The 1980 hit “Morning Train (9 to 5),” written by Florrie Palmer and recorded by Scottish singer Sheena Easton, rose to the top of the U.S. adult and contemporary charts and was certified gold. Originally released in the UK with the title “9 to 5,” it was re-named “Morning Train” upon its US release to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton hit, which was released that same year. The track has since been featured in numerous TV shows including Will & Grace, Good Girls, and South Park.
Characterized by a driving, insistent quarter note pulse, the tune begins in G major before smoothly transitioning to C for the opening verse at 0:18, and subsequently alternating between C and G for the verses and choruses respectively.
Jeff Lynne, who essentially is Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), wrote and produced “Mr. Blue Sky,” which was recorded for the UK band’s Out of the Blue album in 1977. “The song forms the fourth and final track of the ‘Concerto for a Rainy Day’ suite, on side three of the original double album, and was later released as a standalone single,” (SmoothRadio.com). ELO’s mix of modern production, tips of the hat to Beatle-esque songwriting, and unapologetic earnestness was popular with the public: RockFandom.com reports that “from 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated 27 Top-40 hit singles in both the UK and the US. The group also scored 20 Top 20 UK hit singles, as well as 15 Top-20 hit singles in the US . The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits of any group in US chart history without ever having a number one single.”
“Lynne has said that he wrote ‘Mr Blue Sky’ after locking himself away in a Swiss chalet, and attempting to write ELO’s follow-up album to (the 1976 release) A New World Record (Smoothradio.com). ‘It was dark and misty for two weeks, and I didn’t come up with a thing,’ he told the BBC. ‘Suddenly the sun shone and it was, Wow, look at those beautiful Alps. I wrote it, and 13 other songs, in the next two weeks.'” The tune reached only #6 on the UK pop charts and only #35 in the US, but retroactively has become a classic: “it has since become ELO’s signature song, and has been one of the most downloaded and streamed songs of the 1970s” and has been featured in many TV and film productions, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Doctor Who.
Written mostly in an emphatic F major, 3:43 brings an extended instrumental outro. Starting in Db major, the outro heavily features two ELO signatures: choir and strings. At 4:24, a section in Eb major further demonstrates Lynne’s unique approach of adding classical music conventions to a rock/pop sound — the rock instrumentation falls away entirely. Many thanks to our our regular contributor JB for this submission!
Luton, a borough of just over 200,000 less than 30 miles from London, made its name as a center of hat manufacturing. Its arts center, the Hat Factory, was exactly that during the industrial revolution. So its residents were probably a bit surprised when a single named after its airport, released by the all-female band Cats UK, reached #22 on the UK Singles Chart in 1977.
The tune was inspired by the 1977 Campari television commercial: a woman answers the pickup line“Were you truly wafted here from paradise?” by saying “Nahh, Luton Airport!” (The Scotsman).
Will Young was the first winner, in 2002, of the British music competition television series Pop Idol. “Evergreen” was one of two tracks slated to be released by the winner, and Young’s cover of the tune (originally recorded by the Irish boy band Westlife) went on to become the fastest-selling debut single in the UK. The song modulates from C to D at 2:53.
UK composer Benjamin Britten’s classic educational work, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” originated “in an educational film titled Instruments of the Orchestra,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Following World War II, initiatives to better the British people included introducing public secondary schools, health and food support for underprivileged children, and widespread democratization of high art, with the goal of nourishing a moral and productive populace. To this effect, the BBC, the primary radio station of the time, maintained relatively high percentages of classical music on the air. They created such programs as orchestral concerts and music talks for schools, preceded with introductions of each instrument and their sound for recognition during the piece of music.
Britten chose to use Henry Purcell’s Rondo theme from his Abdelazer Suite as a basis for the work and, though some thought this was an easy way out of composing, his choice to reference a British composer was praised by others as a demonstration of his skill in the art of variation, and a link as being the greatest British composer since Purcell. Here is Purcell’s original theme.”
The University of Kentucky breaks down the careful introduction of each instrument family — many of which are accompanied by key changes. “The theme is first played by the full orchestra, then by the various families of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and full orchestra again). Next, Britten shows off the individual instruments by having them play a variation of the theme … There are thirteen variations. Finally, the composition ends with a new tune, first introduced by the piccolo and then played in a fugue (a sort of counterpoint that Britten called “a race between the instruments”) by each of the other instruments of the orchestra until the brass instruments again play the main theme to close the work.”
The original 1946 short film, Instruments ofthe Orchestra:
Comedian John Hodgman came up with a new take on the piece’s narration in the 2010s. An excerpt from his performance with The Boston Pops:
While “Rules of the Game” was the only Bucks Fizz single to not crack the Top 40, it stayed on the Top 100 chart for 10 weeks. Various explanations were offered from the UK band’s members for the 1983 song’s lackluster performance: bad timing on the release, depressing lyrics, poor reviews. Nonetheless, it has continued to be a fan favorite. The tune modulates up a half step from Ab to A at 2:52.
Best known for their hit “Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967), the UK-based prog rock band Procol Harum “developed a really new sound with two keyboards (piano and Hammond organ) and a guitarist extraordinaire called Robin Trower who was greatly influenced by Jimi Hendrix,”(ProgArchive). “They quickly became one of the precursors of progressive rock (along with the Moody Blues and the Nice), mixed in some classical influences, and sold millions of singles but also albums.” Anyone who’s heard “Whiter Shade,” which is likely a lot of people, would recognize the band’s sound immediately on “Repent Walpurgis,” the closing track on the band’s 1967 self-titled first album. The album also featured the track “Conquistador,” which became a hit single, albeit several years later).
JB, who contributed this tune, adds: “PH always managed to retain a rock sensibility, which kept them from crossing the line from melodrama into bombast, or even self-parody … one of the most under-rated bands of the 60s, in my opinion. It’s at least as progressive (at least along certain dimensions) as Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper. But even though nearly every self-respecting hippie that I was exposed to during that period seemed to have a copy of this album in their collection, PH never really broke through to the same level of success as Yes, ELP, or other bands mining the same musical vein. My guess is that PH was about 3-4 years too early to really hit the sweet spot of Art/Prog Rock, although arguably they were one of the principal progenitors of that movement.”
Built primarily around C minor, a big transition at 2:15 leads us through a peaceful patch — a melody-less accompaniment for the Bach/Gounod version of “Ave Maria” in C major. At 2:59, we return to C minor.
“Sunshine” is the title track on the English pop group S Club 7’s third studio album, released in 2001. The album, which debuted at #3 on the UK Charts and sold over 600,000 copies, was the last to include band member Paul Cattermole, who left the group in 2002. The track modulates up a half step from E to F at 2:55.
In its review of Jeff Beck’s Flash, Rolling Stone ranks it as “one of Beck’s best ever, a record of awesome guitar prowess and startling commercial daring. It is also irrefutable proof that his kind of flash never goes out of fashion.”
Trading on the huge cachet he’d built up during the 1960s and 1970s with garden variety music fans and tech-obsessed guitarists alike, Beck rested on his laurels a bit in the 80s: 1985’s Flash was his first release in five years. His work with The Yardbirds in the late 60s was legendary, but “while he was as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix,” explains AllMusic, “Jeff Beck never achieved the same commercial success as any of those contemporaries, primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career. After Rod Stewart left the Jeff Beck Group in 1971, Beck never worked with a charismatic lead singer who could have helped sell his music to a wide audience. Furthermore, he was simply too idiosyncratic, moving from heavy metal to jazz fusion within a blink of an eye … releasing only one album during the course of the ’90s. All the while, Beck retained the respect of fellow guitarists, who found his reclusiveness all the more alluring.”
“You Know, We Know,” the closing track of Flash, is based on a simple hook. After an intro in C major, the hook is first stated at 0:33, along with a rasping unprepared modulation to C# minor. Another jarring key change to D minor drops at 4:35. The mid-80s production fingerprint of Chic’s Nile Rogers, catching perhaps the most synth-centric sound of the entire decade, couldn’t be clearer on this track. Robert Christgau’s snarky review gave the album a B grade, opining that Beck “turns in the best LP of his pathologically spotty career by countenancing Rodgers’ production on five tracks. So what do we have here? We have half a good Nile Rodgers album, more or less.”
Derived from Shakespeare’s Sonnet #130, the title of Sting’s second solo album …Nothing Like the Sun (1987) doesn’t appear as the title of one of the album’s songs, but rather only as a lyric in the tune “Sister Moon,” the tenth of twelve tracks.
In an interview with Spin, Sting noted that the album was the first which he’d recorded in all-digital format — a novelty at the time: “Although recording digitally was difficult and kind of alienating, it allowed me more flexibility in terms of arrangement … and that drove me crazy. I could change the key, add whole sections to the song when it was already finished, change the tempo, everything. But basically I knew there was a core in each song that worked that you couldn’t destroy.” Q Magazine‘s review of the album focused on the artist’s growing maturity after his years of rock/reggae/pop with the Police and a debut solo album from two years earlier: “It’s a measure of what makes solo Sting special that after so many years in the hype machine, living a lifestyle based on god only knows what riches in the bank, he has finally found the will and the voice to sing simply and affectingly … “
This 2021 performance of “Sister Moon” was recorded remotely for the Sanborn Sessions, an echo of host David Sanborn’s groundbreaking 1980s music TV series Night Music.The tune begins in F# melodic minor, with plenty of emphasis on the natural 7th degree of the tonic chord. 2:02 brings a shift to A# minor at the chorus, but at 2:25, we return to F# minor well before the chorus ends.
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