Tag: USA

The Platt Brothers | Ahavat Olam

Broadway Buzz reports that “Ben Platt won a 2017 Tony Award for his breakout performance in Dear Evan Hansen. He got his start in a national tour of Caroline, or Change at age 11 before snagging the breakout role of Benji in Pitch Perfect and its sequel. After starring in the national tour of The Book of Mormon, Platt made his Broadway debut as Elder Cunningham in 2014. His solo album, Sing To Me Instead, was released in March of 2019. He currently stars on the Netflix’s The Politician.”

Turns out that Ben is not the only musically inclined member of his family. Here, he performs the Ahavat Olam with his brothers Jonah and Henry; this setting is by Gabe Mann and Piper Rutman. The Ahavat Olam is the second prayer of Maariv, a prayer service held in the evening or during night time in the Jewish tradition.

Starting in an uncomplicated, peaceful Bb major, a spirited bridge brings a huge change at 2:07: the text shifts from Hebrew to English and Bb minor chords ring out before the section ends in what turns out to be a false modulation to Eb major. But Bb major returns, as does the original Hebrew, at 2:42. Many thanks to our Facebook follower Elizabeth Moore for this submission!

The Ramones | I Wanna Be Sedated

Bob Boilen wrote an NPR review of “I Wanna Be Sedated,” the 1978 punk single-turned-classic, to accompany the song’s inclusion in the NPR 100. “I love The Ramones. I think The Ramones took rock ‘n’ roll back to its soul. In the mid-’70s, rock had grown into something big, fat, bloated. Bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes and Kansas were touring huge arenas. Large truck convoys followed them, filled with light towers and smoke machines and other things that had little to do with music … Along came Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee, four guys from Queens with a passion for short, loud and fast songs with great hooks … The Ramones’ music was a call to brandish guitars, shift music back to the clubs and sing from the heart and the gut. And don’t forget: This is supposed to be fun … The Ramones’ vision never changed: Make fast, loud, fun music. No solos. Keep it short. Play to your audience, not to each other.”

Time Magazine recognized the tune as part of its All-Time Best 100. “The Ramones’ buzz-saw bubblegum was a spitball of opposition to nearly everything else happening in pop in the mid-’70s … (it’s) hilarious where it could have been self-indulgent, mostly because nobody had ever sung so earnestly about longing for tranquilizers. And they were famously averse to rock-‘n’-roll frippery like guitar solos, so Johnny Ramone’s ultra-minimalist solo here is both an upraised middle finger and a brilliant show of compositional chutzpah.”

The band’s trademark three-chord harmonic vocabulary instantaneously doubled when a whole-step modulation hits at 1:11. The tune has become a persistent pop culture ingredient, including the 1980 movie Times Square; TV’s My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Beavis + Butthead; the video games Guitar Hero, Jam Sessions, and Rock Band 3; and many others. Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission.

Waiting in the Wings (from “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure”)

Thanks to new MotD contributor Taylor Hutchinson for this song. “Waiting in the Wings,” from the Disney animated series Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, was awarded a Daytime Emmy this past June, completing Alan Menken’s EGOT set (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards). Performed here by Eden Espinosa, who voices Cassandra in the series who sings this number. Key change is at 1:58.

The Turtles | She’d Rather Be With Me

“Indebted to the harmony-heavy sound of the British Invasion,” AllMusic summarizes, “The Turtles were the quirkiest mainstream guitar pop group Los Angeles produced in the ’60s.” Of 1967’s “She’d Rather Be With Me,” one of the band’s biggest hits, Songfacts reports that “this bright and brassy pop song was written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, the same songwriting duo that were responsible for The Turtles’ previous hit, ‘Happy Together‘. Joe Wissert’s production features an entire orchestra and a prominent clanging cowbell.”

Songfacts continues: “The band was ‘disappointed with the choice of follow-up to Happy Together,'” according to vocalist Howard Kaylan. “‘We were kind of distraught, because it was such a 1920s razzmatazz kind of a song compared to this mysterious and glorious record we had just bought out. It was like following up Good Vibrations with Barbara Ann. I can’t explain it, but it got higher on the (UK) charts than ‘Happy Together’ did, and on the strength of that record we went over to England.'” The tune title was frequently mistaken as “Some Girls,” including on the cover of a few vinyl releases, as well as this video!

The Turtles’ co-lead vocalists Mark Volman and Kaylan later “joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention for two years, billing themselves as the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (later Flo and Eddie). Their handiwork is found on the Zappa LPs Chunga’s Revenge, 200 Motels, Live At The Fillmore, and Just Another Band From L.A.“

Starting in B major, a sub-V intrudes for a moment at 1:08, giving the impression of the start of a modulation, but it’s a false alarm. Immediately thereafter, a crazy new instrumental double-time groove takes center stage, punctuated by enough syncopated kicks to provide a “where’s 1?” moment to the casual listener. At 1:17, the tune modulates for real, up a half-step, before a new verse starts at 1:24.

The Cars | Got a Lot On My Head

Pitchfork describes the eponymous debut album by The Cars: “It’s a tale as old as time. A band arrives on the scene with an album so fully formed, it seems impossible that they could improve upon it, let alone escape its gravitational pull. The Cars would seem to define this trope. The 1978 debut contains so many classic rock staples, a modern listener could mistake it for a greatest hits collection. But the band is the exception that proves the rule: They managed to move forward from The Cars with a pair of albums that both refined and expanded their tightly wound new wave.”

1979’s Candy-O was an album of equal ambition. AllMusic reports that “the group were a little unhappy with how slick their debut sounded, so they asked (producer) Roy Thomas Baker to dial back the stacked vocals and make sure there was a little dirt in the machine … Candy-O is the rare follow-up to a classic debut that almost reaches the same rarified air … it may be one of the best second albums ever made, full of great songs, inspired performances, and sporting a still-perfect sound …”

Serving as something of a fulcrum for the American branch of New Wave, The Cars were known for “classic-rock riffs and melodies, synthy new-wave cool, wry, often deadpan vocals … a sound unlike any other in 1978,” according to Guitar World. But perhaps the most consistently memorable ingredient which the Boston-based quintet brought to the table was its massive hooks, which were frequently performed by keyboardist Greg Hawkes. In the case of Candy-O’s “Got a Lot on My Head,” lead guitarist Elliot Easton serves up the hook, bursting brashly out of the gates at the very top of the tune over a four-measure A major –> C major loop. The chorus (0:13) oddly appears before the verse, featuring a ii-bVII-I progression in C; 0:31 brings a verse in A major.

Helen Reddy | Delta Dawn

“Every social movement has its definitive song,” The Guardian reports, “and feminism got its anthem in 1972, when the Australian singer Helen Reddy released the single ‘I Am Woman.’ In three elegant minutes, it hewed a portal through which schoolgirls and their mothers saw an empowered future. Reaching No 1 in the US and selling one million copies there, it also established Reddy, who has died aged 78, as one of the top-selling female vocalists of the decade.” News of Reddy’s passing spread today.

The Guardian continues: “Accepting the 1973 Grammy award in the best female pop vocal category, Reddy rubbed salt into the wound by saying: ‘I would like to thank God, because she makes everything possible.’”

While “I Am Woman” was certainly Reddy’s most prominent release, 1973’s “Delta Dawn” was a clear crossover hit, reaching #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 but climbing all the way to #6 on the Hot Country Songs chart, following another top 10 Country hit rendition of the song by Tanya Tucker just a year earlier.

There’s a whole-step modulation at 1:14. But an additional modulation (2:27) is only a half-step. The combination of these two key changes in one tune is quite unusual! Many thanks to our regular Rob Penttinen for this submission.

Sarah Vaughan | Prelude to a Kiss

Sarah Vaughan’s 1954 version of Duke Ellington’s 1938 jazz standard ballad “Prelude to a Kiss,” including lyrics by Irving Gordon and Irving Mills, marks a long-overdue MotD debut for the vocalist widely known as the “Divine One.” Biography.com details that Vaughan “was invited to perform at the White House and Carnegie Hall, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1989, and was selected to join the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1990.” From WBUR’s retrospective of Vaughan’s life: “Where more idiosyncratic jazz artists like Billie Holliday excelled at interpretation, Miss Vaughan was a contralto who gloried in displaying the distinctive instrumental qualities of a voice that had a comfortable three-octave range.”

JazzStandards.com reports: “Written in an A1-A2-B-A2 form, the melody in the first and third measures of each A section sidles down the scale five halftones in a chromatic decline while the fifth measure starts out with a note repeated four times. The overall effect is a general flattening of the melody, drawing the ear to Ellington’s rich supporting harmonies. Starting in C major, there’s a modulation to E major during the ‘B’ section.

The chromatic nature of ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ produces a plaintive sound, a sad serenade that Gordon and Mills reflect in their lyrics. It’s the bridge, however, that brings true emotional release, almost to the point of seeming celebratory. Its corresponding lyrics express Ellington’s dramatic change in mood, relating the transformation of a pitiful love song into a Schubert symphony.”

In this version, the simplicity of the instrumentation truly shows off the complexity of the harmony while centering Vaughan’s vocal. The pivotal B section begins at 1:20.

The Pointer Sisters | Jump (For My Love)

“Jump (For My Love)” was released by the American R&B singing group The Pointer Sisters in 1984 on Break Out, their tenth studio album. The track charted in the top ten in numerous countries and was awarded the Grammy Award in 1985 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The verses and chorus alternate between G major and A major, and a final modulation to F at 3:21.

Kirk Franklin | I Smile

AllMusic calls Kirk Franklin “one of contemporary gospel’s brightest and most awarded stars, a soulful singer with a revivalist spirit and just a twist of hip-hop.” Franklin’s life could have been profoundly troubled, given his troubled early origins, but his talent came to the fore early: “Abandoned by his mother and having never known his father, Franklin was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who maintained a strict Baptist household. When he was four years old, his aunt paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans. A natural musician who could sight-read and play by ear with equal facility, Franklin received his first contract offer at the age of seven, which his aunt promptly turned down. At age 11, he was leading the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir near Dallas.”

Franklin is a multi-Grammy winner, including categories such as Best Gospel Album, Best Gospel Performance/Song, Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album, and Best Gospel Album by Choir/Chorus.

2015’s gospel-driven “I Smile” walks the most secular edge of Franklin’s material. This performance was featured at the 2015 Dove Awards, which honors Christian and gospel music. A half-step modulation arrives triumphantly at 3:45.

Always Starting Over (from “If/Then”)

If/Then, a 2014 original Broadway musical with a libretto by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, tells the story of woman named Elizabeth who moves back to New York City at age 38 looking for a fresh start. The show, which ran for 401 performances and starred Idina Menzel, received Tony nominations for Best Score and Best Lead Actress in a Musical. “Always Starting Over” is Elizabeth’s climactic Act 2 number and features a number of key changes throughout, with the most prominent one occurring at 3:42.