UK – Page 19

Michael Biggins | Ding Dong Merrily on High

This week we will be featuring guest submissions, kicking off with our newest masthead contributor JB, who provided the write-up below:

Even though it sounds like a modern commercial jingle, the melody of Ding Dong Merrily on High is at least 500 years old, and the current lyrics are nearly 100 years old.

While there have been many recordings of this tune over the years — including the iconic Wiggles version from A Wiggly Wiggly Christmas — it’s a safe bet that none of them has had more modulations than Michael Biggins’ version. There are key changes at 1:04 and 1:27, a full mode change from 1:50-2:14, and multiple keys-of-the-moment and other harmonic tensions sprinkled throughout.

Biggins was named the 2021 Young Traditional Musician of the Year by BBC Radio Scotland, the first pianist ever to win this prestigious award. One of the reasons that the award had, in the past, always recognized pipers, fiddlers, and other players of melody instruments is that the piano is generally relagated to the role of a rhythm instrument in Scottish trad, playing simple boom-chuck accompaniment to support the melody players. This role delineation is still honored in the video, where Biggins plays all the virtuosic tracks on the accordion (generally a melody instrument in Scottish trad), while keeping the piano track well below his pay grade.

The Belle Stars | Iko Iko

“Offering a self-contained, funkier alternative to early Bananarama, London’s seven-woman Belle Stars played and sang neo-soul and dance-rock,” (TrouserPress). The music “provoke(s) a good time largely through the band’s own evident enjoyment.”

Kent, a MotD regular, submits “Iko Iko” by the UK band The Belle Stars. “It’s been recorded many times, charting three times on the Billboard Hot 100, but only twice in the Top 40. The Dixie Cups’ 1964 version may be the oldest one recognized by most, as it was recorded as a percussive version of a song one member remembered her grandmother singing, not realizing that it had been written in the 1950s as ‘Jack-a-Mo.’ Dr. John recorded another version in 1972, which missed the top 40, but the best chart success came in 1989 when the version by The Belle Stars was featured in the movie Rain Man, scenes of which appear in the video.” The Belle Stars’ 1983 version, which became a top 40 US hit, modulates rather gently from F to F# (1:23); the entire harmonic structure drops away, leaving only the groove still running, and then re-enters in the new key.

Adele | Love Is a Game

“Early in the [2021] press cycle for her fourth LP, Adele referred to 30 as her most personal album yet,” (Pitchfork). “It’s hard to imagine something more personal than the empathy bombs that Adele typically drops, but she did not lie about 30 … Here, she’s telling a more unexpected story about love: What it means to inflict that pain on your family, to rebuild yourself from scratch, and—big exhale—to try to love again … she’s taking cues from newer visionaries like Jazmine Sullivan and Frank Ocean as much as her diva elders … her vocals are more playful: Motown-style background vox are modulated to a chirp on “Cry Your Heart Out” and “Love Is a Game,” in a kind of remix of her usual retro homage.”

“‘Cry your heart out, it’ll clean your face,’ Adele admonishes herself … It’s a record in which Adele ugly-cries, then wipes off her streaked makeup, sloughing off layers of dead skin in the process,” (The Guardian).

“Love is a Game,” drenched with strings and saturated with layers of background vocals, is a Motown/R&B pastiche of the highest order. After a start in Db major, the bridge wraps up at 4:15 — with a transition to Eb as the drum kit stunt-stumbles over an odd-metered measure before settling into a new chorus at 4:22.

Little Mix | You Gotta Not

“You Gotta Not” is featured on the 2016 album Glory Days by the British girls group Little Mix. The album was their first to reach #1 in the UK; AllMusic claimed “the group deliver[s] a set of hooky, smartly crafted songs that balance swaggering, ’60s-style R&B with stylish, electronic-tinged dance-pop.” Co-written by Meghan Trainor, “You Gotta Not” highlights themes of female empowerment, and its groove recalls Jennifer Lopez’s “Ain’t Yo Mama,” also written by Trainor. The tune modulates from Db up to D at 1:12.

Connie Laverne | Can’t Live Without You

“Can’t Live Without You” by Connie Laverne was originally released as white label DJ copy on the New York record label GSF shortly before the label folded in 1974,” reports Sam Beaubien of NPR affiliate WDET’s program CultureShift. “This record is rarely seen and is highly coveted … (it became) popular through modern DJs playing this song in their sets, specifically in the UK. Since then, the track has been remastered and released for the Club Classics album celebrating 50 years of UK’s Northern Soul scene.

Information on the vocalist Connie Laverne is extremely hard to find. GrooveCollector states that the single was produced by George Kerr. Phyllis Hyman later recorded (but didn’t release) a version of the tune. From The Guardian’s overview of the genre, which is said to have been the UK’s answer to Motown: “One of the many beauties of Northern Soul is its sheer unknowability. It’s a scene that has always thrived on the rare, the obscure, and the undiscovered. Since it first emerged in the dance halls of northern England in the late 60s, it has existed in direct opposition to the very concept of greatest hits … There is no carved-in-stone canon – everyone’s journey through it is unique. Northern Soul is a culture based on chance finds, crate-digging and word-of-mouth recommendations.”

1:12 brings a half-step upward modulation; at 1:43, we seem to be headed for another, but we fall back into the original key instead! Many thanks to our prolific contributor JB!

Billy Ocean | Love Really Hurts Without You

British singer Billy Ocean’s first Top 40 hit in the US, “Love Really Hurts Without You” was featured on his eponymous first studio album, released in 1976.

Ocean claims he wrote the song while simultaneously learning how to play the new piano he had just bought. “The novelty of it was coming home every lunchtime and evening and tinkling my piano until eventually I did get something out of it which was the song ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’,” he said. “My left hand started playing the melody and my right hand just did some down beats and my voice just started coming out with [the opening lyric] ‘You run around town like a fool and you think that it’s groovy’ and the song just came together there and then.”

The song has since appeared in the 2013 film Filth, as well as in the Netflix series Sex Education. Beginning in F major, the tune modulates up to G at 2:07.

Level 42 | The Sleepwalkers

“When (Mark) King formed Level 42 … they were jazz-funk aficionados, deep into Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and Keith Jarrett,” (ClassicPopMag.com). “While this was sonic worlds away from the pop terrain that became their regular stomping ground in the 80s, (bassist) King had been a fan of music of all kinds at eight years old – and his first vinyl purchase was a Cream album … ‘I was only really trying to do what I’d been hearing coming across from America… I’d been listening to Stanley Clarke and Larry Graham … The idiom they were thumping the music in wasn’t as broad a spectrum as pop, so I’d somehow managed to leap the fence with that, and we were straight out into the pop mainstream. It happened to coincide with our first European tour, when we opened for The Police.'”

AllMusic sums up the band’s progression from its inception to its biggest hit-making days: “At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was squarely a jazz-funk fusion band … By the end of the ’80s, however, the band — whose music was instantly recognizable from Mark King’s thumb-slap bass technique and associate member Wally Badarou’s synthesizer flourishes — had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as sophisti-pop and dance-rock, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and the Style Council as was any group that made polished, upbeat, danceable pop/rock.”

1987’s “The Sleepwalkers” was a track from Running in the Family, which became a top ten album for the year in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand — with a #2 berth in the UK, as well, although the release only hit #23 in the US. Like so much of the band’s output, the tune is a multi-layered machine, built around a percolating bass line, an up-the-neck funk guitar, several strata of synth sheen, and clock-like drums. After starting in Ab major, the tune makes an unlikely tritone leap to D minor with a syncopated kick of backing vocals at 1:00 for the chorus. At 1:23, we revert to the original key; the pattern is maintained throughout.

The Beatles | And I Love Her

First time contributor Galen Cruess, in his submission of The Beatles’ 1964 hit “And I Love Her” from the album A Hard Day’s Night, writes: “It’s a unique acoustic song sung and written mostly by Paul McCartney that reflects his more ballad-like songs. Elements like George Harrison’s introductory riff, arpeggiated chords during the verses, and Ringo’s use of bongos and clavés give the song a different sound that is only heard in a few other Beatles songs, such as ‘Til There Was You’ and ‘Michelle.'”

“Before the soundtrack to (the movie) A Hard Day’s Night burst on the scene, Paul’s songwriting was mostly encompassed within the framework of writing ‘eyeball to eyeball’ (as Lennon would call it) with John in collaborative efforts,” (BeatlesBooks.com). “When he did faction off to write by himself, the songs would be rockers, such as ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’ His reputation as a ‘balladeer’ began with the inclusion of ‘And I Love Her’ on the movie soundtrack album. This soft, acoustic sentimental love song stuck out like a sore thumb and made everyone take notice of what this long-haired British rock group was capable of.”

After a start in F# minor the key raises a half step to B minor at 1:30 with George Harrison’s solo on classical-style nylon string acoustic guitar. The tune ends on a striking major chord (piccardy third).

Culture Club | Time (Clock of the Heart)

“Time (Clock of the Heart)” wasn’t released on the debut Culture Club album Kissing to be Clever; “it was a stand-alone single that proved another smash hit and was later added to the album in America.” (Diffuser.FM) “In the process, Culture Club pulled off a pretty amazing feat, becoming the first UK band since the Beatles to have three singles from a debut album make the Top 10 in America. Despite the grand success of the music, for many the look often overtook the sound as the media began a love affair with the band, and George in particular. ‘People felt there was something really happening,’ said Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. ‘I think that was the main thing. People would look and say, Blimey, what is this?‘”

In a GQ interview, George recalls he “was obsessed with music as a little kid, that was where I escaped to. I shared a room with my four brothers and most of the time I didn’t have the room to myself, so whenever I could I would have the record player on. I’d listen to everything from Irish show tunes to early Bowie, T. Rex and disco. Discovering Bowie was the ‘Whoa, that’s what I want to be’ moment. I was 11 and somehow my dad got me a ticket to see Ziggy Stardust.”

“It was kind of almost overnight for us,” he said in a 2015 interview. “You know, one minute we were an unknown band that literally couldn’t get signed, but once we got on TV, it was the public, more than anything, that decided they liked us and I think that’s always been the case.”

Starting in G minor, the 1982 single features a short instrumental bridge at 2:26 in Bb minor before settling into the next chorus at 2:43.

The Jags | Back of My Hand

“Record labels and radio in the U.K. were grudgingly forced to allow new-wave and punk sounds to edge onto the airwaves in the late-’70s, long before their U.S. big brothers would even consider such an experiment. The Jags were perfectly suited to seize that moment.” (Magnet Magazine)

“The Jags’ sound in 1979 was jangly and based around clean, ringing guitar, with slashing rhythms, quick musical changes and expertly precise three-minute arrangements. Their original songs were upbeat, full of hooks, elegant melodies and guttural rock energy: a perfect model of power-pop/new-wave fun. (The UK press) quickly tagged the band as ‘Elvis Costello imitators,'” a comparison which the band wasn’t able to transcend.

After a start in E major, “Back of My Hand” (1979) features a downward shift to G major during an instrumental break (2:03), then a return to E major at 2:14 for a bridge that pivots about as if it might modulate to F# major at 2:29 — but doesn’t. According to AllMusic, the tune had “a chart life of 10 weeks and peaked at #17 in the UK. In the US, the song peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.”