“They say repetition is key to retention,” said Jon Burlingame, writing for Variety. “And in Disney/Pixar’s animated feature “Coco,” the song “Remember Me” is the tie that binds multiple generations in the shared love of music. It is central to the story about a young boy named Miguel who is pulled by the song from the land of the living to the land of the dead, gradually discovering the origins of the composition and awakening his own inner showmanship. Also part of the plotline are recollections of the distant past – hence, the song’s title — and of beloved long gone family members.”
The song won the Academy Award for Best Song in 2018, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Grammy as well. This cover, by the a cappella group Voctave, features the instrumental group Mariachi Cobre, which regularly performs at Disney and also tours. Two modulations sprinkled in at 0:41 and 1:12.
“Toto was a lab accident. Obviously, not a tragedy, like Chernobyl. More like Bruce Banner getting exposed to Gamma Rays and becoming The Hulk,” (PastPrime). “With time, their odd greatness and great oddness have become much clearer. But back in 1982, they sounded both hulkingly awesome and completely normal. They won the Grammys for best song (‘Rosanna’) and album (IV) of the year. They sold over ten million records. They were proof that Rock music could be sonically pristine and exceedingly popular; that musicians could look just like regular guys — or worse — and still be stars; and that Pop music could be ‘all encompassing’ (in toto).”
During the 21st century, after more than a fair share of personnel changes and the untimely death of one of the band’s founding members (drummer Jeff Porcaro), guitarist Steve Lukather has become the band’s undisputed center. “When Lukather gets exposed to those Gamma Rays, he reunites some version of the mutant supergroup … But, contrary to their name, no band — not even The Beatles — can be all encompassing. Toto was perhaps the only band to have ever really tried. Their hypothesis ultimately proved invalid or, at least, inconclusive. But, in 1982, after the Iran Hostage Crisis but before Thriller, they sounded like a miracle of science.” The band’s website details the towering influence of its members’ contributions as first-call LA studio musicians: “… the band members’ performances can be heard on an astonishing 5,000 albums that together amass a sales history of half a billion albums. Amongst these recordings, NARAS applauded the collected works with 225 Grammy nominations.”
The 1999 version of the band heard on “One Road,” however, sounds “alternately like Richard Marx fronting Aerosmith … or Donald Fagen writing and producing for Foreigner.” The term mutant fits, as the band doesn’t conform to any one particular genre. For a rock/pop/kitchen sink band with a multi-decade reputation for rich harmonic sensibilities and meticulously crafted arrangements, Toto’s discography features surprisingly few outright modulations. But “One Road” starts in E minor, then shifts up to F# minor (2:30-2:45) for an instrumental bridge built around a Lukather guitar solo.
“I’m All About You” is featured on American singer Aaron Carter’s third studio album, Oh Aaron, released in 2001. The track was the third and final single released for the record, which reached the #7 spot on the Billboard 20o and was certified Platinum. Carter, who was a contestant on Dancing With The Stars and appeared on Broadway in Seussical, passed away last week at age 34.
The track begins in C major and modulates up to D following the bridge at 2:37.
“A veteran singer and composer during the classic period of Philly soul, Bunny Sigler was always capable of making striking, memorable soul/R&B material,”(AllMusic). “Debuting in the ’50s with his own group and as a solo performer, he reached the higher end of the R&B charts several times … Sigler actually earned much more acclaim for his work as a staff writer and producer. One of the major creative forces behind Philadelphia International’s dominance of ’70s soul, Sigler produced and wrote for dozens of major acts, including Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Lou Rawls, Patti LaBelle, the Whispers, Stephanie Mills, Billy Paul, Curtis Mayfield, and Carl Carlton.”
“Follow Your Heart” (1967) starts in G major, but with almost no emphasis on chord color — instead, a distinctive I major / flat-II major (sub V) vamp rings out beneath the verse’s melody. At 0:39, the chorus shifts to Bb major; the less exotic chord progression in this section brings the sound closer to a textbook 1960s pop/soul hit. The pattern continues from there.
“Poison Ivy” is featured on the Jonas Brothers’ 2009 album Lines, Vines and Trying Times. The track, which features a horn section, was partially inspired by the English indie rock band The Zutons. “We were really inspired by the Zutons,” Joe Jonas said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “We heard their new record, You Can Do Anything, when we were in Europe last year and got everyone around us hooked on it.”
The song begins in G and modulates down to Eb at 3:06.
The Last Ship opened on Broadway in October 2014 and played for 3 months. The score, written by Sting, was nominated for a Tony Award. Sting also briefly stepped into the lead role in New York for the final few weeks of the run.
The story, while original, is inspired by memories from Sting’s childhood in Wallsend, England. “I did everything in my power to escape Wallsend… I became successful, but I owe a debt to that community,” Sting said in an interview on public radio. “This play is me trying to honour that community, trying to pay back what they gave me — a sense of self but also the engine that allowed me to escape. That’s the strange paradox. I love where I come from, I’m glad I escaped, at the same time I need to tell that story as a sort of ‘soul debt’.”
Writing the show also helped Sting emerge from a long period of writer’s block. ““I was writing songs for other characters than me, other sensibilities than mine, a different viewpoint,” he told the New York Times. “And so all of that pent-up stuff, all of those crafts I’d developed as a songwriter, I was suddenly free to explore without much thinking, actually. It just kind of came out as a kind of Tourette’s, a kind of projectile vomiting. It just came out, very quickly.”
“What Say You Meg?” is performed here by Sting. Modulation from E up to F# at 2:49.
“One of the finest Hammond B-3 organ players of his generation, Cory Henry was a child prodigy, playing both piano and organ by the time he was two years old, making his debut at the legendary Apollo Theater when he was only six,” (AllMusic). “He has worked in the studio and toured with countless artists, including Yolanda Adams, Stanley Brown, Israel Houghton, P. Diddy, Kirk Franklin, Kenny Garrett (the 19-year-old Henry became a fixture in Garrett’s touring band for three years), Donnie McClurkin, Boyz II Men, Michael McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, the Roots, and many others. He has also worked as a bandleader and producer as well as an in-demand sideman.
Falling closer to the Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson side of the Hammond organ jazz genre than Jimmy Smith, with maybe a little Billy Preston tossed in, Henry at his best combines the best of both gospel and jazz in his playing … Since 2012, Henry has been a member of the acclaimed experimental jazz and funk ensemble Snarky Puppy, with whom he won a 2014 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance and a 2015 Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. In 2016, Henry released the gospel-infused solo effort The Revival.”
Although best known for his B-3 organ work, this video finds Henry employing a wonderful way to practice piano, varying his phrasing and transitioning through multiple keys as he goes; for the listener, it sounds a lot more like entertainment! The transcription which accompanies the performance was done by Timothy Gondola, who explains his process on his Patreon page: “I am a 27-year old classically-trained pianist, and for the past few years I have been using transcriptions to teach myself jazz. Jazz transcriptions are what enabled me to quickly delve into the foreign jazz world. Through my transcriptions, I am on a mission to help countless pianists and other musicians worldwide who are longing to play the music they enjoy. Transcriptions also create a portal into the mind of the improviser behind the music. They are a holistic learning tool for music players and music listeners alike.”
“Donna Summer’s title as the ‘Queen of Disco’ wasn’t mere hype,” (AllMusic). “Like many of her contemporaries, she was a talented vocalist trained as a powerful gospel belter, but she set herself apart with her songwriting ability, magnetic stage presence, and shrewd choice of studio collaborators, all of which resulted in sustained success. During the ’70s alone, she topped the Billboard club chart 11 times … After (the disco) subgenre was declared dead, Summer was very much part of the evolution of dance music. Through the feminist anthem ‘She Works Hard for the Money’ (1983), she became an MTV star, and she continued to top the club chart with disco-rooted house singles through 2010, 35 years after her breakthrough. Summer died from cancer in 2012 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the next year.”
“I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt” was a track from the 1989 album Another Place and Time; Summer hired the UK production team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman for the project. The album produced her last major pop hit with the 1989 Top Ten single “This Time I Know It’s for Real.”
After an intro in C minor, the verse kicks in at 0:17 in A minor. The chorus 0:49 reverts to C minor. The pattern continues from there.
Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 book of the same name, The Secret Garden premiered on Broadway in 1991. The Tony-nominated score, written by Marsha Norman (lyrics) and Lucy Simon (music), is one of the most lush and operatic ever written for the musical theater stage. Simon passed away last week at the age of 82.
“Wick,” which comes in Act II, is sung by Martha and her brother Dickon and reflects his delight at teaching her about nature. The song begins in Bb and emerges into C at 1:36. It then modulates up briefly to E for Martha’s verse at 2:00 before returning to C at 2:19. It then shifts to E at 3:31, where it remains till the end.
“As the title of their crown jewel Sons of Soul (1993) boldly declared, Tony! Toni! Toné! were true descendants of soul and funk music’s golden age from the very start,” (Albumism). “Hailing from the undeniably tough and vibrant streets of Oakland, California, the family trio absorbed the social, cultural, and political climate that defined the Bay Area during its most incendiary era. Above all, the Bay Area was one of the powerhouse cornerstones of funk and soul, where several influential luminaries like Sly & the Family Stone, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station, Tower of Power, and Con Funk Shun laid down their gusty, muscular, and righteous grooves all over the music landscape.
They were a band that were truly rooted in the tradition of yesteryear funk and soul bands, devoting themselves to retaining the beauty of live instrumentation, while utilizing hip-hop technology of the time … By the mid-1990s, the Tonies’ signature touch was felt all over the R&B world … Instead of merely wearing their influences on their sleeve, as they’d done on previous offerings, the trio embodied them organically and proudly on House of Music, making it the most classically overt and sophisticated dip in the revisionist waters of Black pop they pioneered for over a decade.” House of Music didn’t quite equal the success of TTT’s previous album, Sons of Soul, reaching #32 on the Billboard album chart and #10 on the Top R&B Albums chart. The release, the band’s fourth, ended up as its last. “Following a nearly ten-year standing as one of R&B’s most creative vanguards, the Tonies officially called it quits a year after the release … it proved to be the summation of everything the Oakland soul brothers ever sought to accomplish musically … They went out on top and didn’t look back.”
Sounding every bit like a lush early-70s soul ballad with the exception of its updated sound engineering, “Holy Smokes and Gee Whiz” seems to owe even its title to the tradition which brought us The Stylistics’ classic “Betcha By Golly Wow” (1970). After a start in Bb minor, the bridge (3:00) builds to an overflowing fountain of layered vocals that would do Earth, Wind + Fire proud, heralding a whole-step key change to C minor (3:33). A faded ending would likely have made it all complete — but 4:29 brings another whole-step modulation to D minor for an instrumental outro, re-stating the hook but forgoing harmonic resolution.
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