Best/worst key changes

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Is it a key change when Kelly Clarkson goes, "I get what I want" at the end of Since U Been Gone? If so, that's my favorite key change.

The key change at the end of The Village Green Preservation Society always bugged me.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 23:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Flame of the West" by Big Country -- rippin' chorus followed by the most awkward tempo change and modulation ever.

Great chorus, good guitar lick, so-so protest lyrics, ruined.

(Shock!)

Big Country in a nutshell.

― the', Wednesday, 17 May 2006 08:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

The key change (and the undercurrent of pathos) that goes with the refrain of the last verse at the end of Annie's Heartbeat, brings a lump to my throat every time.

So, Best.

Worst is the Houston/Carey/Dion thing already mentioned.

― Ant, Wednesday, 17 May 2006 08:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

Celine Dion is being unfairly dismissed. The key change in My Heart Will Go On is actually great. It comes at the end of a middle eight, sooner than you'd expect it. And The move from E to G# is a brave and unusual one. It manages to lift the song but also make it sound more dark and threatening, somehow. It's one of my favourites.

― JimD (JimD), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 09:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

To continue my infatuation with "end of song one step higher" key changes: "Stand and Deliver" for god's sakes!!! OMG! The key change CREATES the whole meaning of the song - without it you've got some rather iffy lyrics and a beat that's solid but doesn't go anywhere. With it you've got something more like a major social movement exploding through the speakers.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:36 (6 years ago) Permalink

A key change is usually a good thing, however the "Let's transpose the song one note up"-cliche heard in lots of Eurovision entries (amongst a lot others) is, well, a bit of a cliche...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 17:55 (6 years ago) Permalink

This is a great question.

The first thing that struck me, and I don't even like the song all that much, was "Here In Your Bedroom" by Goldfinger, which jumps up for half the second verse and then goes back into the original key, unexpected and interesting.

I love when songs modulate up right before a solo (a la "And I Love Her" as noted upthread) other examples of that, Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, Trina Magna by Blues Traveler.

I also enjoy those rare occaisions where someone says "forget this half step up nonsense, we're going up a FOURTH." Seminal example of that being Son of a Preacher Man.

― Ash (ashbyman), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 18:51 (6 years ago) Permalink

Voxtrot - "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives" is absolutely perfect Ted-Leo-meets-first-Death-Cab-album indie power-pop until it runs aground on the rocky shores of its atrocious key change. fuck you, blogosphere, for making me almost believe the hype for a minute.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 19:21 (6 years ago) Permalink

The worst key change ever is in Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car)".

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 20:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

The best key change ever is the completely unprepared change from C major to F major in the bridge of "From Me To You". Totally revolutionary at the time (at least in a "rock" song)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 21:09 (6 years ago) Permalink

Tom's Diner.... right at the end she suddenly says "CATHEEEEEEEEDRAL" and the whole verse unexpectedly ends and the song becomes silent (literally) for a full 3 seconds. Maybe not so good for those people in the late 80s with Automatic Pause Detector on their tape decks!!!

Of course in the version "we all know and love" the silence is filled with church bells ringing and another round of "LADADLALDALALDLALADDDADADADA", a true travesty, even though I secretly prefer this version.

― JTS (JTS), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 21:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

Er, that's not a key change, though...?

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 21:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

The best key change ever is the completely unprepared change from C major to F major in the bridge of "From Me To You". Totally revolutionary at the time (at least in a "rock" song)

-- Geir Hongro

Yeah, that's a good'un indeed. And hey, didn't Freddie & The Dreamers do nearly the exact same thing in "I'm Telling You Know"? Must be some kinda Merseybeat thing. (Actually, I think those sorts of key changes work best if they occur immediately after a bridge.)

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Saturday, 8 July 2006 08:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

Voxtrot - "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives" is absolutely perfect Ted-Leo-meets-first-Death-Cab-album indie power-pop until it runs aground on the rocky shores of its atrocious key change.

Hm, remind me where there's a key change on that EP?

The best key change ever is the completely unprepared change from C major to F major in the bridge of "From Me To You". Totally revolutionary at the time (at least in a "rock" song)

It's a nice key change, but it's neither completely unprepared nor was it totally revolutionary. The C at the end of the verse acts as the pivot chord, and the addition of a single accidental is just not that mind-blowing. The G+ chord that comes a few bars later is cooler.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Saturday, 8 July 2006 16:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and some of the best key changes I've heard in recent years were in "Come back to Camden" from Morrissey's "You Are the Quarry."

(musical explanation follows)

The chord progression is really brilliant and subtle. The song starts off in C, following a fairly standard chord structure that ends with a spicy G+ chord. It repeats itself in C, but when it gets to the G+ chord for a second time, it re-interprets the G+ as an Eb+ (augmented chords, like diminished chords, are symmetrical, and so any note in the chord can be treated as the root), and resolves to Ab major. It repeats the original chord progression in Ab major, and when it hits the Eb+ again, it now treats it as a B+ and resolves to E major. Same thing again, but this time the B+ gets treated as G+ again and the song returns to C, where it ends. So three key changes and a complete symmetrical (each modulation is by a minor sixth, a much-favored non-diatonic tone in major-key pop songs, also contained in the iv chord that appears in each verse) traversal of the circle of fifths. And the first several times I listened to it I didn't even notice the key changes. The little slide guitar bit makes the transitions super smooth. For all of their great harmonic tricks, I can't think of a Beatles song that does anything quite like this.

(end musical explanation)

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Saturday, 8 July 2006 17:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

A little less subtle than that would be The Nile Song, the verse constantly moves up in whole steps, including during the solo, and it doesn't have a chorus my nomination for best and worst ever

Or maybe it goes around the circle of fifths, now I can't remeber

― Adam S S (Zephery), Saturday, 8 July 2006 20:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

I also like the various key changes on Funeral. They always feel effortless and totally appropriate.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 9 July 2006 03:23 (6 years ago) Permalink

Also, "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" by The Decemberists has a super-smooth change from C to D and back to C.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 9 July 2006 06:04 (6 years ago) Permalink

Ok, I'll keep going. "If I Fell" has a great key change from the intro into the verse. Alan W. Pollack writes:

"...the harmonic card trick contained in its intro remains one of their most clever and daring ever."

More from AWP:

"Quite unusually for Lennon and McCartney, we find here an old fashioned kind of intro in the style of, say, Gerswhin or Porter. It's fully developed as a section unto itself with material not heard in the remainder of the song, and set-off from what follows by a different texture in the instrumental backing track...
Next note The harmonic shape of this section is another story entirely; hardly at all "old fashioned" and rather both ingenious and clumsy at the same time. At the very start you pretty much assume that the opening chord (e-flat-minor) is the i chord of the home key but as the music free-falls first through D-Major (A tritone substitution! -Ed) and then continues down to D-flat-Major, you're no longer so sure about that; in fact, for a couple measures, you're totally lost and out to sea — go ahead and admit it, it's good for your soul :-)
Next note It's only after we come back to the e-flat chord in measure 5 that you quite regain your bearings, only now, this e-flat chord feels much more like a ii in relationship to the D-flat chord of the previous measure. The real coup is in the way in which the second time around, the music makes an harmonic pivot, using the same D-Major chord that had appeared more or less in passing during the first phrase, now as the I of the actual home key of the song."

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, that's amazing. How the heck did they come up with that?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:19 (6 years ago) Permalink

I mean both things: the original chromatic descent from Eb minor as tonic down to the VII chord and then using the chromatic passing chord as the new tonic the second time down. What the hell?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:22 (6 years ago) Permalink

I wish I knew this language. :(

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:23 (6 years ago) Permalink

Actually, Eb minor isn't really the tonic there at the beginning, is it? The key seems to be Db major.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:31 (6 years ago) Permalink

Actually, Eb minor isn't really the tonic there at the beginning, is it? The key seems to be Db major.

Right, that's what it says in the paragraph I quoted.

I mean both things: the original chromatic descent from Eb minor as tonic down to the VII chord and then using the chromatic passing chord as the new tonic the second time down. What the hell?

The chromatic passing chord, as I briefly alluded to, can be analyzed as a tritone substitution. It's a common re-harmonization technique in jazz, and George Gershwin used it in his songs, which is where I would guess The Beatles got it. I did a presentation on Gershwin in a 20th century music class where I compared his "I've Got a Crush on You" to "If I Fell." Both use that same tritone substitution anyway.

It works by substituting for the V chord the chord with its root a tritone away. So in Db major, a ii V7 I progression would be Ebm Ab7 Db. The chord a tritone away from Ab7 is D(7). The substitution works because Ab7 and D7 share two crucial notes: their third and seventh, C and F# (Gb). The Beatles don't use the seventh in the D chord, but it's the same principle. It also creates that slick chromatic root motion.

Neat, huh?

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Sunday, 9 July 2006 16:57 (6 years ago) Permalink

Of course, when it first goes down to the D, you don't hear it as being in the key of Db major yet. When it goes down to Db, that's a surprise! So there's definite key ambiguity at the beginning. But yeah, it's interesting how the F# (Gb) in the D chord enables it to work. Rock and roll uses bVI chords a lot - that D could have easily resolved to the key of F# major.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 9 July 2006 17:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

One of my favorites: The end of Yes' "I"ve Seen All Good People". The chant w/Hammond organ at the end drops down one full step each repeat, fading out (I think if you listen closely, the organist hits a bum-chord somewhere in there)...

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 9 July 2006 17:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

Silverchair "Ana's Song (Open Fire)"

Simultaneously best and worst key change (between verse and chorus, obviously - i mean, how can you miss a key change like that)

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Sunday, 9 July 2006 23:55 (6 years ago) Permalink

"best: bon jovi - living on a prayer"

i don't think that this is up for debate

― drich (drich), Monday, 10 July 2006 00:11 (6 years ago) Permalink

I always liked the key change to from the Eagles "Already Gone"

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Monday, 10 July 2006 02:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

I would like to hear the Homer and Jethro parody/fakeout trucker's key change mentioned here.

― Retrato Em Redd E Blecch (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 14 September 2008 04:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

The worst key change ever is in Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car)".

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, June 20, 2006 4:48 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I like how he doesn't try to sneak it on to you or anything, though - it gets a regal welcome! "Get out of my...Get out of MY! GET OUT OF MY DREAMS!" I like the gulf between that level of pomp and the topic of the song, which is demanding that a woman get into your car. Based on the spoken-word intro I wonder if this is being done at gunpoint.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 14 September 2008 04:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

I can't figure it out, but there's song acoustic singer-songwriter type thing that sounds like that guy from Sublime or a shittier Anthony Keidis, and the thing has about 5 key changes in it. It's short, but it packs a lot of irritation into its length. Ugh. My sister-in-law's iTunes is so annoying when she gets a mind to play it.

Then there was some song my friend Joseph and I were listening to repeatedly last fall with all of these brilliant uses of key changes, but I can't remember what right now.

― bamcquern, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 23:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

"there's song acoustic"

no I did not proofread that.

― bamcquern, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 23:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

song - some, I guess

― bamcquern, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 23:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

"Man In The Mirror" owns this thread.

for serious. it's so shameless.

― my asian girlfriend (bug), Thursday, 25 June 2009 01:07 (3 years ago) Permalink

I've always liked the way Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite imperceptively drifts up in key and has to loudly reset itself now and again so as to not go up too much.

― ecuador_with_a_c, Thursday, 25 June 2009 02:39 (3 years ago) Permalink

That song with all the great/effective key changes I couldn't remember was Lee Perry's "Soul Fire."

― bamcquern, Thursday, 25 June 2009 15:57 (3 years ago) Permalink

I've always liked the way Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite imperceptively drifts up in key and has to loudly reset itself now and again so as to not go up too much.
― ecuador_with_a_c, Thursday, 25 June 2009 02:39 (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You know, I never noticed that!

― Mark G, Thursday, 25 June 2009 16:00 (3 years ago) Permalink

'heal the world' is so much worse than man in the mirror, at least he does some cool singing after the change in the latter

― is juiceless??? (tremendoid), Thursday, 25 June 2009 21:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

I really like the key changes in Herbert's 'Movers and the Shakers'. None precisely subtle tho.

― Moka, Friday, 26 June 2009 05:11 (3 years ago) Permalink

'heal the world' is so much worse than man in the mirror, at least he does some cool singing after the change in the latter

but in 'man in the mirror' the key changes on the word..."change!" like i said, just shameless.

― my asian girlfriend (bug), Friday, 26 June 2009 06:24 (3 years ago) Permalink

yeah i guess. my last thoughts on mj while he was still breathing :(

― is juiceless??? (tremendoid), Friday, 26 June 2009 08:13 (3 years ago) Permalink

Well, still talking about him right to the end.

― Mark G, Friday, 26 June 2009 09:34 (3 years ago) Permalink

There's a key change in Stevie Wonder's 'If You Really Love Me' to die for

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Friday, 26 June 2009 13:41 (3 years ago) Permalink

Hahaha I thought this was bumped in memory of Will You Be There. That's my favourite song of his.

― davek_00, Friday, 26 June 2009 13:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

bestest:

― willem, Friday, 26 June 2009 14:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

worst:

Sublime - "Pool Shark"

― bamcquern, Friday, 26 June 2009 22:24 (3 years ago) Permalink

heh i welled up listening to 'heal the world' last night btw (i was welling up about every other song for a while but still)

― is juiceless??? (tremendoid), Friday, 26 June 2009 23:52 (3 years ago) Permalink

What happens between the ~~verse and chorus~~ um ~~verse-chorus and bridge~~ uh the two main parts of "Eternal Flame" has some thing that I'm apparently hardwired to be ambushed-by-unexpected-emotion by.

― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 9 July 2009 04:04 (3 years ago) Permalink

It's kind of a doofy song, but I believe the Beach Boys' "California Girls" has some weird stuff going on, key-wise.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 9 July 2009 12:04 (3 years ago) Permalink

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