Tag: UK

Kiki Dee | Star

English pop singer Pauline Matthews (who uses the stage name Kiki Dee) released “Star” as a single in 1981. Dee performed frequently with Elton John and has released 12 albums. This tune was written by Doreen Chanter, a member of the English singing duo The Chanter Singers. It alternates between G for the verses and A for the choruses throughout, with a final modulation up to B at 2:41.

Genesis | Taking It All Too Hard

“Moments of Genesis (1983) are as spooky and arty as those on Abacab — in particular, there’s the tortured howl of ‘Mama,’ uncannily reminiscent of Phil Collins’ Face Value, and the two-part ‘Second Home by the Sea’ — but this eponymous 1983 album is indeed a rebirth, as so many self-titled albums delivered in the thick of a band’s career often are,” (AllMusic).

“Here the art rock functions as coloring to the pop songs, unlike on Abacab and Duke, where the reverse is true. Some of this may be covering their bets — to ensure that the longtime fans didn’t jump ship, they gave them a bit of art — some of it may be that the band just couldn’t leave prog behind, but the end result is the same: as of this record, Genesis was now primarily a pop band. Anybody who paid attention to ‘Misunderstanding’ and ‘No Reply at All’ could tell that this was a good pop band, primarily thanks to the rapidly escalating confidence of Phil Collins, but Genesis illustrates just how good they could be, by balancing such sleek, pulsating pop tunes as ‘That’s All’ with a newfound touch for aching ballads, as on ‘Taking It All Too Hard.’ It has a little bit too much of everything — too much pop, too much art, too much silliness — so it doesn’t pull together, but if taken individually, most of these moments are very strong testaments to the increasing confidence and pop power of the trio, even if it’s not quite what longtime fans might care to hear.” Released as a single during the summer of 1984, the track got stuck at #50 on the pop chart but reached #11 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

“Taking It All Too Hard” starts in E major, with the chorus placed first in the lineup. At 0:36, the verse starts in E minor, but features unprepared shifts to A major via a syncopated kick at 0:51, C major at 1:02, and Ab major at 1:11. The bass line moves down a half step for the next verse. Collins’ vocal delivery on the verses is quieter, almost to the point of sounding like so much interior monologue. But then he shifts to a louder, more agitated sound as the chorus returns at 1:20. The patterns persist throughout.

Il Divo | Caruso

“Caruso,” written by Italian singer/songwriter Lucio Dalla, is featured on the 2006 album Siempre by the classical crossover group Il Divo. “Their phrasing on…Caruso is excellent, drawn out to pull as much emotion as possible,” AllMusic said in their review of the record. The album sold over a million copies in the United States, and was the #2 classical crossover album on the Billboard charts for the year.

The track begins in C minor, modulates up a half step to C# minor for the second verse at 1:26, and then dramatically rises up another half step to D minor for the final chorus at 2:44.

Rick Astley | Whenever You Need Somebody

“(Rick Astley is the) British baritone behind some of the most impeccably crafted pop hits of the ’80s, including ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and ‘Together Forever.’ Wielding a rich, deep voice, Rick Astley became an overnight sensation in the late ’80s with his well-crafted dance-pop,” (AllMusic). “… (While) Astley’s often captivating debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody (1987) … (featured) high-tech production (that) is very ’80s, Astley’s soul/pop/dance music approach is very much a production of the ’70s — sort of the Average White Band meets Philly soul/disco meets Tom Jones … this CD proved Astley to be a welcome addition to the British R&B scene.”

“Whenever You Need Somebody” is the second track on Astley’s 1987 debut album of the same name; it was the album’s second track, appearing after the smash hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the song that much later launched a thousand “RickRolls.” The track wasn’t released as a single in the US, but went top 10 through much of Europe and reached #1 in Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. However, on the importance of the US to his career, Astley reports ” …a lot of my favorite singers came from America, and I use the term ‘taught me to sing.’ But I think I’m not alone in saying a lot of R&B and soul records, like Luther Vandross, James Ingram, those records were what I was trying to emulate in my way. I was doing it in a northern English, red-haired, freckly sort of way,” (USAToday).

After a intro in Bb, the verse follows a mini-AABA format, dividing its time between B minor and Db minor (for the “B” section, 0:35 – 0:43). The chorus moves back up to Bb major at 0:52 and stays there during the bridge. The pattern continues from there. Astley’s towering, nearly vibrato-free vocal is utterly unmistakable from the first few notes.

Thunderclap Newman | Something in the Air

In the late 1960s, talk of revolution may have seemed credible. The antiwar movement, the Civil Rights movement, and of course, popular music were changing society in significant ways. The Beatles could sing “Revolution,” even if you could “count them out.” But here we are in 2023, where, as journalist George Monbiot points out, paraphrasing Rousseau, “man is born free, and is everywhere in chain stores.” At least we got some cool tunes out of the era.

One such tune is 1969’s “Something in the Air” by the short-lived English band Thunderclap Newman. The members were drummer “Speedy” Keen, who wrote the song, guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, later of Paul McCartney’s Wings, and the eponymous Andy Newman on piano. The group released one studio album Hollywood Dream, produced by Pete Townsend, who also played bass guitar on the recording. “Something in the Air” was a #1 hit in the UK, and reached a respectable #37 on the US Billboard chart.  It’s been included in the soundtracks for several movies, including The Magic Christian, also released in 1969, and Almost Famous. The lyrics asserted “you know it’s right”, and in those times, you may not have detected any irony.

There’s a whole step modulation from the original key E major to F# major at 1:04; the saloon-style piano bridge starting at 1:58 passes through a few tonalities; lastly, when we land at the final verse at 2:55, we’re in G# major, two steps up from the original key.

Culture Club | Miss Me Blind

“For a time England’s biggest pop sensation, heralded in America as leaders of a second British Invasion, Culture Club capitalized on Boy George’s outrageous nightlife cross-dressing and aimed-to-shock intelligence to slip their mushy mainstream soul-pop into respectable homes the world over,” (Trouser Press). “Phenomenology aside, the foursome never sounded anywhere near as bizarre as they originally appeared …

Dropping the silly “white boy” crypto-sociology that threads through the first album, Colour by Numbers gets right to the business at hand, which is the creation of irresistible pop hits in a variety of molds. And in that regard, the album is a real success … prominently features singer Helen Terry, who provides a powerful foil to George’s smooth crooning.”

One of the band’s most successful singles was 1984’s “Miss Me Blind,” a soul-inflected, danceable pop hit. With songwriting credits split among all four members of the band, the track hit #5 on the US Hot 100 and #6 on the Canadian pop charts. Built in G minor overall, the early bridge (2:14 – 2:30) shifts to E minor before returning to the original key. Culture Club seemed to largely avoid over-indulgence in synthesized textures, instead maintaining a focus on the human voice (both George’s and Terry’s). As a result, many of the band’s tunes seem a bit less dated than others of the same vintage.

Various Artists | Doctor’s Orders

In the late 1960s, UK producer and songwriter Tony Hiller created the vocal group Brotherhood of Man to showcase his songs. In 1970, the group scored an international hit with “United We Stand” (UK #10, Billboard #13). The original lineup consisted of Tony Burrows, an established session singer, Roger Greenaway, a songwriter in his own right, and sisters Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie. That incarnation of the group lasted until 1971. The following year, Hiller put together a new version of the group, which is performing to this day.

The sisters had recorded a number of singles as Sue and Sunny, without a lot of success. But they kept busy as background singers on many recordings by prominent artists, including Elton John, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, and Tom Jones. Sunny’s solo recording of “Doctor’s Orders” became a hit in the UK (#7 in 1974). The tune was written by her former bandmate Greenaway, with Roger Cook and Geoff Stephens.

In the US, a disco-flavored version by Carol Douglas became a 1974 hit (Billboard #11, Canada #1). “An ad (was run) in Showbiz magazine specifically to recruit a singer to cover Sunny’s UK hit for the US market: the successful applicant, Carol Douglas, was a veteran performer who had remained an unknown recording artist.

Douglas, who reports that she is a cousin of Sam Cooke’s, recalled when she first auditioned she was told ‘I sounded great, but too black. [The track’s] producers wanted to capture my more melodic pop/commercial tones which undeniably made me sound white on the radio,’ (EurWeb). Although Douglas admitted to reservations about the song itself – ‘I really [would have] wanted a more soulful song’ – she’d also recall ‘I felt the minute I heard the music that it was going to be something, and after hearing my voice on the track it was even more amazing…[It] did throw me off when they played me the [Sunny] version. So I had to approach [singing the song] in my own way.'” The Douglas version shifts up a whole step at 3:48.

Jacob Collier | I Heard You Singing

Jacob Collier’s original song “I Heard You Singing” is included on Djesse Vol. 2, the second installment on a planned four-volume set. On the album the track features vocalist Becca Stevens and mandolinist/singer Chris Thile; this intimate version is performed by Collier from his studio/bedroom. It begins in F, wanders into Db around 2:18, and continues into various other tonalities from there.

Engelbert Humperdinck | A Man Without Love (Quando M’innamoro)

Written by Italian composers Daniele Pace, Mario Panzer, and Roberto Livraghi, “Quando M’innamoro” was first performed by Italian singer Anna Identici and the American folk rock trio The Sandpipers at the Sanremo Music Festival, an Italian song contest, in 1968.

The British pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck recorded the most popular English version, re-titled “A Man Without Love” with lyrics by Barry Mason.

The bossa-tinged tune begins in D and shifts up to Eb at 0:44. It returns to D for the second verse at 1:36, and modulates back to Eb for the second half of the final chorus at 2:30.