Tag: USA

Utopia | Only Human

An unapologetic ballad on Swing to the Right (1982), an album generally driven by uptempo tunes, Utopia‘s “Only Human” covers ground familiar to fans of Todd Rundgren, the band’s founder, primary frontman, co-writer, and guitarist. AllMusic.com reviewed the album as “doggedly pursu(ing) a weird fusion of new wave pop, arena rock, and soul, all spiked with social commentary” — perhaps not surprising, as the lead vocal and composition duties were distributed among the rock quartet.

The lyrics touch on existential challenges which confront us all, at one time or another. But there is also a typically Rundgren-esque affection for humanity overarching the melancholy. In the end, “Love Is the Answer” and mutual understanding is the end goal: never guaranteed, but therefore prized all the more.

After an intro and verses in B minor, the arrival of the chorus flips over into the relative major (D major) at 2:17; the pattern continues throughout. Utopia’s trademark close four-part harmonies overlay a harmonic complexity typical of the quartet.

Brenda Russell | Piano In The Dark

“Piano In The Dark” was the first single released from Brenda Russell‘s 1988 album Get Here. The track earned Russell two Grammy nominations in 1989, including one for Song Of The Year, and went on to be her biggest hit, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When asked about the genesis of the song in an interview, Russell said:

“Piano In The Dark” was a wonderful experience. I had two co-writers on that song. Scott Cutler and Jeffrey Hall. And they had sent me this music. And I’m a person that collects song titles. You know, if I hear a good title, like talking to a friend or whatever, I’ll write it down. I keep a little song title book. I always think that in every title there’s a song somewhere, and you’ve just got to thin it out. So when they sent me this music, I thought, Whoa, it’s so haunting and beautiful, I love that. And I was flipping through my title book and I just thought, piano in the dark, I wonder if that would go with that music I heard. That’s as easy as that happened. I had that title and I thought, Hmmm, maybe that’ll work.

…[the song is] about this woman. Her lover plays piano. And she wants to leave him, because she’s really kind of bored. But every time she does that, he sits down and starts playing. And it sucks her right back in. She’s so in love with the way he plays. And he plays in the dark, theoretically. It’s not that literal, necessarily. But that’s what keeps her to him, basically, is his music. And I just found that was an interesting story to write about.”

The verses are set in F minor, and Russell modulates seamlessly to the parallel major for the choruses at 1:03, 2:06, and 2:59.

Mariah Carey | Always Be My Baby

The fourth single released from Mariah Carey’s fifth studio album, Daydream, “Always Be My Baby” was the most played song on the radio in 1996, and the first single to debut at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The lyrics describes the lingering attachment the singer retains towards her former lover, even as they both go their separate ways. The track is one of Carey’s most successful, reaching Triple Platinum status with well over 2 million sales.

The key change is at 3:01. Many thanks to MotD fan Rob Penttinen for this submission!

The Lawrence Welk Show | One Toke Over the Line

San Francisco-based folk duo Brewer + Shipley scored a top 10 hit in 1971 with “One Toke Over the Line.” Their website details that “while the record buying public was casting its vote of approval by buying the single, the (soon to be disgraced) Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, labeled (us) as subversives, and then strong-armed the FCC to ban ‘One Toke’ from the airwaves just as it was peaking on the charts.” The band was even added to Richard Nixon’s notorious Enemies List!

Songfacts.com reports that “some radio stations refused to play this song because of the drug references, but not everyone got this meaning. In 1971 the song was performed on the Lawrence Welk Show by the wholesome-looking couple Gail Farrell and Dick Dale, who clearly had NO clue what a toke was. Welk, at the conclusion of the performance of the song, remarked, without any hint of humor, ‘there you’ve heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.'”

The original tune has no modulation, but the Welk crew’s cover, which broke the earnestness meter from its first few bars, added a half-step upward key change at 1:36. The AV Club adds that “Welk’s big band had been carefully pulled together over his years touring and on the radio, and it was filled with the sorts of nice, Midwestern boys like Welk himself (a North Dakota native). The primary goal of the program was to make sure the music never stopped playing, and that it never got to be too much for the show’s predominantly older audience. And that audience was loyal, sticking with the program as it moved from a locally based Los Angeles show to a national one to one that ran in first-run syndication. Welk had a program on the air somewhere in the country from 1951 to 1982, a staggeringly long run that no other musical variety program can really touch. And he did it all without catering to changing whims or fashions, outside of the occasional badly misjudged musical number, such as …”

…and just for good measure, the original:

Frankie Valli | My Eyes Adored You

A submission from MotD fan Kent: “Perhaps my favorite ballad of the 1970s, Frankie Valli’s ‘My Eyes Adored You’ (1974) starts out in A major (after an intro that keeps you guessing which key it’s going to land in).” Written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Easy Listening chart, and was ranked by Billboard overall as the #5 song of that year.

The path to each of the modulations is cleared by a V/IV compound chord in the new key, announced by a syncopated kick not found anywhere else in the arrangement. The first one hits at 0:39 at the end of the first chorus; oddly, the tune doesn’t start with a verse. But although that initial kick features the V/IV chord, it’s just a warmup: there’s no modulation. At 1:33, the first half-step modulation hits with the same syncopated kick, followed by more at 2:29 and 2:52.

Fred Hersch | And So It Goes

“And So It Goes” first appeared on Billy Joel’s 1989 studio album Storm Front. The tune has since been covered by countless artists, ranging from former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams to American bagpiper Jori Chisholm on his debut album Bagpipe Revolution. Here, jazz pianist Fred Hersch performs his rendition, which was featured on his solo 2017 album Open Book. Beginning in C major, Hersch hints at Eb Major around the 4:00 mark, and then settles in Ab at 4:51 and stays there through the end.

Earth Wind + Fire feat. The Emotions | Boogie Wonderland

From stalwart MotD fan Carlo Migliaccio: “I was listening to Earth Wind and Fire, when I remembered that ‘Boogie Wonderland’ modulates briefly to the relative major, twice: once at 1:38 and again at 3:38.”

The 1979 single, the caboose-that-could at the end of Disco’s multi-year train, achieved a #14 ranking on the Dance chart, #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #2 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It also garnered Grammy nominations for Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Disco Recording.

According to AllMusic.com, “One of the few records that paired two full-fledged groups successfully, the combination of EWF and the Emotions worked wonders here and it remains a classic of the period. A virtual call to arms of the disco scene, the lyrics relate the power of the extinct musical form, and although loaded with clichés, it still retains a certain period charm. The fantasy life of disco patrons is celebrated here, and in this way, it was a sort of theme song to the Studio 54 crowd. Musically, it’s a straight four-on-the-floor rhythm with a funk melody, and despite its simplicity — or because of it — it was a huge and accessible record that is still played regularly on oldies R&B radio.”

I Know Where I’ve Been (from “Hairspray”)

There’s a road 
We’ve been travelin’ 
Lost so many on the way 
But the riches 
Will be plenty 
Worth the price we 
Had to pay 

There’s a dream 
In the future 
There’s a struggle 
We have yet to win 
And there’s pride 
In my heart 
‘Cause i know 
Where I’m going 
And I know where I’ve been 

From Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s 2002 Broadway musical Hairspray, set in 1962 Baltimore and highlighting themes of racial prejudice and discrimination, these lyrics seem more relevant, urgent, and necessary today than ever. Just this week, the show’s creators announced that going forward, all productions of the show will be required to cast the show to accurately reflect the race of the characters as they were written. The Tony-winning score incorporates elements of rock & roll and rhythm & blues. Hairspray is widely performed in schools and other theaters across the country today. In reflecting on the genesis of this song in particular, Marc Shaiman said:

This was … inspired by a scene late in the [1988] movie that takes place on the black side of town. It never dawned on us that a torrent of protest would follow us from almost everyone involved with the show. ‘It’s too sad … It’s too preachy. … It doesn’t belong. … Tracy should sing the eleven o’clock number.’ We simply didn’t want our show to be yet another show-biz version of a civil rights story where the black characters are just background. And what could be more Tracy Turnblad-like than to give the ‘eleven o’clock number’ to the black family at the heart of the struggle? Luckily … the audiences embraced this moment, which enriches the happy ending to follow, and it is our proudest achievement of the entire experience of writing Hairspray.”

Performed here by Jennifer Hudson, who portrayed Motormouth Maybelle in the 2016 NBC Live broadcast of the show. Key change at 3:17.

Reign of Kindo | Dust

Reign of Kindo‘s music, according to AllMusic, features “the introspective Brit-pop influences of bands like Coldplay and Keane, but placing the piano front and center and mixing complex jazz harmonies and dissonances with the pop sensibilities of a Ben Folds.” The band has toured with a small central core of musicians, but makes its main impression with the sprawling instrumentation featured in this live recording session. Recording live in the studio, with no overdubs, is a feat on its own — but the band has also added the challenge of capturing the process on video.

The ensemble doesn’t fit neatly into a genre, sitting somewhere between the prog rock, pop, and jazz worlds. The band’s website explains: “It is piano-driven Alt-Jazz…Latin and R&B close by …since the debut EP hit #5 on the Billboard Middle Atlantic Heatseekers chart in 2007, this band has only just begun to emerge from their decade-long journey from rags to… better rags with resumes.”

Starting in C minor, an extended multi-key middle section runs from 1:40 through 3:19. At 3:19, there’s a clear return to C minor.