“Bye Bye Love,” a 1978 Rock-meets-New Wave hit from The Cars‘ eponymous debut album, features a section built around E major at the start, transitioning to a D major pattern during the gentler pre-chorus (0:48), and then back to E Major (0:59) for the chorus; the cycle then repeats.
Bassist Benjamin Orr on lead vocals and the unmistakably distinctive style of Greg Hawkes on keyboards, covering many of the band’s famously catchy hooks.
Tag: USA
Make Our Garden Grow (from “Candide”)
Here is the maestro Leonard Bernstein conducting his composition “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide (1956). Key changes at 1:42 and 3:02.
R.E.M. | Stand
Somewhat unusual among R.E.M.‘s often somber output, 1989’s “Stand” features double direct whole-step modulations (2:30 and 2:48) towards the end of this bouncy, catchy Top 10 hit.
Guitarist Peter Buck described it as “without a doubt, […] the stupidest song we’ve ever written. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.” He humbly compared the song to The Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie” in terms of lyrical content.
Bruce Hornsby + The Range | The Show Goes On
“The Show Goes On,” an album cut from Bruce Hornsby and the Range‘s second album Scenes from the Southside (1988), follows Bruce Hornsby‘s production template for his early work with his backing band before he went solo in the 90s. The tune’s overall D major tonality transitions into G major during the bridge (4:08 – 4:33).
George Benson | 20/20
Shape-shifting guitarist/vocalist George Benson, a Pittsburgh native, had a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s, pulling from his 36 albums to date. “20/20” (1984) made a splash on three charts: #45/Pop, #20/R&B, and #3/Jazz.
The tune features a bridge with plenty of compound chords (1:50 – 2:25) which remains in the original key. The third verse (2:25) hits with a direct modulation, followed by Benson’s effortless duet combination of guitar and wordless vocals.
Seals + Crofts | Summer Breeze
Seals and Crofts‘ 1972 release “Summer Breeze” features an aural illusion — an apparent modulation where one doesn’t actually exist. The bridge (2:06 to 2:20) is built exclusively on compound/hybrid chords and a soaring vocal line that is unquestionably the high point of the tune. As we arrive back at the final verse at 2:20, it feels as if the tune modulated — all the cues are there. But we are still in the original key of E minor!
James Taylor | On the 4th of July
Happy Fourth! Apologies for the second James Taylor post in as many weeks!
JT somehow seamlessly combines Americana instrumentation with a light Brazilian groove and unmistakably jazz-infused chord voicings for “On the 4th of July” (2002). In the short instrumental section (2:11), the guitar restates the hook and the scene is set for the modulation (2:19).
James Taylor | Enough To Be On Your Way
Far removed in time from his early hits, 1997’s Hourglass was a James Taylor album home to wonderfully woven stories, increasingly complex harmonies, and multi-layered textures. The artist described the collection as “spirituals for agnostics.”
“Enough to Be On Your Way,” reported to have been written in the wake of the death of Taylor’s brother Alex, is quietly stunning even before the modulation — but JT adds a key change to the mix at 4:35. The track features cello by Yo-Yo Ma.
Olivia Newton-John | Hopelessly Devoted to You (from “Grease”)
Released 40 years ago this week, 1978’s top-grossing movie, Grease, featured “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” a hit single by Olivia Newton-John. Modulations between each verse and chorus: 1:11, 1:47, and 2:19.
Bruce Hornsby and the Range | Look Out Any Window
Bruce Hornsby created a unique Americana-inflected pop style through his early 1980s work with Bruce Hornsby and the Range. In “Look Out Any Window,” (1988) ” … Bruce chooses to highlight the concern of environmental degradation at the hands of big business,” (Bruuuce.com) “By pointing a broad, sweeping accusatory finger at ‘Far away, men too busy getting rich to care,’ he taps into a popular sentiment among young, concerned, (though invariably middle class) western teenagers.
The song was written at a time just before concerns over the Ozone Layer and ‘Greenhouse Effect’ were about to burst into major headline news stories … The lyrics also tap into a wider sense of regional discontent at centralist government, or urban/rural divide: The valiant, subsistence labourers – ‘There’s a man working in a field’ and ‘There’s a man working in a boat’ – against the likes of the ‘Big boys telling you everything they’re gonna do,’ and ‘Fat cat builderman, turning this into a wasteland.'”
An instrumental bridge (2:52 – 3:28) which modulates and then reverts to the original key as it reaches the final pre-chorus.
modulationoftheday.home.blog 