.com). “The conflict between independence and interdependence is not just the show’s subject but also its method: It brings the complexity of forming a union from disparate constituencies right to your ears.

It may confuse your ears, too: Few are the theatergoers who will be familiar with all of Miranda’s touchstones. I caught the verbal references to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, West Side Story, and 1776, but other people had to point out to me the frequent hat-tips to hip-hop: Biggie Smalls, the Fugees, ‘Blame It (On the Alcohol).’ And I’m sure that historians in the audience (the show was “inspired by” Ron Chernow’s 800-page Hamilton biography) will catch references that the rest of us fail to notice. (“The world turned upside down,” a repeated phrase in a number about the Battle of Yorktown, is the name of the ballad supposedly played by Redcoat musicians upon Cornwallis’s surrender there, in 1781.) But for all its complexity — its multi-strand plotting and exploding rhyme-grenades — Hamilton is neither a challenge nor a chore. It’s just great.”

Synopses of the 2015 smash hit’s show’s plot are plentiful; suffice it to say that “Say No to This” shows the mix of rap and sung lyrics for which Hamilton is so well known. After a start in A major and a shift to the relative F# minor at 2:33, there’s a quick hop to Bb major at 3:00 before the tune settles into B major from 3:03 to the end.

José Feliciano | “Chico and the Man” Theme

“Very few names come to mind when talking about legendary musicians … one of those names includes José Feliciano, a multi-faceted Puerto Rican music artist who has succeeded in challenging the industry despite his disability. (He was) one of the first Latino artists to crossover in English and Spanish—and to succeed with both audiences,” (The Daily Chela). “He is perhaps best known for “composing the song for the television show Chico and the Man as well as his iconic holiday song ‘Feliz Navidad.’ … As a Latino, Feliciano was advised to change his name so he could broaden his audience, but he refused to do so … He doesn’t consider himself a hero or someone to put on a pedestal. To him, he’s just someone who loves music.” The artist is the subject of the 2020 documentary José Feliciano: Behind this Guitar (2020).

“While it wasn’t one of those blink and you’ll miss it moments in television history, Chico and the Man was nonetheless a short-lived small screen phenomenon that exploded in 1974,” (Yahoo.com) “… television as a medium was going through a transition to edgier comedies dealing with more realistic — and oftentimes somewhat controversial — material … The premise of the show is a kind of generational version of The Odd Couple, with Jack Albertson as Ed Brown, the elderly and cantankerous owner of a garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, who encounters a young Mexican American named Chico Rodriguez (Freddie Prinze) who arrives looking for a job and ends up living in a van on the property.”

Starting in A major, the track has an AABA form. The B section shifts up to the closely related key of D major (0:44) before the last A section returns to the original key (0:55). The form repeats from there. The production and light instrumentation (guitar and hand percussion) keep Feliciano’s vocal right out front in the mix. The song peaked at only #96 but nonetheless became well known due to the show’s popularity.

Someone Else’s Story (from “Chess”)

Chess The Musical is a musical stage production with a very interesting story line that captures the essence of the Cold War … Tim Rice, the legendary British musical theater lyricist, and writer, became hooked on the epic chess match between world chess champions Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. It was during the Cold War that tension between the US and the USSR led to his thinking, “Hey, this would be a great backdrop for a story.”

Tim was a regular collaborator with Andrew Lloyd Webber for a while and he wanted to work with him again. Unfortunately, Andrew was busy with Cats, so Tim (worked with) ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. We can say Chess The Musical is about the rivalry between the American and Russian players with a romantic subplot … Even before it hit the stage, it was clear that the soundtrack for Chess was a total game-changer. Released as a double LP concept album in 1984 by RCA Records, it quickly became a worldwide hit. The show later had its West End debut in 1986 and its Broadway opening in 1988.

The New York Times called the album “a sumptuously recorded…grandiose pastiche that touches half a dozen bases, from Gilbert and Sullivan to late Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Italian opera to trendy synthesizer-based pop, all of it lavishly arranged for the London Symphony Orchestra with splashy electronic embellishments.” The standout single, “One Night in Bangkok,” performed by Murray Head, ranked #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 list.” Other standouts from the soundtrack include “I Know Him So Well,” “Pity the Child,” “The Arbiter,” and “Nobody’s Side.” The ballad “Someone Else’s Story” begins in F major; after a a bridge starting at 2:16, the key shifts up a full step to G for the balance of the tune.