One of the best-selling singles of all-time at 18 million worldwide sales, Taylor Swift‘s “Love Story” was released in 2008 as the lead single from her second studio album Fearless. Considered to be her signature song, it tells the story of a love interest of Swift’s who was not popular among her family and friends. The track peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top 100 and has been certified 8x Platinum by the RIAA. Key change is snuck in right at the end at 3:18.
Tag: USA
Black Artists for Black Lives | Feeding Off the Love of the Land
As described by the performers, Black Artists for Black Lives, “This arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Feeding Off the Love of the Land’ was born out of grief, and evolved into a communal message of healing. In the midst of our grief, we sing with renewed strength and love. We sing for them… We sing for US.”
Stevie’s original appeared under the credits of Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever, but didn’t appear on any of Stevie’s studio albums.
Starting with a gorgeous a cappella arrangement in B major, an instrumental accompaniment sneaks in at 0:30 and swells at the early modulation to D major at 0:48. The energy continues to build until the ensemble hits its fullest stride at 2:04.
Stevie’s original, which doesn’t include a modulation:
Voctave | Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Rufus Wainwright | Trouble in Paradise
A July 2020 piece in FLOOD magazine suggests that singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright is “the reigning king of elegant, earthen and sophisticated art pop. He still has a knack for crooning smartly piquant, yet deeply emotional lyrics with cosmopolitan melodies that come across more Tin Pan Alley, London Palladium and Topanga Canyon than something out of today’s more nebulous and steely AutoTune universe”
His 2019 song “Trouble in Paradise” is the lead single for his most recent album, Unfollow the Rules. In an American Songwriter interview, Wainwright said “After the opera world and natural aging, I can now sing at the full power of my abilities, and this record really shows that off.” He also shared a this synopsis of the song for his website: “Drum beats herald a romp through the inner mind of a bob-haired fashion doyenne on her drive from the town to the country. She reflects on the true price of glamour, and weighs its spiritual costs while eyeing her future legacy, and eternity.”
Typical of Wainwright, the arrangements are layered and ornate — but never overpower what FLOOD calls his “slippery, oboe-like vocals.” Starting in Bb major, the tune modulates up a half-step at 2:13. At 2:49, the song ends in an ambiguous swirl of layered notes, somehow suggesting falling and ascending simultaneously.
Go The Distance (from “Hercules”)
From the 1997 Disney animated feature Herculues, “Go The Distance” was written by Alan Menken and David Zippel, originally recorded by Roger Bart for the film. Michael Bolton also recorded a pop version of the track for the credits. Key change at 2:07.
The Association | Cherish
The Association, AllMusic reports, “was one of the more underrated groups to come out of the mid-to-late ’60s. Creators of an enviable string of hits from 1966 through 1969 … the group’s smooth harmonies and pop-oriented sound … made them regular occupants of the highest reaches of the pop charts for two years. Their biggest hits became instant staples of AM radio play lists, which was a respectable achievement for most musicians at the time. That same sound, along with their AM radio popularity, however, proved a liability as the music environment around them changed at the end of the decade.”
“Cherish” reached #22 on BMI’s list of the 100 Most Played Songs on Television and Radio of the 20th century. Written by Terry Kirkman, the track reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, holding that position for three weeks. Billboard reported it as the #7 song of 1966. According to reporting by the Myrtle Beach Sun News, the band’s record label originally claimed that the tune sounded “too old and archaic.” But original band member Jim Yester retorted that the band “showed we can have archaic and eat it, too.”
Regular mod scout JB adds a few words about this submission: “It truly is an iconic song; the modulation at 2:18 — with its bridge build-up starting at 1:50 — has enough wattage to power LA for a day. Truly a piece of pop perfection!”
Ella Fitzgerald | What’s New
JazzStandards.com reports that “What’s New,” a classic standard, was written by Bob Haggart with lyrics by Johnny Burke. “In an era when cute and romantic had given way to urbane, Burke devised a clever gimmick to tell a love story: casual conversational lyrics telling only one side of the conversation. The result was ‘What’s New?’ … introduced by Bob Crosby and His Orchestra with vocalist Teddy Grace in 1939, (it reached) number ten on the pop charts.
“Recognized worldwide as “The First Lady of Song,” AllMusic reports, “Ella Fitzgerald is arguably the finest female jazz vocalist of all time. Blessed with a highly resonant voice, wide range, and near-perfect elocution, Fitzgerald also possessed a deft sense of swing, and with her brilliant scat technique, could hold her own against any of her instrumental contemporaries. Over her 50-year career, she earned 13 Grammy Awards, sold over 40 million albums, and picked up numerous accolades including a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A hugely important cultural figure, Fitzgerald made an immeasurable impact on the development of jazz and popular music, and remains a touchstone for fans and artists decades after her passing.”
The bridge, normally a ‘B section,’ is simply the same tune and chord progression with some slight melodic alteration in the last two measures (an A1/A1/A2/A1 form). The A2 section modulates up a perfect fourth. Ella’s version here starts in F major and jumps up to Bb major (0:54 – 1:21).
Bonnie Raitt | Something To Talk About
“Something to Talk About” is a single from Bonnie Raitt’s smash hit album Luck of the Draw (1991). The album exceeded even the strong success of her previous career-topping release Nick of Time (1989). These two albums helped Raitt transition from a respected but lesser-known Americana/blues musician to expanded fame as a blues-inflected rock artist — quite a tall order.
According to Songfacts, the Shirley Eikhard-penned tune “won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out a field comprised of Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Amy Grant, and Whitney Houston…this was by far Raitt’s biggest chart hit in the United States.” Discogs reports that the liner notes included a dedication to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in 1990. Vaughan had encouraged Raitt to stop her longtime alcohol abuse. The dedication is the simple phrase “still burning bright.”
The tune modulates up a minor third at 2:30, at the beginning of a section which sounds at first like a bridge but functions as an extended outro.
The Chicks | You Were Mine
Earlier today, the American country band The Dixie Chicks announced they would be dropping “Dixie” from their name, becoming simply The Chicks. The change was made without much fanfare; in a brief statement on its new website, the band states simply: “We want to meet this moment.” To accompany this news, they dropped a new single from their upcoming album Gaslighter (due out next month — the group’s first album in fourteen years) titled “March March,” featuring images of current and historical protests — for women’s rights, gay rights, environmental causes and Black Lives Matter.
While the new track doesn’t have a key change, we thought it would be an appropriate day to feature The Chicks. “You Were Mine” was released in 1998, the fourth single from their hit album Wide Open Spaces. The song is notable for being the first to feature Natalie Maines as the lead vocal; the Erwin sisters were so impressed with her performance on the original demo that she would go on to replace Laura Lynch in the band. It is also a deeply personal song for the group as the lyrics describe the breakup of the Erwin sisters’ parents. It spent two weeks in the #1 spot on the US Country Singles chart, and reached #34 on the Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. Key change at 3:03.
I’d Give It All For You (from “Songs for a New World”)
In recognition of Jason Robert Brown‘s 50th birthday this past Saturday, today we feature “I’d Give It All For You” from his debut production Songs For A New World, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1995. Straddling the line between musical and song cycle, the songs are connected through their depictions of moments of decision for the show’s four characters. Brown has described Songs as being “about one moment. It’s about hitting a wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” Here, a pair of former lovers are reuniting after attempting to live without each other.
Beginning in D major, the song stays there while each character sings a verse and chorus, narrating their backstories and how they ended up where they are. With the onset of the bridge at 3:01, the key center becomes ambiguous, reflecting the more unsettled, striving nature of the lyrics as the characters engage in a call-and-response. When the dust settles, we emerge into the sunlight of the chorus at 4:04 in A major, followed by a wistful, concluding coda in G major.
Performed here by noted Brown interpreter Shoshana Bean and Brown himself at the keyboard at an event at the Library of Congress in 2016. Happy 50th, JRB!
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