"Fallin'"

Alicia Keys - "Fallin'" (2001)

The album is called Songs in A Minor the song is in E Minor



Two chords. 60 beats a minute. Two verses, a chorus that is only two lines long and repeated at least 6 times. How does this get under my skin so well? Under all our skin? A quick history: Alicia Augello Cook was born in New York City in 1981. She was on The Cosby Show as a young child as a friend of Rudy's. She learned to play piano, got into Columbia University, dropped out after a month and focused on her career full time. She was signed at Columbia Records and didn't do much. She recorded a few songs for compilation albums, but her own debut album languished in executive meddling hell until she finally went and spoke to legendary studio executive Clive Davis. Davis signed her to Arista, but then when he left he took her to his new label Jive. Alicia Keys as she was called by then finally got to release her album and after an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show became a household name.

I admit that I was fooled by modern technology. That is not a drum set, it is a drum machine, programed by a longtime collaborator of Keys: Kerry Brothers Jr.  Brothers has co-written a number of songs with Keys, but on this song all he did was program the drum machine. World renown violinist Miri Ben-Ari provides the melancholy string instrumental touch to the song. There are three backing vocalists on the track, and that Gospel/Soul influenced sound is a big part of why the song is such a big hit. The other is Alicia's voice. Not to take away from her writing, piano playing, or producing of the track, but that voice is 90% of the power in this song. She's not lying, she's living it. And because of that, and because you're hearing her live it then you are living it too.

"Ain't No Other Man"

Christina Aguilera - "Ain't No Other Man" (2006)

A Pop Princess takes us back to the 40s



So the book is really deficient in its collection of actual swing music. No Tommy Dorsey, no Glen Miller, no Bennie Goodman, and only about fifteen songs from the entire 1940s decade at all. At least you can get a taste of the sound on this track. Aguilera belts out a fun sexy number about wanting her man to be as completely devoted to her as she is to him. The track is built on samples of two forgotten funk gems: "The Cissy's Thang" by The Soul Seven; and "Happy Soul (with a Hook)" by Dave Cortez & The Moon People. So a modern artist samples 70s era funk tracks and turns it all into a throwback sound to the big band era. The whole track was produced by DJ Premier, one half of alt-hip hop duo Gang Starr and a man so well known for his producing skills that he is ranked my many hip hop magazines and web sites as the best in the business. His production discography has its own Wikipedia page and reads like a who's who of rap, from Bid Daddy Kane and KRS-One, through Biggie and Nas, supporting Jay-Z, then onto Common, Mos Def, then Alicia Keys and now working with Eminem and Busta Rhymes. When you put that kind of talent in the booth with a vocalist as strong as Aguilera it was going to be a hit, but I like the fact that they made a neo-swing track.

"Superfly"

Curtis Mayfield - "Superfly" (1972)


Who's the black cocaine dealer with a code name that would have made a great nemesis for Spider-Man in the 70s?
Shut your mouth.
I'm just talkin' bout Super Fly!
Then stop parodying the "Theme from Shaft", you're confusing people.
I can dig it.



The song that played over the closing credits of the film Super Fly. Yep, there's a space in the title of the movie, and the album, but not the song. The album is often credited with out-grossing the film it came from. It certainly had a longer last effect. The film was one of the more well known Blaxplotation films of the 70s, which wasn't exactly a long lasting genre. The soundtrack however is Curtis Mayfield's outstanding response to Issac Hayes best selling double album Shaft from the year previous. Both albums are a mix of Soul and Funk, but this track settles more into the Funk category. It does have a distinct melody and chord changes, which is still Soul, but that beat is solid Funk. Big brass hits and heavy landing bass make the sound hit hard and keep you moving, and as happens so often in songs like this, the vocalists decides to make himself heard by taking the song way up into falsetto. Mayfield makes use of this falsetto all the time. There has been a lot of essays written about where the falsetto came from in R&B music and all its derivative forms, including that it made black male singers 'safe' because they were less masculine, and that it was just a question of being heard as the lead vocalist over the multiple lower register singers in a do-wop style group. Here I think Mayfield started singing in falsetto as the lead singer of The Impressions in the late 50s and it became something that set him apart.

This is a really solid track, a non preachy message about how drug dealers are in a terrible business, great bass and brass licks like I said before, and funky fuzzy wah-wah guitar slinking around the corners. What I love is the secondary percussion. The primary drummer is good, lays down a solid hard to ignore beat and that's his job; but what percussionist 'Master' Henry Gibson does elevates the song, and in fact the whole album. Gibson is the conga/bongo performer on the album and he makes the song different. Hayes album makes use of a dozen different instruments, including congas but Gibson's performance on Super Fly really gets heard.  This was the second single released from the album, after "Freddie's Dead", but to me, and many others, the brightest spot on the album is actually "Pusherman".

"You've Really Got a Hold on Me"

The Miracles - "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (1962)

There's a monster at the end of this post!



This is some really low key production for a Motown track. There's a piano playing every quarter note after a lead in; a drum set accenting the two and four, a guitar doing a little lead and then disappearing into the background and then the horn section playing the breakdown. This sparse arraignment really lets the vocals come through. The main line is being sung simultaneously by Bobby Rogers and 'Smokey' Robinson. When the chorus comes around, all of The Miracles get a chance to shine, including Robinson's wife Claudette. It was an unusual arraignment for a band to be mixed men and women, but not unheard of. Interesting ending, it's the same backing and the same vocals, but it's off. The vocals, led off by Smokey, start a beat and a half earlier in the final chorus than they do anywhere else in the song.

The song has been covered so many times it's hard to pick the best ones to share. Less than a year after The Miracles, The Beatles covered the song for their Album With The Beatles. Two Motown acts covered the song in the first half of the decade, The Supremes and then The Temptations. It was covered as a country song in the 80s by Mickey Gilley. Recently She & Him covered the song in 2008. These are all very straightforward covers, some good voices, some I don't like as much, but almost all use remarkably similar musical arraignments. Most of the covers sound exactly the same, no variation, Rod Stewart, The Zombies, et al. Eddie Money does it different, I'll grant him that. So if they're mostly the same, and even the different ones aren't really worth checking out, what are you sticking around until the end of this paragraph for? Because this video from 1988 is AWESOME!

"Mercy"

Duffy - "Mercy" (2008)

I love soul revival.



Twenty three years old when this song was released, Welsh artist Duffy has drawn favorable comparisons to The Supremes, Dusty Springfield, as well as modern contemporaries Amy Winehouse and Adele. Her first EP was in Welsh and attracted interest from A&M Records who had her work with big name producers including Bernard Butler, formerly of Suede; and Grammy winner Jimmy Hogarth. they both produced big hits from the album, but it was relative newcomer to the business Steve Booker who co-wrote and produced this track. Booker had been co-writing country music songs in the US for seven years then did some pop song writing before coming back to England to start a small label and start producing.

The song starts with a bass line that immediately makes you think of Ben E. King's hit "Stand by Me". The bass keeps walking through the song, and gets some help on the bottom from a big organ. Adding to the 60s soul sound the song has a lush string section and higher pitched organ that almost takes it into Stevie Wonder style funk territory. Duffy's voice is a talented one. A song with this much production could easily chew up and spit out a less powerful singer. The song is a lusty love song with more than a hint of innuendo. Duffy has claimed Bettye Swann, particularly her 1968 song "Cover Me" as an influence on her own style saying  "It's very tender, but it's also, hilariously, quite crude." I'm not sure what to think of the quietly whispered rap about 2:15 into the song. It's too loud to be hidden, but too quite to be clearly heard over her continued singing. I get that it's a nod to the song being a modern one and not a true 60s soul song, and I don't think that's a bad idea. How many modern R&B tracks are 'featuring' a rap by either a big name friend of the artist, or a up-and-comer on the label, or even the singer themselves doing double duty like this is?  Plenty of course, but you can always hear them. That odd production choice is the only thing I have to complain about this really fun track.

"The Snake"

Al Wilson - "The Snake" (1968)

Aesops Fable, set to the sounds of Soul. Plus Hipsters.



Originally a jazzy bossa nova written and performed by Oscar Brown Jr., the song would get a number of covers during the 60s. In 1967 it was recorded by two different acts, and both of these previous performances would flavor the Al Wilson version the next year. Johnny Rivers released the song on a live album. Rivers smooth vocals were backed up by horns as well as guitars and bass, the bossa nova drum beat stayed the same. Rivers dropped the "evil" voice for the snake that Brown had used, but kept the higher pitched voice for the woman's part and added a sibilant hissing ssssss sound when the snake "sighs". Also in 1967 British beat group the Liverpool Five released the song. They used an organ instead of horns, and the bossa nova beat is more obvious in the organ part than the drums. Their sighing snake stuttered as it hissed.

Al Wilson's version takes everything from the previous versions and turns it up a notch. It starts with an almost duplicate guitar partto Rivers', then before we even get to the first word you can hear an organ, a full brass and sax horn section and a walking bass. Wilson doesn't use an evil snake voice, but he does pitch his voice up to play the woman much like the two 1967 versions. He does hiss like Rivers on the sighs, but he uses backing vocals like the Liverpool Five. As the song progresses we get a key change after the snake bite, and horns and bass and organ all building bigger and louder. Some of the credit needs to go to Wilson's big voice, but Marty Paich did the horn arraignment and it is that sound that really takes the song over the top. The producers of the song were sometime Motown producer Marc Gordon, and one of the previous performers of the song, Johnny Rivers. In fact, Soul City Records, which released the album, was Rivers' own label.

Just a little note on one of the tags I've given to the song: Northern Soul. It's called Northern because it comes from Northern England. So how does a musician from Meridian Mississippi get called Northern Soul? Northern Soul doesn't really classify as a genre, because no one performed Northern Soul. In the late 1960, peaking in the 70s, and continuing into the 80s there was a large group of people in Northern England who were interested in old fashioned soul music. As African American performers and audiences continued to progress and change into Funk, Disco and other genres, they wanted more soul. There were still people out there recording it, but not as many, and on much smaller labels. Northern Soul aficionados loved finding old records that other people didn't like and dancing to them. Motown was was too well known a label for them to enjoy, but Soul City was perfect. They were essentially early Hipsters. Nick Hornby actually talks about Northern Soul in his most recent book, 2009s Juliet, Naked; which I thought was great. So because this song is a great Soul tune on a small soul label by a minor artist and it didn't really burn up the charts, Northern Soul it is. It actually charted in the U.K. in 1975 (#41) showing just how long it can take to discover a hidden gem.

"Shout (Parts 1 & 2)"

The Isley Brothers - "Shout (Parts 1 & 2)" (1959)

Otis my man!



Parts 1 & 2? When originally released it was spread out over both sides of the single. Where was the break you ask? "/Now wait a minute/" (Isley). Right there, before the organ chords. That organ was the first sound you heard when you flipped the 45 over and played side 2. The organ playing in the background, while the the lead singer sings a sweet solo and you can hear the clapping and shouting of the "audience" is a deliberate call back to the gospel style of singing that the Isley Brothers started out singing.

Later on in their career they would record "Twist and Shout" which would be covered by The Beatles,  later they would be early Funk pioneers with their track "It's Your Thing", many hits and misses later they collaborated with R. Kelly for 2001s  "Contagious", making them a six decade success.  This song remains their most requested, most played and most well known, due to its use in commercials, by sports teams, and in movies, from the recent Wedding Crashers to the classic Animal House.

The record doesn't list any of the performers besides the three brothers on vocals. Obviously we've got church organ that really makes the second half of the song. Percussion wise, the tambourine is so loud and distinctive, that until the /a little bit softer now/ section, you can barely hear the full drum set playing. There is a guitar playing two quick chords on the and a of the beat, but the bass hitting on every beat is far more prominent in the mix.

"Walk On By"

Dionne Warwick - Walk On By (1964)

 Originally a B side until a New York DJ flipped it over and pushed her into stardom.



This record and Warwick's first Top Ten hit Anyone Who Had a Heart were both recorded in the same three hour period. The previous track was the title track for her second album, while this one was saved for her third. Walk On By has survived as an enduring pop standard, with covers recorded by diverse acts like UK punk band The Stranglers, American pop singer Cyndi Lauper, and funk legend Issac Hayes.

Writers Burt Bacharach and Hal David had worked with Dionne Warwick before on both of her previous albums. The two also produced and wrote virtually all of her subsequent albums. She was their artist and they were hers. This was one of more than a few songs where the lyrics are about a love that is not returned.

The arraignment is lush with strings and yet sparse when they drop out. There is a snare drum, but a lot of the percussion sound is a choked guitar giving that sharp sound with a little bit of tone. The bass guitar is subtle, and mostly doubles the piano. According to Bacharach he actually used two grand pianos to record the piano part. You can definitely hear the vibraphone, most clearly under the trumpet. I love that instrument, it's like a xylophone but mellower and ringing out smoother. When the strings do come in it's a whole new song, building it to a huge stage sound, rather than a small jazz club sound. The backup singers, multiple pianos and large sting section all coming together lift you up and make you think for just a moment that her story ends well, but it's not to be. When you hear the trumpet part, six notes, then five, I think that short simple part is her tears. just a few, not pouring down her face; she does still have her pride, foolish as it may be.

"Smooth Operator"

Sade - Smooth Operator (1984)

/Coast to Coast L.A. to Chicago/ Ummmmm....



Using the Single edit, not the full 8 plus minute long video. The long play version includes a spoken word section over the intro and a full on Latin jazz ending. I like it, but it's not the version that people know, or the version that the book mentions. 

Alright, trying to listen to this song fresh, and not as the easy listening, WASH-FM pablum it has become. First thing I notice is the beat: congas over a drum set giving us a slow swinging Latin beat. It's the kind of beat you see people dancing to in a movie where the woman is actually looking out into the crowd for the male lead and as soon as he is spotted the male dance partner melts into the crowd so that she can walk across the dance floor towards the male lead seductively.

Helping the beat along is a bass that occasionally breaks out of the simple and beat pattern to follow the vocals and bring some bottom. Then out of nowhere, halfway through the song, the bass takes the first solo. It's up high on the neck, so you can be forgiven for thinking guitar, but I've watched more than a few live versions now, and it is the bass player. Good solo, nothing out of the park other than it is a bass solo, but I appreciate the fact that he doesn't just parrot and of the already existing melody lines. The second solo immediately follows the first and is the sax player. Again, he doesn't play anything we've heard before, which I love. I'm not a real fan of the sax, so take with a grain of salt my opinion that through the first part of the song, the sax is over utilized and repetitive. After the solo though, the sax does what accompaniment instrument should do, which is find interesting places to drop a few sounds then back away. I still think he plays too much, but at least it's different and not the same things over and over again.

During the solo break, we can hear an electric guitar that doesn't seem to make any other appearance until the very end of the song. The little riff makes the solo section seem faster and speed right by. The fact that Sade Adu isn't singing takes away the smoothness and together with the speed feeling, the solo section is like a whole different song in the middle. There's a keyboard hitting chords during the majority of the song, the could be adding to the Latin feel by hitting those chords along with the congas, but they really don't, so it just adds to the smooth soul sound instead.

Vocally it's a song about a gigolo plain and simple. Because one of the lines includes the phrase "...love for sale." I immediately think of the Cole Porter song Love for Sale from The New Yorkers. It's sung by a street prostitute offering her wares. I know it's a man in Smooth Operator and a woman in Love for Sale, but I'd like to think there's a connection there; if you make it long enough and stay safe, you may be able to graduate to Smooth Operator.

"Respect"

Aretha Franklin - Respect (1967)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T/find out what it means to me/R-E-S-P-E-C-T/take care of TCB



Quite possibly the best known example of 'the cover being more popular than the original', Aretha Franklin's version of Otis Redding's song was an enormous hit for the fast rising star. Redding's version was a big hit in the black community, and was a small crossover hit as well. A few years later Jerry Wexler decided that Franklin would be able to make it a bigger crossover hit. Wexler was one of the most important behind the scenes guys in the business; so Aretha recorded the song as her second single on her new label. Her sisters sing the well known backup.

Driven by bass and keyboards, this under 2:30 song never lets up, never gives us a chance to disagree. It's like having a fight with a woman you love. she may be right, she may be wrong, but you are damn sure not going to get a word in as long as she's got this head of steam built up. The track became a woman's anthem, a black anthem, a youth anthem, and popularized the term 'propers' short for proper respect that has since been shortened to props and is used across age lines in the English speaking world. Great song, great sax solo by King Curtis, phenomenal vocals by all three Franklin sisters.

Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...

"Private Dancer"

Tina Turner - Private Dancer (1984)

Much has been written about Ms. Turner's legs, divorce, solo career and more. Let's try to focus on the song.

This is the full 7:11 length album cut. The radio edit is less than four minutes long. The song was written by Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler for his band. They recorded it in 1982, but he ultimately decided that the lyrics didn't work for a male vocalist. So it was shelved without a vocal added to it. The lyrics are about a high class prostitute; though Tina Turner claimed that she thought it was about performing for private parties for rich people as she had done in the past.

The song sat in the vault until Tina's manager and Knopfler's manager got together and decided Tina should sing the song. Legal obligations meant that the band had to record a new version for Tina to sing over; and in an odd twist of fate, Knopfler was unavailable to perform on the track. Mega star guitarist Jeff Beck was asked to play guitar instead. He provided a solo that Knopfler thought was rubbish. I like it, though I'm not sure if it goes with the rest of the tune.

So let's talk about the tune, it's a soulful song from the 80s, so you know we're going to get some sax. Sure enough, before the twenty second mark we've got a saxophone in the picture. Before the vocal comes in, the song sounds like a smooth jazz/quiet storm style lite jazz piece. The verses and choruses sound very different. In the verse, Tina's voice is low, stays in one small part of her range and the music is all in a minor key. The chorus gives us a much larger part of Tina's range, and it fluctuates between major and minor keys. The piano plays a major part in both sections. Louder than the guitar, holding together the chords and giving embellishment.

My favorite part is the bridge between the second and third chorus. The first part is a vocal part with funky fuzzy electric bass going on under it. Then we get a sax solo that is very reminiscent of the early sax bit, and every bit a "sexy 80s jazz sax solo". you could play just that part and ask people where it was from and they would name a dozen different TV shows or movies with slinky women, maybe a murder, a scene in the rain; and all of them would be from the 80s. The guitar solo that comes after it (with Hammond organ accompaniment) is slinky and sexy and I like it, but by this point in the song, I've forgotten it's a Tina Turner R+B song and have begun to feel like it's just a smooth jazz number from a forgotten album. It doesn't really sound "dancer" to me, though the "private" part shines.

The end is so repetitive. The verse is a repeat, then she sings parts of the chorus over and over again. I think the album version could have been cut short, but still left in the solos. The radio edit eliminates the sax but leaves in the guitar solo.

"Hard to Handle"

Otis Redding - Hard to Handle (1968)

So Otis Redding was the Tupac of his day.

This track is off of the second of four posthumous albums filled with mostly previously unreleased songs. Released almost a year after his death, this was the forth single off of the album, and it didn't chart as well as the others, but has stood the test of time, being covered by many artists, including being a live favorite of The Blues Brothers, a campy production number sung by Mae West and the breakout hit of the 90s blues-rock band The Black Crowes.

The back up band here is effectively Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Drums, guitar, keyboard and bass were all played by members of the group originally brought together as the Stax Records house band. Horns on the track are by The Memphis Horns, another group affiliated with Stax. When you are backed by ten of the top soul session musicians in the world, you are bound to make a gem. Put Otis Redding's soulful wail on top and there is no doubt this song swings.

The lyrics are so boastful. This style of music goes back a long way, blues musicians, and Irish folk songs both make use of a I'm-the-best-man-for-you kind of structure. Today, modern rap music is full of boastful rhymes about the singer's wealth and sexual prowess. Otis sings about what a great lover he is, and the best damn back-up group assembled helps him sell it. You got to give it to the man, even after his death he's helping men get laid.

"Cry Baby"

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Cry Baby (1963)

Janis Joplin covered a lot of songs in her day, this original version of Cry Baby sounds a lot more Gospel than her blues.

In fact, this song was written by two American born sons of Eastern European Jews. Bert Berns also wrote Hang on Sloopy, Twist and Shout and many others. He died five years after this song came out, before Janis took it back up the charts. Jerry Ragovoy wrote Piece of My Heart, Get it While you Can (covered by Janis as well) and Time is on My Side among many others. He died earlier this year.

The song is written in 6/8 time, so it sounds like a fast waltz. The drummer uses almost exclusively snare, pushing the beat along, never getting in the way of everything else going on in the song. Lyrically it's a man singing to a woman who loves another man. The singer presumes that the other man will do her wrong, and she will come running to him. It clearly belongs in lots of movies. I think if Bruno Mars did a cover of it and it was put in a movie starring Jonah Hill, Kristen Bell and Topher Grace it would climb the charts again.

There's a bit of twangy guitar through the song, which makes it sadder. The piano gives us most of the back bone of the song. You need a versatile instrument that can go all the way up and down half a dozen octaves just to try to keep up with the vocals. Garnet Mimms sings down into the lower part of the baritone range and all the way up into the high tenor. The background group, The Enchanters help keep him aloft up there in the stratosphere. Jerry and Bert also produced the track, making sure that the brass section that comes in at 1:50 adds just enough sad, and then fades out. Garnet does a kind of spoken word thing that was very popular in R&B/do-wop style hits of the early 60s around 2:20. The strings start to swell and the song lifts us up into the end, with a sax choir responding to the vocalists appeal as we fade out.

" I Want You Back"

The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (1969)

Damn this song is good.

Killer bass line. So important to a Soul/Funk number. This one is constantly moving, not repetitive, doesn't ring out so much that it covers up what else is going on in the song, and even though it is doubled at various times by other instruments (trombone, piano, etc.) it holds it own through the whole song. Honestly, you can listen to just that line and groooove.

This is a well produced song. You've got piano, strings, electric guitar, brass, drums, that amazing bass line, backing vocals, and what was destined to become one of the most known voices in the Western world, and you can hear all of it. The balance is perfect. This is the first song the Jackson 5 did with Michael on lead vocals, and it was the first of four number one hits in one year. Lyrically, as the book points out, this may be the most upbeat unhappy song every made. The singer has realized they have made a mistake, and let the love of their life out of their life. But the music never lets you focus for too long on this downer of a theme.

"Tired of Being Alone"

Al Green - Tired of Being Alone (1971)

I never would have guessed this song is so short.

Solid production lets the horns, guitars and backing vocals lift Al's voice up and never over-crowds him. The horns are awesome, and I want more every time I hear them, which is why I would be a bad producer for this song. I would over use them. The best part of this song is Al Green's vocals. Obvious you may say, but seriously listen to them. He does sound tired. His voice is stressed, strained, worried, scared, doubting and plaintive. This man is not just a member of the tired of being alone club, he's the damn president. The five second beat at 1:45 between "sometime I wonder" and "if you love me like you say you do" is the most honest moment in the song.

I was writing a comic script for a friend a few months ago, and I was covering the page with dialogue. He patiently pointed out to me that it was too wordy. I told him I was worried that I wasn't doing my fair share of the work. Then he told me this simple truth: just because you aren't writing dialogue, doesn't mean you are not writing. Jazz musicians will tell you that it's the notes you don't play that make a piece, and I am telling you right now, you may not hear Al Green during those 5 seconds, but don't ever think that he is not still singing his heart out.

"The Night"

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - The Night (1972)



Another real driver, with heavy use of tambourine. Really deep heavy trombone/tuba work, which you just don't hear in a pop song. In fact, this song is really bass heavy, electric bass, the aforementioned brass, organ work, even the into vocals are about 2 octaves lower than you might expect from a Four Seasons track. The guitar after each chorus is really trippy and even less expected.

The harmonies are what you would expected from a seasoned Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. They'd been recording together for 10 years (well, not the whole group, the band had had more than a dozen members in that time) so they knew what worked. The album this was on was not a success for them, but they were back in the top of the charts with December, 1963 (Oh What a Night) just a few years later.