You're All I Need To Get By

This weeks contribution is a wonderful song about just plain good love. Whew! Enough about broken hearts, lost love and all that! No sorrow nor blues here, but rather just plain tons of good vibes:

"Like an eagle protects his nest, for you I'll do my best,

Stand by you like a tree, dare anybody to try and move me."

The Composers

Written by real-life couple Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, You're All I Need To Get By became one of the few Motown recordings of the 1960s that was not recorded with the familiar "Motown sound". Instead, it had a more soulful and gospel-oriented theme surrounding it that was influenced by the writers, who also sang the background vocals on the original recording.

The Covers

That first recording by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Soul Singles chart for five weeks, becoming one of the longest-running number one R&B hits of 1968 and the most successful duet recording of Marvin Gaye's entire career. Other covers:

Dionne Warwick 1969

Diana Ross 1970

Aretha Franklin 1971

Michael McDonald 2004

Structure, structure, structure....

And chords, and counter melodies. This arrangement pulls a lot of my tip sheet together in one place. You see some of the counter melodies here in the bass line, giving it interest but also adding interplay against the main melody. Delightful chords, with well-led voice lines lend a smooth sound bringing out wonderful colors. Notice the bass line variation - 4 measures one way, and then 4 measures another way.

There are always several things going on, changing in a fluid manner but held together by structure, structure, structure. The basses exhibit a bit of fun diggity here and there. Meanwhile, their patter progresses - what I need, what I want, all, I, need....

It was a big holiday week and I got to share it across several traditions. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope the creek near you is subsiding....

Next week: Nowhere To Run

You Are Everything

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:

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby!

This weeks entry is a song composed by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, who also composed "Let's Go Get Stoned", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need To Get By", and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". Clearly, this is one of the great song writing teams of all time. It was originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1968 and reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.

A Song With A History

The song has been covered many times since the first release. Here's a little history:

1969 Diana Ross and the Supremes with The Temptations

1970 The Supremes & The Four Tops

1972 The Jackson 5

1974 Aretha Franklin

1976 Donnie & Marie Osmond

1993 Elton John & Marcella Detroit

1994 Gladys Knight & Vince Gill

2003 Michael McDonald

2007 Boyz II Men

What's Good About This Song for A Cappella?

Everything! First, it's beloved for generations. Next, it's a well crafted composition, with a great lyric. It moves through a lot of stuff - a rather busy piece of solo work - with mountains of harmonic interest. The song is often a boy/girl duet but Michael McDonald proved works fine as a male solo with some harmonizing on the chorus.

Plus, the contrapuntal melodies and patter just flow like honey. You can fit lyrics to the bass line like no tomorrow, and echo effectively with the other voices, as I did here in the C section:

Have A Listen

This week I figured out how to install Windows Movie Maker and make a video so you can hear the whole thing. It's piano and saxophone - simple MP3 output from Finale, hooked up with a picture to make it a movie. Hey, whatever works!

P.S. This blog is posted at http://acappellanation.blogspot.com. The embedded video/music player does not show up in Facebook, and possibly some other sites subscribed to the blog. Click the link to the blog if you want to listen.

Paradox Rock

Paradox Rock: Ain't That Peculiar?

I earned last week off, but I did some regrouping and have been listening and working on new sketches. There's a lot of stuff in development, so I expect to keep producing for a while yet. This week, I took another great Motown song to completion.

Composed by Smokey Robinson and fellow Miracles members, Ain't That Peculiar was Marvin Gaye's second million seller in 1965. Gaye recorded it backed by a band called The Funk Brothers along with vocalists known as The Andantes. The lyrics speak eloquently about jealousy inflaming passion - a paradox. Originally recorded on the Tamla label, it's has been covered by Japan, The Jackson 5 and quite a few other artists. Although Michael Jackson is the "King of Pop", Marvin Gaye will ever remain the "Prince of Motown", a land where Smokey Robinson is the undisputed king.

Turning Rock into A Cappella

As an a cappella arrangement, Ain't That Peculiar presents a number of challenges. Your audience won't be dancing - they'll be "all ears." You have to avoid getting stuck in a cozy rock groove that goes nowhere. You have to invent ways to keep the interest high. I decided to use lots of variation and some playful vocalese that allowed me to introduce familiar musical figures such as those laid down by The Funk Brothers who backed Gaye in 1965.

Vocalese To the Rescue

You can see some of these tricks in the final measures. I used The Funk Brothers familiar introductory figure to close a song that normally ends in fade out, employing vocalese and some crunchy harmonics to conclude with a punctuation mark.

Keeping the Pace!

OK, Two Cans a Week. Take Next Week Off!

Well, dang if I didn't complete two new arrangements this week! I've been listening to these songs and letting them soak in for a while now, so by the time I approached them my mental sketches were quite well developed. I knew how I was going to voice or vocally orchestra large stretches of them. Sure, there were some surprises and things to work out, and there were new ideas that just popped out as I handled certain sequences. Both these songs came from an era where part singing was predominant.

Maybe I get a "bye" week, but I'll be using the time to chart out new projects for the future. Here's a peek at some sections of the pieces.

I'll Be Doggone

Marvin Gaye made a big hit with this song in 1965, his first million seller. This Smokey Robinson composition was a great platform for Gaye to wail. While it really rocks - it presents an interesting challenge to an arranger. It sits in the same harmonic place for long stretches. It makes great dance music, but you need a lot of ideas to spice up a song that begins with 8 measures of A, followed by another 8 measures of A. Here is a small section from my arrangement:

I Love You, Gypsy Woman

Earlier in the week, I finished an Impressions song by the great Curtis Mayfield. This was another tune that fairly fell into place after a lot of listening, because it lent itself so easily to a cappella. The song reached #20 on the Hit Parade in 1962 and has been covered by Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix, among others. It has tremendous energy propelling it from start to finish. Mayfield had given it a very vocal treatment in 1962 that helped make it easy to translate to a cappella. You'll see in this snippet, as in the previous one, the use of patter for the ensemble to avoid using too many nonsense sounds, creating more of a vocal texture.

I think both these numbers will be a lot of fun for Blue of a Kind to sing. If you'd be interested in previewing any of these arrangements for your singing group, let me know.