“The Waters of March” (Águas de Março), written in 1972 by acclaimed Brazilian composer and father of bossa nova Antonio Carlos Jobim, was named the best Brazilian song ever composed in a poll of over 200 journalists from the country in 2001. The swirling, downward motion of the melody reflects the falling rain common in Brazil in March.
American jazz vocalist Susannah McCorkle covered the tune for her 1993 album From Bessie to Brazil, which peaked at #20 on the Billboard jazz chart. Starting in G, the track modulates up a half step to Ab at 2:43.
“Verdelle Smith had a minor hit on the US charts in 1966, ‘Tar and Cement’ (not to be confused with ‘Concrete and Clay,’ the hit for Unit 4 + 2 around the same time — a bigger hit in Canada and Australia).
‘(Alone) In My Room’ (distinct from the Beach Boys’ single ‘In My Room’), appeared on her one album for Capitol, produced by Marvin Holtzman. It’s an adaptation of a Spanish song by Joaquin Pieto, with English lyrics by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance. Several covers of the song have appeared (by the Walker Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, and Marc Almond).
The organ introduction may make you think of Bela Lugosi, or Lon Chaney, Jr., if not J.S. Bach. The song is in 3/4, in B♭ minor. The verse is subdued, building to the chorus featuring a powerful vocal enhanced by strong brass. There’s another softly-sung verse, a break, then a modulation to a B minor at 1:47 with the brass leading the way. Then a wordless vocal line continues to the fadeout — all in a scant two minutes and 20 seconds.”
Many thanks to our regular contributor Paul for this submission!
MotD favorite Randy Rainbow’s latest video is a parody of “Dentist!,” a song from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s 1982 musical Little Shop of Horrors. Key change at 2:32.
Robert Glasper’s Black Radio III, released in February 2022, features heavy-hitting guest artists on each track, including Common, Esperanza Spalding, Jennifer Hudson, Killer Mike, Q-Tip, Ty Dolla $ign, Yebba, and many more. It’s the third release in the Black Radio franchise; The New Parish describes the concept in its review of Black Radio (2012), which has continued throughout its subsequent chapters:
“’Real music is crash protected,’ state the liner notes of Black Radio … (it) boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. Like an aircraft’s black box for which the album is titled, Black Radio holds the truth and is indestructible …
Robert Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip-hop and R&B,” (working with Q-Tip, Mos Def, Maxwell, and many others). “The Los Angeles Times once wrote that ‘it’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,’ adding that ‘he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,’ and praising the organic way in which he ‘builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.’”
After starting in F major for the first verse and chorus (PJ Morton, lead vocals), “Forever” shifts up to F# major at for vocalist India Arie’s feature at 1:11. By now showing its colors as an earnest love song, the tune continues with an almost trance-like repeating chorus. Arie and Morton create a subtly shifting tapestry of sound, alternating between tightly coordinated parallel leads and soaring ad libs. By 4:30, the tune has faded out entirely, but then fades back in, its focus completely shifted, in a brief reprise — a Glasper trademark. The reprise explores a few strands of the harmony and textures over a subdued but complex drum solo before fading out again.
“Davis wrote this as ’55 Love Affair,'” (Songfacts). “His record company wanted the song to appeal to a younger audience and had Davis change the title. The lyrics, however, remained squarely in the ’50s, with references to drive-ins, car hops and doo-wop.” Either way, the track unmistakably features an early 80s pop sound!
Davis is perhaps best known for his ballad “I Go Crazy” (1977), which peaked at only #7 on the Hot 100 but remained in the Top 100 for 40 weeks, setting what was then the record for the longest run on that chart. He scored a 1982 hit with “’65 Love Affair,” which reached #6 on the Hot 100 and later spent 20 weeks on that chart. It also reached #5 on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.
In an interview with ClassicBands.com, Davis was asked about the lyric stating that the earlier era’s music was “simple and clear.” His response: “There’s something magical and inspirational about the discovery of what was the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll. The songs were simple. They weren’t real complicated. All of them didn’t deal in real heavy thoughts, either. It was just fun back then, and much simpler, easier to understand.”
Starting in C mixolydian mode, the tune shifts to regular old C major for the chorus at 0:37, then back to C mixolydian at 1:02. At 3:15, there’s a shift up a whole step to D major just before the tune starts a long fade.
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, a music collective known for their original, inventive arrangements of well-known songs, included a soul-infused cover of the Backstreet Boys hit “I Want it That Way” on their 2015 album Selfies on Kodachrome. The track features Shoshana Bean on vocals, and modulates up from Eb to F at 2:17 and then to G at 2:35.
“‘The Gambler’ was written by the Nashville songwriter Don Schlitz. With the classic chorus lines, ‘You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,’ the song is told from the first-person perspective about a conversation with an old poker player on a train,” (Songfacts). “The card shark gives life advice to the narrator in the form of poker metaphors, before presumably dying in his sleep. According to the Reader’s Digest Country and Western Songbook, Schlitz wrote the tune in honor of his late father, ‘the best man I ever knew.’ ‘He wasn’t a gambler,’ he explained. ‘But the song was my way of dealing with the relationship that I had with him.'” Kenny Rogers’ 1978 version became a #1 Country hit and even made its way to the Hot 100 “at a time when country songs rarely crossed over.”
The tune won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song … but “before he recorded it himself, Kenny Rogers offered ‘The Gambler’ to Willie Nelson, who turned it down. ‘I was doing a song every night called Red Headed Stranger which has 100 verses in it … I just didn’t want to do another long song, so he said, Okay, I’ll record it myself.'”
The tune, which Rolling Stone describes as “the one country song even non-country fans know by heart,” modulates up a half step at 1:37.
Many thanks to our frequent contributor Ziyad for this submission!
“We want it tp sound like the Beatles and Motown had a party.” That was how drummer Mike Calabrese described the music of Lake Street Dive, a Brooklyn-based band, in an interview with The Guardian. “We’re taking the elements of the 60s and 70s music we love,” he went on, “and applying it to what we’re able to do with the four of us.”
The group formed in 2004 when the original four members — Rachael Price, Mike “McDuck” Olson, Bridget Kearney, and Calabrese — met while studying at the New England Conservatory (keyboardist Akie Bermiss joined in 2017.) They have released seven studio albums and one live record, and are currently on tour. “Wedding Band” was released as a single in 2014, and modulates from G up a half step to Ab at 1:06.
” … there’s a good chance you’re Facebook friends with your ex. But in 1977, when people still had to run into their exes at parties or whatever, that feeling still got a drippy Barry Manilow ballad dedicated to it,” (Stereogum). “Around the time that Barry Manilow got to #1 with 1976’s ‘I Write The Songs,’ he apparently figured out what the world wanted from him. He could sing silly, frisky, jazzy numbers, but those songs weren’t what the world wanted from him. They wanted big, grand, feelings-on-display adult-contempo ballads full of pianos and woodwinds and showy Broadway notes.
… you can hear that formula at work on ‘Looks Like We Made It,’ Manilow’s third and final #1. As with (his) two previous #1 hits, Manilow didn’t write ‘Looks Like We Made It.’ Instead, the song’s music came from Richard Kerr, the pianist who’d already co-wrote the 1975 #1 ‘Mandy.’ (No surprise that it sounds a whole lot like ‘Mandy.’) The lyrics, meanwhile, were written by Will Jennings, a ballad specialist … Manilow’s got an impressive voice, and he’s not shy about showing it off. He and producer Ron Dante pile on the strings, which makes for a whole lot of big, crashing moments.”
After a start in C major, a short bridge at 2:28 starts sweetly, continues with the piled-on strings mentioned above, and ends with the drummer sounding like the host of an “instrumental petting zoo” at an elementary school. After pulling out all the stops, 2:44 opens the curtains, shines the spotlights, and sounds the figurative trumpet fanfare as the new key of Db major arrives.
Released by Roy Orbison in 1964 and co-written by Orbison and Bill Dees, “Oh, Pretty Woman” was later covered by Del Shannon, Al Green, Van Halen, Chris Isaak, Pomplamoose, and many others across multiple decades. Clocking in at less than three minutes, the tune became a #1 pop hit for Orbison in both the US and the UK. In fact, “in 1964, Orbison was the only American artist to have a #1 UK hit, and he did it twice — with ‘(Oh) Pretty Woman’ and ‘It’s Over'” (Songfacts).
“This was Orbison’s last big hit,” Songfacts continues. “His career faded fast, but was revived in the ’80s when prominent musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison cited him as an influence and invited him to join various projects. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and joined The Traveling Wilburys with Dylan, Tom Petty, Harrison and Jeff Lynne. As he was enjoying this career revival, he died of a heart attack on December 6, 1988 at age 52.”
Starting in A major, the chorus shifts to C major at 1:06 before reverting to the original key at 1:34; the pattern then repeats.
modulationoftheday.home.blog 