laughter in the rain
I've been thinking about Neil Sedaka's song "Laughter In The Rain" lately.
He got started young and had a bunch of hits in the late 50s and early 60s, making the kind of pop music that occupied the vacuum that started in around 1950, after the great between-the-wars flowering of slick popular song was pretty much over but before rock-n-roll really took off. Sedaka's career shows it dramatically: once the Beatles hit here in 1964 he had nary a hit for years.
As a performer, that is. As a writer, he continued to write catchy pop music for other people, including the Monkees and the Carpenters. (He wrote "Solitaire.") His last big hit as a writer was "Love Will Keep Us Together," which made the Captain and Tennille famous. (In the fadeout na-na-na section, you can hear Toni Tennille singing something that sounds like scatting but is actually Sedaka's name.)
Some of his stuff is so very fluffy that we can see why folks who began to embrace rock-n-roll would view it, and him, with contempt. Look up the Scopatone jukebox-video for "Calendar Girl" to see and hear the badness. Tons of mid-century fun, but man oh man.
And then there's "Laughter In The Rain." To me, that song is Sedaka distilled. Not at all complex, fluffy as can be, perfectly feel-good, and just a twist or two of sheer pop genius.
Like a lot of pop songs in the early 70s, it utilizes the Major-7 chord. (Think of the opening notes of "Color My World," which outline that chord: C-E-G-B-G-E-etc.) In the opening line, "Walkin' along country roads with my baby," the word roads and the ba- of baby are sung on the 7th degree of the chord. It creates a relaxed, easygoing sound that defines the era in song after song. Later on, in the chorus, the I hear laugh- is also sung on the 7th degree of the chord.
But what's fun to me is the volta. The chord progression during the verse, I-IV-V-I in the key of F-major, is as standard as it comes. And in the chorus is too: ii-V-I over and over. Straight from the shelves of the chord progression store. But the key is the key.
The song would be just fine, though completely unremarkable, if the verse and chorus were sung in the same key. Sedaka, though, was going for a sunny effect to match his sunny lyrics and his sunny alto voice in this sunny song about rain. So, suddenly, we find ourselves thrown, completely without warning, into the key of Ab-major. That key only shares one of its 4 flats in common with the original key of F, which means that the color palette contains fresh new unused notes, jolting the ear slightly. Right on the downbeat, with that long, delicious Oooooh!, the melody leaps from a middle C to the Ab above it, carrying the spirit along. It's as if he's so in love he overshot his high note — and the whole world, enchanted, scooted over to make it land just right.
Gets me every time. Such a simple gesture, so perfectly deployed! Part of it is that he chose his keys very carefully, so that when he transitions back into F-major (with a C11 chord) it sounds propulsive, so that each tonality sounds like it's ahead of the other, a dog pleasantly chasing its tail, more joyful with each turn.
Give it a listen, if you haven't in a while, and enjoy the art and science and psychology of a song well-written.
He got started young and had a bunch of hits in the late 50s and early 60s, making the kind of pop music that occupied the vacuum that started in around 1950, after the great between-the-wars flowering of slick popular song was pretty much over but before rock-n-roll really took off. Sedaka's career shows it dramatically: once the Beatles hit here in 1964 he had nary a hit for years.
As a performer, that is. As a writer, he continued to write catchy pop music for other people, including the Monkees and the Carpenters. (He wrote "Solitaire.") His last big hit as a writer was "Love Will Keep Us Together," which made the Captain and Tennille famous. (In the fadeout na-na-na section, you can hear Toni Tennille singing something that sounds like scatting but is actually Sedaka's name.)
Some of his stuff is so very fluffy that we can see why folks who began to embrace rock-n-roll would view it, and him, with contempt. Look up the Scopatone jukebox-video for "Calendar Girl" to see and hear the badness. Tons of mid-century fun, but man oh man.
And then there's "Laughter In The Rain." To me, that song is Sedaka distilled. Not at all complex, fluffy as can be, perfectly feel-good, and just a twist or two of sheer pop genius.
Like a lot of pop songs in the early 70s, it utilizes the Major-7 chord. (Think of the opening notes of "Color My World," which outline that chord: C-E-G-B-G-E-etc.) In the opening line, "Walkin' along country roads with my baby," the word roads and the ba- of baby are sung on the 7th degree of the chord. It creates a relaxed, easygoing sound that defines the era in song after song. Later on, in the chorus, the I hear laugh- is also sung on the 7th degree of the chord.
But what's fun to me is the volta. The chord progression during the verse, I-IV-V-I in the key of F-major, is as standard as it comes. And in the chorus is too: ii-V-I over and over. Straight from the shelves of the chord progression store. But the key is the key.
The song would be just fine, though completely unremarkable, if the verse and chorus were sung in the same key. Sedaka, though, was going for a sunny effect to match his sunny lyrics and his sunny alto voice in this sunny song about rain. So, suddenly, we find ourselves thrown, completely without warning, into the key of Ab-major. That key only shares one of its 4 flats in common with the original key of F, which means that the color palette contains fresh new unused notes, jolting the ear slightly. Right on the downbeat, with that long, delicious Oooooh!, the melody leaps from a middle C to the Ab above it, carrying the spirit along. It's as if he's so in love he overshot his high note — and the whole world, enchanted, scooted over to make it land just right.
Gets me every time. Such a simple gesture, so perfectly deployed! Part of it is that he chose his keys very carefully, so that when he transitions back into F-major (with a C11 chord) it sounds propulsive, so that each tonality sounds like it's ahead of the other, a dog pleasantly chasing its tail, more joyful with each turn.
Give it a listen, if you haven't in a while, and enjoy the art and science and psychology of a song well-written.
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