Vocalist Shayne Ward was the winner of the second season of the British reality music competition The X Factor, and “That’s My Goal” was his debut single after his victory in 2005. The track sold over 300,000 copies in the two days after its initial release, making it the fastest- selling song of 2005, and ultimately the third fastest-selling song of all time in the UK. Key change at 2:48.
Tag: UK
Beatles | Something
American Songwriter features a post on The Beatles’ 1969 release “Something” that can’t be improved upon:
“The only Harrison-written Beatles tune to top the US charts, this song’s simple beauty has earned it a place in the hearts of millions and in the repertoires of countless other artists (‘Something’ is the second most-covered Beatles song after ‘Yesterday’).
Harrison’s three lyrically parallel and sonically even verses are interrupted by a key change, which prompts an up-tempo bridge. A spirited but mellow solo by Harrison shows off his unparalleled chops and brings the song back into its original key, thus leading into a final verse that lends closure to this gorgeous track…For all its initial intricacies and experimentation, a song that once hit the eight minute mark was ultimately whittled down to a three minute number that defied the band’s musical conventions.” The article mentions that Harrison had an aural image of Ray Charles in mind when writing it, but added “I’m not Ray Charles.”
According to BeatlesEBooks.com, the humble Harrison told BBC radio “They blessed me with a couple of B-sides in the past. This is the first time I’ve had an A-side. A big deal, eh? Ha-ha.”
The Feeling | Love It When You Call
“Love It When You Call” was featured on Twelve Steps and Home, the 2006 debut album of the English rock band The Feeling. The track peaked at #18 on the UK Singles Chart, and was also performed at a live concert in 2006 produced by the BBC’s charity Children in Need, which supports disadvantaged children in the UK. Key change at 2:53, then back to the original key at 3:11.
Jamie Cullum | Anyway
One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Jamie Cullum, makes his MotD debut today with “Anyway,” included on his 2013 album Momentum. Shortly after the album’s release, Cullum elaborated on the inspiration behind it and how he chose its name in an interview with the German magazine Nothing But Hope and Passion:
“Well, it seems like a good title for the album for a lot of reasons. One is that this album was entirely made with a sense of momentum. My life’s changed in a lot of ways since the last few records, you know, I’m a father now, I have multiple responsibilities, far beyond just looking after myself, and so this album was made in pockets of time, rather than the luxury of all the time in the world. So I just kind of hurled myself into it, and the whole thing happened without a great deal of thought, which sounds careless, but I’ve come to realize that thought is the enemy of creativity in a lot of ways.
The other thing, the album is really about that crossover period where you’re really still a young man, but also you’ve got one foot in this incredibly grown-up, adult world where you’re the leader of your pack, and the album really is about that kind of balance of your childish fantasies with these grand and quite epic responsibilities. I think it’s momentum that carries you through that, really, so that’s how I came up with the title.
The tune is primarily in Eb minor, briefly modulating to G major at 2:59 before returning to Eb minor at 3:16.
Robbie Williams | Something Beautiful
“Something Beautiful” was released as the third single from English singer Robbie Williams‘ fifth studio album, Escapology (2002). The tune, written by Williams and Guy Chambers, reached number 3 on the UK Singles chart, and peaked within the top 10 in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Romania as well. Key change at 3:21.
Julian Lennon | Valotte
Julian Lennon released his debut, Valotte, in 1984, not even a full four years after his father John‘s assassination,” reports Allmusic. “The wounds were still fresh and there were millions of listeners ready to embrace the son of a Beatle, particularly when he sounded remarkably like his father on the stately piano-led ballad ‘Valotte,’ the first single from the album.” At its best, the album “demonstrated a keen ear for Beatlesque pop songwriting, drawing equally from Lennon and McCartney…by any measure the debut of a gifted pop melodicist.”
The staid, calm sound of the album’s lead single differentiated it from the often frenetic pop scene of its release year. A Rolling Stone review called the album simultaneously “exciting and irritating,” given its uncanny similarities to the work of John Lennon. The review noted “a middle-aged sensibility” in the 21-year-old Julian’s work, “reinforced by Phil Ramone’s elegant but often stodgy production, applied to unashamedly youthful themes.” Further demonstrating the multi-generational appeal of the track was its top-ten single status on the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts in both the US and Canada: not exactly a typical trajectory for a new pop artist.
While the tune’s intro and verses are in C major, the choruses progress through several keys of the moment and end on a prominent A major chord (heard for the first time at 0:51 – 1:20). The tune also ends on a sustained A major chord.
Elton John | This Song Has No Title
“This Song Has No Title” is an album track from Elton John’s smash hit 1973 double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. According to the BBC Review, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide; the RIAA ranked it as an 8x platinum seller. In 2003, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Rolling Stone ranked the album #91 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list: “Elton John compared this double album to the Beatles‘ White Album, and why not? By this point he was the most consistent hitmaker since the Fab Four, and soon enough he would be recording with John Lennon. Everything about Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is supersonically huge…” From AllMusic’s review: “It was designed to be a blockbuster — and it was…a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John‘s spangled personality.”
The tune starts simply enough: A D minor verse featuring an acoustic sound with a straightforward lead vocal, piano accompaniment, and a gentle synth overlay. At 0:48, the chorus blooms abruptly, featuring a mix of keys, an electronics-inflected wall of sound, and Elton’s familiar layered vocal textures.
Many thanks to MotD regular JB for this submission!
Dusty Springfield | You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
A long-overdue debut for UK pop/soul chanteuse Dusty Springfield. “(‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”) is considered one of the greatest songs of heartbreak in the pop music canon,” documents American Songwriter. “That it combined the music of an Italian pop song and lyrics from a pair of songwriting novices also makes it one of the unlikeliest ones. Unlikely, that is, until you consider the staggeringly brilliant performance of the song by Dusty Springfield. Then it all makes sense.
Springfield’s performance manages to evoke pain and pride, hurt and hope, resignation and resilience. The end result was a #1 hit for Springfield (her first) in the UK and a top 5 spot in the US upon the song’s 1966 release. You can also argue that (it) presented a more mature side of her than some of the bubblier pop songs she had recorded had managed to do. This was a path that she would continue to traverse when she made the masterpiece album Dusty In Memphis a few years later. ‘Well, it’s a classic, isn’t it?’ mused the song’s lyricist, Simon Napier-Bell. ‘In its musical style as well as performance. Like a famous piece of opera. Totally out of date, but that’s the way it is. And we all love it.'”
Built on a insistent 12/8 feel, the tune’s intro and verses are in D minor; the choruses shift to D major. At 2:26, a whole-step modulation is the icing on the cake. This classic clearly illustrates the opening words of IMDB’s Springfield bio: “…acknowledged around the world as the best female soul singer that Britain ever produced.”
Squeeze | Last Time Forever
A long-overdue MotD debut today for the utterly unique UK band Squeeze. “As one of the most traditional pop bands of the new wave,” AllMusic details, “Squeeze provided one of the links between classic British guitar pop and post-punk. Inspired heavily by the Beatles and the Kinks, Squeeze were the vehicle for the songwriting of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, who were hailed as the heirs to Lennon and McCartney‘s throne during their heyday in the early ’80s … Squeeze never came close to matching the popularity of the Beatles, but the reason for that is part of their charm. Difford and Tilbrook were wry, subtle songwriters who subscribed to traditional pop songwriting values, but subverted them with literate lyrics and clever musical references.”
“Last Time Forever” (1985) has an unsettled harmonic setting which fits the film noir mood of the lyrics: although it sounds like an account of a garden variety breakup at first, the eerie midsection takes us somewhere else entirely:
I’ve said goodnight tonight
The last time forever
It all went wrong when I grew jealous
I didn’t realize my strength
Could take the life of one so precious
Together we were known as good friends
Although each verse starts in C major, the harmonic dominoes soon start falling (for the first time at 0:33).
Genesis | Please Don’t Ask
Released on Genesis’ 1980 album Duke, “Please Don’t Ask” couldn’t have been a bigger part of the Western world’s cultural zeitgeist: with the longtime stigma against divorce lifting quickly, marriages were ending at rates which would have been unimaginable even a decade before. The lyric covers feelings of hurt, remorse, and ambivalence, as well as a splitting couple’s love and care for their children: a tall order indeed.
Duke likely marks the completion of Phil Collins’ ascendance as the second vocalist and frontman of the prog rock band, which moved towards a more broadly accessible focus after the departure of founding vocalist Peter Gabriel. As Collins’ first marriage ended in 1980, it’s hardly surprising that one of his songwriting contributions to this wide-ranging album would be so unflinching in its treatment of such a difficult subject. Classic Rock Review reports that Duke “was the first album by Genesis to reach the top of the UK Album charts and it has been certified Platinum on both sides of the Atlantic.” The book Genesis: Chapter and Verse quotes Collins as saying it’s “the most personal song I’ve probably ever written.”
The tune starts in F major, but its opening progression is a repeated ii -> iii, making the tonality tricky to pin down and somehow putting even more emphasis on the heart-rending lyric. Further, the first note of the vocal is an emphatic tension (an 11, when taken in the context of the ii chord), throwing the listener off the scent even more in terms of tonality. From 0:34 – 0:45, a jarring second section of the verse shifts to Eb major and back — and then again from 1:09 – 1:19. The plaintive chorus (1:20) is built around F minor/Ab major. At 2:14, the transition from the end of the chorus into the second verse involves a bruising tri-tone drop in the bass line. The tune ends with a relatively uncomplicated Ab major, although the protagonist seems to find no such easy resolution.
Many thanks to the wide-ranging mod plugger JB for suggesting this tune!
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