Reliably Bad is an eight-piece Funk/Pop band based in Greensboro, NC. From the band’s website: “Specializing in composing innovative original tunes and arranging funk classics … (drawing) influence from artists such as Vulfpeck, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown, The Funk Brothers, Moonchild, J Dilla, and many more. The band was formed in 2018 with the initial intention of bringing danceable music to the college house show scene in Greensboro … Reliably Bad is committed to exploring innovative ways to engage audiences, refine their groove-oriented sound, and continue to build the musical community around them.”
“If You Feel (the Way I Do)” (2019) was released as an instrumental, but this live version with vocals has a lot more moving parts. The classic three-horn instrumentation handles the gentle funk groove with a palpable sense of fun — not least when the drummer comes forward to take the mic with a surprisingly soaring falsetto on a graceful rubato bridge, then runs back behind the kit like a jackrabbit. After the groove resumes, the key shifts from F major to Ab major at 3:27.
Tag: USA
John Mayer | Only Heart
“Only Heart” is featured on John Mayer’s second studio album, Heavier Things, released in 2003. “There’s a certain swing-for-the-fences feel and a hurried nature that I think you have when you’re making your first record and have much to prove,” Mayer said in an interview with Billboard when the album came out. “Now that I’m in a higher gear, I don’t have to press so hard on the gas, and I’m loving it.”
The track alternates throughout between G minor on the verses and B minor for the chorus.
UB40 (feat. Chrissie Hynde) | I Got You Babe
“It is a testament either to reggae’s amazing elasticity, the sunny music’s universal appeal, or the efficacy of its modern pop co-option that UB40, a racially integrated octet from Birmingham, England, would — in the wake of Bob Marley — become reggae’s longest-running hit machine,” (TrouserPress). “Not to put too fine a point on it: Marley lived only eight years after making the landmark Catch a Fire album; UB40 is already in its third decade of successful employment.
Significantly, UB40 (the official name for a British unemployment form) has built its empire on laid-back covers of soul and pop classics and gentle love songs, not religion and revolution; there isn’t a single item in the UB40 archive with the international social significance of ‘Redemption Song’ or ‘Get Up Stand Up.’ Ultimately, UB40 is loyal not to a culture but to a beat … the band’s formula is mighty steady: recent albums sound enough like early ones that it would be impossible to guess their order of release.”
In 1985, UB40 and The Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde covered Sonny and Cher’s original 1965 original of “I Got You Babe.” The original was Sonny and Cher’s best-performing single, spending three weeks at #1 on the pop charts; the tune went on to become a worldwide smash hit, achieving top 10 chart positions in Europe, Canada, Africa, and Asia. The UB40 cover reached #1 in the UK, but only #28 in the US. It traded the original’s sturdy 12/8 for a effervescent reggae groove that focused on all of the 16th notes in a measure, shot through with electronic percussion. A half-step key change hits at 1:22.
Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!
James Taylor | Letter in the Mail
An excerpt from TheGreatAlbums‘ review of 1988’s album Never Die Young: “Taylor’s final outing of the ‘80s doesn’t contain any surprises, although the absence of any cover song is a bit of a shock since most of his post-‘Fire and Rain’ hits had been covers and Taylor had seldom released an album without one. Never Die Young is almost equal parts comprised of Taylor’s trademark ballads and easygoing grooves tailor-made for adult-contemporary radio.”
So much for the singles. But “Letter in the Mail” is a gorgeous track buried in the middle of Never Die Young. Taylor’s tunesmithing was so refined by this point that the tune casually modulates between the intro and the first verse. But the subject matter couldn’t have been more serious: rock-ribbed rural America, hollowed out and depopulated, still proudly carrying on as best as possible even after the industrial or agricultural engine(s) of the community have long since departed.
When people used to talk about the country
That’s what they used to mean …
The intro starts in F major, followed by a verse in F# major. At 1:11, the pre-chorus shifts to A major; at 1:39, the chorus shifts back to F# major. At 2:14, another verse appears, this time in G major. 3:09’s pre-chorus is in Bb major. At 3:37, another chorus is back to G major — which is the key that finishes out the tune.
Lamont Dozier | Reach Out, I’ll Be There (feat. Jo Harman)
Lamont Dozier, who died earlier this month at the age of 81, “played his part in many of the songs that built the Motown legend and which now seem as impervious to the ravages of time as those of Rodgers and Hart or Lennon and McCartney,” (The Guardian). As Dozier worked with the songwriting team of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, the “Holland-Dozier-Holland” catalog grew to include classics such as “‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’ (with Martha and the Vandellas), ‘Can I Get a Witness’ (Marvin Gaye), ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (Four Tops), ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ (Isley Brothers), ‘Take Me in Your Arms’ (Kim Weston) and a record-breaking string of #1 hits in the US charts for the Supremes, starting with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964 and including ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love,’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.'”
The Guardian continues: “Long after their original radio and chart success had faded away, many of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s million-sellers turned out to have embedded themselves so deeply in the public consciousness that they enjoyed second lives, reimagined for new audiences in cover versions by non-Motown artists. Rod Stewart’s ‘This Old Heart of Mine,’ Kim Wilde’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ and Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ were among the many reinterpretations that kept a smile on the faces of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s song publishers as the years went by … In later years he provided songs for Alison Moyet, Debbie Gibson, Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, wrote with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall … Phil Collins, and Kelly Rowland. Dozier and the Hollands were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.”
Dozier released the album Reimagination in 2018, “a collection of twelve tracks previously written for other artists while at Motown, but Dozier performs them in a way that will make you forget the original,” (BlackGrooves.org). For a rendition of the Four Tops’ uptempo 1967 hit, “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Dozier and British vocalist Jo Harman have transformed the up-tempo classic into a gospel-tinged ballad. After a start in E major, 1:59 brings a shift to C# major. At 2:40, we revert to the original key for a piano solo before the arrangement beautifully unfolds into a full gospel texture. The cover is so earnest and so self-assured that yes, the distinctive original is indeed forgotten, at least for a time!
For reference, here’s the original:
Dirty Loops + Cory Wong | Thriller
Swedish pop/funk/fusion phenoms Dirty Loops could have just done the bare minimum with its 2021 cover of Michael Jackson’s global smash hit “Thriller” (1982) They could have re-animated the original’s 16th-driven groove with an effortless fast 12/8, replete with off-kilter kicks and the frisson of their trademark re-harmonizations. They could have limited their scope to their usual keys/bass/drums trio sound. All of these options would have sounded amazing and garnered hundreds of thousands of views nearly overnight — a feat the band has accomplished consistently.
But Dirty Loops, who first gained a following by posting innovative pop covers on Youtube in the mid-2010s, have evolved over the past few years. The band now has the support of Quincy Jones, the producer of the original “Thriller.” Jones describes Jonah Nilsson, the band’s lead vocalist and keyboardist: “‘He’s got the perfect balance of right brain creativity and left brain music theory. It’s in his blood. He’s got soul, with one of the biggest ranges I’ve ever heard,'” (OrcaSound).
Not content to build incrementally on past accomplishments, the band adds a horn section and guitarist Cory Wong (perhaps best known for his work with the American band Vulfpeck) to its already wide-ranging gallery of textures. Starting at 3:20, there’s a quick turn into uncharted territory, leaving the original key of C# minor behind. After a transition, 4:04 brings a horn section feature in F# minor; 4:20 features a surprising summation in D# major; finally, an outro at 4:49 doesn’t go very far towards resolving much of anything — just have a listen. (In case you missed the band’s jump from DIY darlings to musical juggernauts, the tune is followed by a full 2.5 minutes of credits.)
Sally Mayes | Until Now (from “Camille”)
“Camille” is a little-known musical, with music by Rob Abel and lyrics by Chuck Steffan, that premiered in 2004 at the York Theatre Company’s Summer Developmental Reading Series. We are featuring Sally Mayes, a Broadway actress and noted cabaret singer, singing “Until Now” from the show. Key changes at 0:47 and 1:40.
Holly Cole Trio | I Can See Clearly Now
“I Can See Clearly Now” was written and recorded by American singer Johnny Nash in 1972, and was a number-one hit in the US, the UK, Canada, and South Africa. Contrasting with Nash’s original reggae groove, the Holly Cole Trio recorded a jazz-driven cover as the lead track for their 1993 album Don’t Smoke In Bed. The tune begins in Db and, almost as if the sun is breaking through the clouds, emerges into Gb major coming out of the bridge at 3:02.
The Ramones | Bonzo Goes to Bitburg
“In 1986, the Reagan Administration entered into its second year of the second term in office,” (Consequence). “The Iran-Contra affair hadn’t fully been exposed at the time, and a group of leather jacketed punks from Queens, NY called The Ramones were entering their twelfth year together.” About a year before the release of The Ramones’ album Animal Boy in 1986, “President Reagan had made plans to observe the 40th anniversary of V-E Day. As a result of preplanned events, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl took the opportunity to show the strength between the U.S. and Germany and mend the differences between the nations that existed forty years prior. After all was said and done, President Reagan’s trip to Bitburg on May 5th, 1985 immediately caused outrage within the United States.” Much upset resulted — please look up the details. But the Jewish Virtual Library called it “one of the most acrimonious confrontations between any U.S. administration and the American Jewish Community.”
Consequence continues: “Joey Ramone (himself Jewish and sickened by Reagan’s visit), Dee Dee Ramone, and Plasmatics’ keyboardist/bassist Jean Beauvoir wrote the song in protest as well as a document of American history. “Bonzo” refers to the chimpanzee in the two movies that Reagan starred in during his acting career in the 1950’s, Bedtime For Bonzo (1951) and Bonzo Goes To College (1952).
At 2:39, the tune — an uncharacteristically polished and lengthy release for the band — shifts up a full step.
Gladys Knight | I Hope You Dance
“I Hope You Dance,” written by Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sillers, was originally recorded by American country singer Lee Ann Womack as the title track for her 2000 studio album. The song, which won the Grammy award (and many others) for Best Country song, became Womack’s signature hit and has sold over 2 million copies in the US.
American singer/songwriter Gladys Knight covered the tune for her 2013 album Another Journey. After beginning in G, Knight modulates up a whole step to A at 3:08.
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