A cover of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” (2017) with a modulation around 2:40. The original might have six billion views, but this cover adds something very new.
From Jonny May’s website: “Teaching piano is one of my greatest joys, and over the past 15 years, I’ve helped over ten thousand students take their piano playing to the next level.” He performed as a Main Street Disneyland pianist for over nine years and has over 30 million hits people with his Youtube videos.
“Earth, Wind & Fire held a lofty status as the perhaps the preeminent R&B band in America as they began making their 1979 album I Am,” (American Songwriter). “It was by no means an overnight journey to get to that exalted status. Early in the ‘70s, the Chicago-based outfit labored to find a widespread audience. That all changed in 1975 with the release of the album That’s the Way of the World. Spurred by a No. 1 hit single in “Shining Star,” the album ended up hitting the top of the charts as well. EWF sustained that momentum through a series of smash LPs and singles in the second half of the decade.
Although they wrote much of their own material, the band occasionally looked to outside sources as well. That’s how they nabbed “After the Love Has Gone,” which was penned by a trio of writers who didn’t have any idea they were going to be submitting the song to an R&B band.”
This classic power ballad, co-written by Bill Champlin, David Foster, and Jay Graydon, reached #2 in the USA during the summer of 1979. The first modulation is at 0:53; thereafter, the mods are too numerous to track!
UPDATE, April 2021: We were mistaken … The internet’s friendliest guide to music theory, Charles Cornell, tracked all the key changes!
After becoming Exhibit A for chart-topping synth-pop blockbusters in the early 80s, Duran Duran scored an uncharacteristically understated hit in 1993 with the ballad “Ordinary World.”
Boston-based pianist/bandleader/educator Mark Shilansky and his band Fugue Mill have thoroughly re-harmonized and restructured the tune with their 2014 cover, stacking verse after verse.
Finally, the single extended chorus arrives (at 3:33) with cascading modulations nowhere to be heard in the original.
Hope everyone has had a great Tuesday! Today we feature the great Andrea Bocelli singing “Angels We Have Heard on High” (2009) with two, yes two, quite majestic modulations (for you music theory nerds out there, I have put in a comment what kind of modulations these are. Quite interesting.) Again, you should really watch the whole thing, but the modulations are around 2:07 and 2:51. Enjoy!
Today’s modulation is brought to you by Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach’s “I Still Have That Other Girl” (1998). The huge modulation is around the 2:09 mark. Enjoy!
Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” (1988) went to #1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Black Singles charts, as well as #3 on the UK Singles chart. Modulation around 3:40.
Here is Celine Dion’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman” (1996). Co-written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and first performed by Aretha Franklin in 1967, this cover version adds a modulation to the original tune (2:37).
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