I had a lot of fun this week arranging You Are Everything, a soul song written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed. Originally recorded by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics, it was released in 1971 as a single produced by Bell. This version became a Top 10 hit for the group, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The first significant cover was by one-time Motown singing duo, Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye.
The Composers
Thom Bell is a Jamaican born, American, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer, best known as one of the creators of the Philadelphia style of soul music in the 1970s. He moved to Philadelphia as a child, he was classically trained and became a leading force in soul music working first with The Delfonics and later The Stylistics. Linda Creed was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter who teamed up with Thom Bell to produce some of the most successful Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. Her career was launched in 1970 when singer Dusty Springfield recorded her song Free Girl. Her career ended early due to breast cancer and she died shortly before Whitney Houston took her last hit, Greatest Love of All to number one on the billboard chart in 1986. In 1992, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
What's It All About, Bobby?
The song is about the saddest love of all: lost love. The song is arguably one of the most powerful torch songs ever written. This duo had a touch. Michael McDonald covered the song on his CD, Motown, reasserting its classic and enduring quality.
The song is verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It's all over in little over 2 minutes but like a secret weapon, it invades your heart inflicting terrible damage before you realize what happened. The song changes key every time you blink; the harmonic prowess is impressive. This gives an arranger a lot to play with. There are color shifts and modulations - things are very fluid, all aimed at milking the tear ducts. It's the kind of song audiences just love and you can score big by just delighting in the craft of the composition.
Bringing Out the Power of the Song: Layers
As an arranger, you highlight the emotional message and draw it out. I begin this arrangement with the solo singing against the bare bass line and a hummed baritone line, tracing a wonderful harmony, much as I might use cellos if I had them. Then I add in the 2nd tenors, allowing the harmonic vistas open some more. Before the verse completes, I bring in the 1st tenors with a brief melodic motif as they join the party. As these layers are added, the verse seems to unfold panoramically, much as the lyric unfolds the emotional pain of the narrator:
Today I saw somebody, who looked just like you.
She walked like you do, I thought it was you.
And then she turned a corner. I called out your name.
I felt so ashamed, 'cause it wasn't you, wasn't you.
At this point, your audience is hooked - the eyes begin to well up and it's "all over but the crying". This is what you want. Get in, do your damage and they will love you for it!
More Layers
In the snippet below, you'll see the things I talk about in my tip sheet: structure, chords, use of melodic motifs, great bass line. But here I also employ layers to augment the emotional impact. With an orchestra, you bring different instruments to bear, playing them off one another and perhaps adding them atop one another, deepening the impact as the various sections are added. It's the same with choral arranging. As the climax of the song arrives, I employ layers to play voices against one another harmonically and to progressively get all voices enunciating the main lyric together:
How can I forget when each face that I see brings back memories of being with you?
Oh, baby, I just can't go on living life as I do, comparing each one with you.
'Cause they just won't do. They're not you, no baby!
and the emotional climax is driven home delicately but relentlessly. Believe me, the audience will take notice although they probably won't notice the mechanism:
