Tag: USA

The Blues Brothers | Rawhide

“Rawhide” was written by Ned Washington (lyrics) and Dimitri Tiomkin (music) in 1958. “The song was used as the theme to Rawhide, a western television series that ran from 1959 until 1966. According to the Western Writers of America, it was one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

The tune has been covered by Johnny Cash, The Jackson 5, The Dead Kennedys, Liza Minnelli, Oingo Boingo, Sublime, and many other artists. It was featured prominently in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, where it saved the day as as a last-second substitute opener for an R&B/Blues band haplessly booked into a Country/Western bar. Fortunately, the band had a lot more chops than luck …

The half-step modulation is at 2:13 at the start of a short guitar feature. The tune itself doesn’t begin until the 1:25 mark. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

The Quad | America The Beautiful

Two-time Grammy Award-winning arranger Ben Bram has been featured on MotD previously for his arrangement of “Smile.” Here, Bram’s quartet, The Quad, performs his arrangement of “America The Beautiful,” featuring three downward modulations. Beginning in Bb, the first key change to G comes at 1:06, followed by shifts to D at 1:58 and C at 3:16.

The contemporary update of the lyrics was co-written by Bram and Jonathan Levine.

Judith Hill | Cry, Cry, Cry

“Cry, Cry, Cry” was the single released from American singer-songwriter Judith Hill‘s 2015 debut album Back in Time. The album, co-produced with Prince, marked Hill’s first foray into solo performing after she appeared as a backup singer with Michael Jackson (including as a featured soloist on his This is It tour) Josh Groban, and John Legend. Hill’s story was also featured in the acclaimed 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, for which she was awarded a Grammy Award. The tune starts in B major, and modulates to C at 3:38.

Gnarls Barkley | Going On

Gnarls Barkley’s smash debut hit “Crazy” was considered by many to be 2006’s global song of the summer. Last.FM reports that it was “the first #1 UK single to be obtained solely through Internet downloads.” The band, a duo comprised of producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton and funk/soul vocalist Cee Lo Green, continued to crank out unpredictable tunes until 2010, straddling multiple genres of psychedelia-tinged hiphop, soul, neo-soul, and funk.

Playing up the psychedelic aspect, the video for “Going On,” filmed in Jamaica, centers around “a group of people celebrating the discovery of a door that leads to another dimension,” according to MTV.com. The song garnered a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance; in 2011, Time Magazine listed the lo-fi, dance-centric video among its 30 All-Time Best Music Videos, calling it a “sucker punch of joy …(a) three-minute piece of percussive pop perfection.”

Featured on the duo’s second album, The Odd Couple (2008), “Going On” alternates between an uptuned Eb minor and F minor throughout. The tune features an intro in Eb minor, verse one in F minor (0:18), chorus in Eb minor (0:47), etc.

Toad the Wet Sprocket | Scenes From a Vinyl Recliner

Many thanks to chronic mod submitter JB for today’s feature: “Scenes from a Vinyl Recliner,” a 1989 release (and MotD debut) by Toad the Wet Sprocket. AllMusic reports that the band was “named in honor of a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe … one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the early ’90s, boasting a thoughtful folk-pop sound that wielded enough melody and R.E.M.-styled jangle to straddle both the modern rock and adult contemporary markets. The group broke into the mainstream with the 1991 release of their third album, Fear, and its hits ‘All I Want’ and ‘Walk on the Ocean.'” The tune alternates between C# minor and E minor.

JB writes: “While lots of Toad’s tunes have juicy mods, this is one of their less-known songs. Even though the ‘structure’ of the mods is just the vanilla A/B verse/chorus structure, the subjective tonal quality of each mod is pretty unusual. Some of this is the direction and interval of each mod, but the instrumentation is also critical: The mod into each chorus (0:38, etc.) is very abrupt, and is primarily announced by the vibes (or synth equivalent thereof), striking a note in the new key in relative isolation. Likewise, the mod back to each verse (1:10, etc.) is announced by a single note on the piano, again in relative isolation. These timbres, sounding in isolation, make a nice contrast to the rest of the song, which follows the sort of cliched soft/loud verse/chorus structure that was one of the things that made TTWS alt-rock adjacent, rather than a pure folk-rock sound.”

Faith Hill | That’s How Love Moves

Faith Hill‘s fourth studio album, Breathe, is one of the most successful country/pop albums recorded to date, certified platinum in Australia, Canada, and the United States. It won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album in 2001, and two tracks (“Breathe” and “The Way You Love Me” hit number one on the US Billboard Hot Country chart. “That’s How Love Moves” was originally recorded by Bette Midler in 1998; key change at 2:43.

Chaka Khan | This Is My Night

Chaka Khan built her career as frontwoman for the band Rufus (starting as “Rufus featuring Chaka Khan” and later billed as simply “Rufus + Chaka”). AllMusic calls Chaka “one of the most dynamic and accomplished artists to debut during the early ’70s … Khan launched her solo career with “I’m Every Woman” (1978), an anthemic crossover disco smash that led to eight additional Top Ten R&B hits.”

Her 1984 album, I Feel for You, was likely the peak of her crossover pop success. The release was fueled by a single of the same name, written by Prince and featuring Stevie Wonder’s unmistakable harmonica riffs, ultimately becoming one of the most iconic tunes of the 80s. The heavy-hitting Turkish-American producer Arif Mardin left a strong imprint on the entire album; his dense wall-of-sound approach to up-tempo tunes can be heard his on earlier productions as well, including the Bee Gees’ 1975 track “Nights on Broadway.” Other than Quincy Jones, Mardin was one of the first producers in pop music to routinely garner prominent mentions alongside the music artists they supported. “This Is My Night” enjoyed a more modest success as a follow-up single, but still reached #1 for one week on the Billboard dance chart, #60 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #11 on the R&B chart.

Featuring a full showbiz mini-plot, Busby Berkeley-style dance sequences, and appearances by noted actors Wallace Shawn and Carol Kane, this story video doesn’t introduce the tune until 1:35. There’s a mammoth whole-step key change at 4:16 as the scrappy understudy becomes the toast of the town.

Voctave | How Far I’ll Go (from “Moana”)

Featured in Disney’s 2016 animated blockbuster Moana, “How Far I’ll Go” serves as the “I Want” song (a common device used in musical theatre and Disney movies where a character expresses their fundamental ambition) for the title character in the film. Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote and produced the track, claimed he locked himself in his childhood bedroom for a weekend in order to force his mind back to age 16 (the same age as Moana in the film) — a time when he was facing what seemed like an “impossible distance” between the reality of his pleasant middle-class childhood which had no connection to show business whatsoever, and his dreams of a career in show business. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, but ultimately lost both to La La Land; it was awarded Best Song Written for Visual Media at the Grammy Awards. Performed by MotD favorite Voctave, the key change is at 2:14.

Danny + The Juniors | Rock + Roll Is Here to Stay

Although a little less well known than “At the Hop,” their biggest hit, “Rock’n’Roll is Here to Stay” was a hit for doo-wop group Danny and the Juniors; the single reached #19 on the pop charts and somehow also attained a #16 peak on the R&B chart. The quartet, originally called The Juvenaires, was comprised of four Philadelphia-area high school classmates. The group was a natural to be featured performers on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, but had to wait until a last-minute call when Little Anthony + the Imperials cancelled!

There are half-step modulations at 1:40 and 1:56. In addition to singing, the boys do a great job of helping the entire crowd clap on two and four!

Back To Before (from “Ragtime”)

We have featured a number of songs from Ahrens and Flaherty’s Tony-winning score for the 1996 Broadway musical Ragtime here at MotD; the score is considered one of the masterpieces of the Broadway canon, integrating a diverse array of musical styles into an organic tapestry reflecting the roots of American music at the start of the 20th century. The Act 2 number “Back To Before,” performed here by the late Marin Mazzie at the 1997 Tony Awards, speaks to our current moment. Key changes at 2:15, 2:30, and 2:51.