Even five decades after its active years, it’s rare to find a band with as tiny a remaining footprint as 21st Century Limited. A “Los Angeles soul group who released a couple (of) singles and appeared on the Blacula soundtrack in the early 1970s,” (Discogs) … “Three-fifths of the band went on to The Wattsline” — Quincy Jones’ vocal backing group during the mid-70s.
from Billboard, 10/23/71
The October 23, 1971 issue of Billboard apparently saw great things for the band’s future, predicting that “Your Smallest Wish” would reach the Soul Singles Chart. But from there, the trail grows cold.
JB, who unearthed this tune for us, calls the rare single a “veritable harmonic ransom note.” After a start in F major, there’s a pre-chorus transition at 0:30, then a chorus in C major at 0:39. The pattern continues from there. Then a bridge/break (1:52) leads to a pause in the groove and another chorus at 2:06 — this time in D major, which lasts for the balance of the tune.
We usually wrap up our week with an up-tempo rock or dance tune, but this week we’ll continue to look back at the singular career of legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach, whose work has been a frequent feature on MotD. Bacharach’s work not only featured a broad harmonic vocabulary — including plenty of modulations. It generally stepped lightly through complex harmonic and meter transitions which only fully came to light after several listening sessions, rarely “telegraphing” themselves in advance. Bacharach generally avoided cliché half-step or whole-step key changes; rather, he favored transitions between closely-related keys, which don’t hit the listener like a brick upside the head, but a bit more like the sun gradually peeking through the clouds. He hid all the seams and made the final result sound effortless.
Bacharach studied composition with composer Darius Milhaud, one of the members of the informal but influential guild of progressive French composers, “Les Six.” Key changes and meter changes were not special effects for Bacharach, but rather organic tools for expression. Composer/pianist Ethan Iverson reports that Milhaud “told Bacharach that he shouldn’t worry about dodecaphony and keep composing those nice melodies.”
Iverson continues: “In his 60s songs, Bacharach undoes conventional pop from deep underneath the surface. ‘Hooks’ are almost always a bit asymmetrical, but Burt’s are truly lopsided. In the background of his radio-friendly hits, there is an echo of bebop logic, an echo of Schoenbergian logic.” Lyricist Hal David, Iverson suggests, “searched a surreal and overcast meadow for unexpected rhyme and reason.” Iverson continues by saying that jazz musician Dave Frishberg, when learning to write memorable themes, studied “the ‘4 Bs’: The Beach Boys, the Beatles, Brazilian, and Bacharach. (‘Brazilian’ means Jobim, Gilberto, Mendes, etc.)”
“The Look of Love,” originally released by Dusty Springfield in 1967, was covered by jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall for a 2012 performance at the White House as part of the In Performance at the White House | Burt Bacharach + Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song PBS broadcast in May 2012. While Bacharach was present for the performance, Krall’s emotional mention of David hints at the ill health of the lyricist, who lived only a few more months. Krall’s version of the #22 US pop hit, which features plenty of “Burt-isms” in her piano work, is in Bb major overall, but shifts to Bb minor from 3:59 – 4:10. The modulation is situated in the heart of an outro that seems lit only by hushed twilight (3:59 onward), during which Krall communes with her bassist as the two negotiate the subtle ritardando that brings the tune in for a landing. The final Bb major tonic chord rings out at 4:10, complicated by the quintessentially Bachrachian #11 tension Krall repeats several times.
“You’ll Think of Someone” is sung by the two main characters in Act 1 of the 1968 Broadway musical Promises, Promises, based on the classic 1960 film The Apartment. Featuring a score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the show is notable for introducing the pop idiom to Broadway, and was among the first shows to use amplified instruments in the pit.
Performed here by Kristin Chenowith and Sean Hayes, who starred in a 2010 Broadway revival, the song moves fluidly between time signatures and alternates between E major and Db major throughout. Bacharach, a 6-time Grammy winner known for his unconventional chord progressions, died yesterday at age 94. In 2012, Bacharach and David were awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin prize for Popular Song, the first time the award had been presented to a duo.
“Be True to Yourself” is an early Burt Bacharach / Hal David composition that was a minor hit for singer Bobby Vee in 1963. Bacharach played on and conducted the orchestra for the recording. The trademark Bacharach touches are there: horn introduction, syncopated melody line, and harmonic complexity. Does the emphasis on beats 2, 3, and 4 at 0:35 foreshadow “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”?
This record reached a respectable #34 on the Billboard charts; Bobby Vee had bigger hits in the 1960s, notably “Devil or Angel” (#6 in 1960), “Take Good Care of My Baby” (#1 in 1961), and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” (#3 in 1962).
There’s a half-step modulation up at 1:06 during the instrumental bridge.
Written by MotD favorite Marc Shaiman with Ramsey McLean for the 1993 Nora Ephron film Sleepless in Seattle, “A Wink and a Smile” was performed by Harry Connick Jr. for the soundtrack.
The song, which was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, plays over a montage as Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) tries to cheer up his son Jonah (played by Ross Malinger) after his mother dies. It modulates from C up a half step to Db at 2:09
“Samara Joy won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best New Artist,” (Vulture). “The 23-year-old singer took the stage in front of her idols. ‘Some of my biggest inspirations were in the room,’ she said at the Grammy press room. ‘Beyoncé, Lizzo, to name a few.’
Joy first started singing jazz while in high school in the Bronx. She hopes to return there and give a performance or start a foundation. She got a record deal after a video of her covering Ella Fitzgerald’s “Take Love Easy” went viral … One thing that sets Joy apart from her fellow New Artists is her reliance on jazz standards. Her Grammy-winning album, Linger Awhile (Best New Artist is an album-less category, but Linger Awhile also won for Best Jazz Vocal Album) is full of songs that have been done by Joy’s vocal predecessors. ‘I love the music I grew up on,’ Joy said in the Grammy press room. ‘What drew me to jazz was the authenticity of it.'” Born in the waning days of 1999, Joy won a Best New Artist award from Jazz Times in the wake of the release of her eponymous first album in 2021.
Joy indeed seems to channel Ella on the live version of “Can’t Get Out of This Mood” from this week’s 2023 Grammy ceremony broadcast. After a start in F major, the tune shifts up at 2:08 into Gb major.
“Audacious musicians are the best,” (Harvard Crimson). “They’ve been all over the map with their talents and tastes, they’ve been a part of power-pop band The Semantics, they’ve toured with Shania Twain, Pat McGee, Amy Grant and Janis Joplin to get a foothold in the music industry, they’ve jammed with Ben Folds for fun. And then they retire to their living rooms in Alabama to craft their solo pilot over four meticulous years, which they subsequently drop off at the major labels with a rakish take-it-or-leave-it attitude until Giant Records snaps it up. As a result, they make music that’s informed and intelligent, yet independent and fresh.
That’s Will Owsley, recommended by his history and spirit and supported by a very strong debut album of 11 rock gems … The songs here don’t address urgent issues or bleed hearts and even have a tendency to sound like one another, but they do serve blissful, slightly off-center rock with consistent crunch. They make you shut your eyes, nod emphatically and belch, ‘Yey-ahh. Thank god for audacious musicians.'”
The meticulously produced “I’m Alright” is a track from Owsley’s eponymous debut album (1999), recorded in his home studio, which went on to receive a Grammy nod for Best Engineered album. The track starts in E major, shifts to E minor for the first chorus (0:40); the pattern continues until 1:34, where an instrumental verse arrives in Eb major. At 1:51, we’re back to the original E major/minor pattern.
“I Don’t Think That I Like Her” was the fifth single from American singer Charlie Puth’s 2022 album Charlie, the third studio record he has released. Rolling Stone critic Larissa Paul noted that “the [song] finds the singer weighed down by past relationships that instilled a sense of paranoia in him, making dating all the more precarious.”
The tune begins in B and modulates up a step to C# at 2:25.
Written by Bob Dylan in 1962, “Blowing In The Wind” was ranked at #14 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004. The song evolved into a protest song during the Civil Rights movement. Sam Cooke’s biographer, Peter Guralnick, claims that Cooke loved the song but wished it had been written by a person of color, and quickly incorporated it into his repertoire. This rare footage of a live performance shows how deeply he connected with the song’s message. Modulation at 0:46.
“Diane Birch has an earthy and ethereal articulation, somewhat reminiscent of Stevie Nick’s Fleetwood Mac material.” (Popmatters). “The singer-songwriter passionately croons of love and life using everything from dubstep beats to her solo piano playing to accent the emotionalism of her voice. Her vocals suggest dust and wonder, experience and naivety, the ache of one who yearns for something not within reach and the satisfied grin of one who has made it.”
From NPR’s profile of Birch: “The singer, songwriter and pianist had an eclectic musical upbringing. Her music is filled with the language and sounds of gospel and church music — her father was a preacher. She also lived in Zimbabwe and Australia, where her parents constantly played classical records, as a child. ‘I’d wake up to [soprano] Joan Sutherland screaming in my ear,’ Birch says. ‘It’s an amazing alarm clock — that’s the best kind of scream.'”
The relaxed waltz of Birch’s 2009 release “Photograph” starts in F major, but shifts to D major for the chorus at 0:40; 1:08 – 1:16 brings an gradual and oblique shift back to the original key. There’s an instrumental bridge in Bb major from 2:28 – 2:58, but at 3:33, a gospel-heavy outro appears out of nowhere, with a completely new meter and yet another new key: A major.
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