Tag: USA

The Duprees | You Belong to Me

In 1952, “You Belong to Me” was a #1 hit for singer Jo Stafford backed by the orchestra led by her husband, pianist Paul Weston. That arrangement features distinctive marimba rolls and ensemble saxophone phrases. The song was written by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, and Redd Stewart, and first recorded by Joni James earlier in 1952. King and Stewart are best known as the writers of the country standard “Tennessee Waltz.” Stafford was known for her perfect pitch and vocal accuracy, perhaps adding to the comedic value of the talentless musicians act she and Weston later created, “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.” The song has since been widely recorded; there are versions by Patti Page, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan, among others.

The Duprees were a doo-wop group from New Jersey, who recorded for the independent Coed label beginning starting in the early 1960s, and later for Columbia. The tune here was from their 1962 debut album of the same name. The single peaked at #7 on Billboard. In 1970, the group changed their name to The Italian Asphalt & Pavement Co. (ed. note: shudder), with a change in sound to match; they recorded one album under that moniker. As with many groups from the doo-wop period, there is an extant group carrying on with the name, though none of the original Duprees is in it.

The song starts out in C♯ major. Coming out of the bridge, there’s a modulation to D at 1:41 for the final verse. There’s an unmistakable doo-wop cliché vocal cadenza at 2:12 to settle into the outro.

Sabrina Carpenter | Please Please Please

“Sabrina Carpenter was recently released from Swift’s Eras tour juggernaut, having supported the superstar on her dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore … (The Guardian). “(Her) career is already a decade long, though she only turns 25 next week … Carpenter signed a five-album record deal when she was 12 with the Disney-owned Hollywood Records. From 2014 to 2017, she also starred in the Disney Channel comedy Girl Meets World, while steadily releasing music … After opening for Ariana Grande and the Vamps on their 2017 tours, and a stint as the lead in Mean Girls on Broadway (cut short by the pandemic), Carpenter signed with Universal Music Group’s Island Records in 2021.”

“Please Please Please” was released in June 2024. Although the tune has a lightweight feel overall, the lyrics warn against the danger of ignoring romantic red flags (this live performance is a “clean” version; the original version amps up the red flag quotient yet further!) Built in A major overall, a single verse shifts to C major (1:30 – 1:49). The closing section, an oddly-placed bridge, starts at 2:25.

Little Anthony + The Imperials | Tears On My Pillow

“In the summer of 1958, Jerome Anthony Gourdine found himself simmering in a hot classroom at a brick high school in Brooklyn,” (thirteen.org). “Gourdine, better known as Little Anthony, had recently recorded his first single, ‘Tears On My Pillow,’ as a member of the singing group The Imperials. But that year he had skipped so many days of school, he was at risk of missing out on a diploma and was forced to complete the remaining credits over the summer.

‘That was a sentence, man,’ Little Anthony says now. He says he stuck through it, until one moment changed everything for him. ‘So one day, I heard these little girls in the back of the classroom snickering,’ he said. ‘And they had these little transistors in the air and I could hear music coming out of there and they kept pointing at me.’ When they handed him the radio, he heard himself singing ‘Tears On My Pillow.’ He promptly closed his books, walked out, and never looked back at his alma mater.” Gourdine later became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Clocking in at only 2:20, the 1958 single reached the top ten in the US and Canada, going on to sell over a million copies. After a start in C major, the tune shifts up a whole step to D major at 1:50 as the brief bridge comes to an end.

Tanya Tucker | The Jamestown Ferry

“Long before teenagers like LeAnn Rimes and Taylor Swift were taking over the country charts, a 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was mixing it up with all the heavyweights,” (Holler Country). “Included on her debut album in 1972, “The Jamestown Ferry,” (a) funky little slice of countrypolitan, was everything the 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was becoming synonymous with in the early 70s.

With a lyric presumably way beyond her experience and a deep soulful vocal that belied her age, ‘The Jamestown Ferry’ tells the story of a woman wandering the honky tonks and bars and sadly reminiscing about how her lover used to treat her before he left her to catch a ferry.”

Tucker’s solo vocal verses alternate with a multi-part vocal arrangement for the choruses. 1:38 brings a half-step key change. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Paul Revere + The Raiders | Kicks

“The songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were two of the most successful in pop music in the early ’60s, having written such hits as ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin Feelin,’ ‘Uptown,’ and ‘On Broadway’ to name a few,” (AllMusic). “Likewise, Paul Revere and the Raiders were also at the pinnacle of their existence with a hit AM radio rocker and a featured spot on the TV show Where the Action Is.

In March of 1966, the Mann/Weil-penned anti-drug song ‘Kicks’ peaked at number four, the highest position to date on the Billboard charts for Paul Revere and the Raiders.” The US band’s clearly anti-drug single was not exactly in tune with the zeitgeist of its era: “For better or worse, mind expansion was in the air, and it was about to be embraced by an audience ready to turn in its Beatlemania wigs for a future paved by the creative revelations of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. It would only be a matter of months before weirdo bands from places like experimental San Francisco would preach the exact opposite message delivered in ‘Kicks.’ … (It) is one of the handful of overtly anti-’60s pop songs recorded in its own time.”

A brief bridge (1:43 – 1:59) shifts the tonality from F minor to the parallel major key of F major. That would normally qualify for quite an early bridge, but in this case, the entire the track is only 2:32!

Serendipity Singers | Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)

“The folk boom of the early 1960s spawned numerous purveyors of well-scrubbed folk pop, and one of the most popular ensembles to emerge was The Serendipity Singers, founded at the University of Colorado … (they) signed with Philips Records in 1964 and released their debut single, ‘Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man),’ which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated at the 7th Grammy Awards in 1965 for Best Performance by a Chorus,” (Colorado Music Hall of Fame).

“… The group had numerous appearances on popular TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show, Shindig! and Hullabaloo. One of the most notable performances was at the White House in front of President Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1964 Democratic National Convention … The Serendipity Singers came onto the nationwide music scene right before the longstanding reign of The Beatles and the British Invasion exploded onto U.S. soil.” The college newspaper The Missouri Miner wrote in a 1969 review: ‘They’re not hippies and they don’t wear flowers, but the sound of The Serendipity Singers is as contemporary as Pop Art … ‘”

The whimsical track “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)” shifts up a whole-step at the 2:22 mark. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this tune!

At the Club Savoy (from “Panama Hattie”)

“Panama Hattie is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with both romantic and military intrigue. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat,” (SondheimGuide.com).

The musical was adapted for a 1942 film of the same name. With World War II underway and recently augmented by the addition of US troops, Hollywood was honing the craft of releasing films which were often short on budgeting, plot, or both. It seems that Panama Hattie was lacking only in the latter of the two factors. The film’s script “was quite witty, full of sight gags, yes, but tasteful sight gags, the non-Porter songs were not crap; Ann Sothern is a competent vocalist (nothing compared to Merman, who originated the part, but really, who is anything compared to Merman?), and Lena Horne’s in it,” (IMDB). “… But I suggest watching this movie for more than just Lena Horne … Virginia O’Brian is rather fun to watch with her deadpan singing … the plot is slim to none, but the movie really wasn’t about plot, it was about fun and peddling war bonds.”

The tune runs in A major overall, with a few temporary diversions. But the most noticeable shift, up a half-step to Bb, hits at 2:13 in advance of the number’s final wind-up.

Thanks as always to regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission!