Best/worst key changes

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XTC's "Senses Working Over Time" is fantastic cuz it really nails that panicky things-moving-faster and out-of-control feeling.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Friday, 17 January 2003 18:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Flaming Lips' "Slow Nerve Action" is so mournful when Wayne drops low. Always slays me.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 17 January 2003 18:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

Panicky? I don't get a sense of panic in that song. Maybe I'm paying too much attention to the lyrics?

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 17 January 2003 19:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

Panicky as in Andy Partridge's panic attacks.... one two three four five trying to take this all in. Use another word than "panicky" if you want.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Friday, 17 January 2003 20:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

the greatest love of all as sung by kevin rowland

― del a robbo, Friday, 17 January 2003 23:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm sure that the Eurovision Song Contest has written into their entry requirements that the song must contain a key change towards the end.

― Amarga (Amarga), Saturday, 18 January 2003 01:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Take My Breath Away" - Berlin

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 18 January 2003 01:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

Dave Mason's "So High" has undoubtedly the worst key change I've ever heard in my life. RIGHT THERE in the chorus when he goes "I'm so HIIIIIGGGGHHHHH" it's unbearable ('cause, you know, when you say the word "high" in a song you're supposed to play high notes), and then the lameass stays in the key for the rest of chorus.

I guess you just have to hear it.

― Evan (Evan), Saturday, 18 January 2003 01:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

WORST: "Thong Song" by Sisqo

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 18 January 2003 01:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated" goes from E to F#, possibly the best key change in rock.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Saturday, 18 January 2003 01:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

>Can I just say here that my least favourite song of all time with this little curse is Guess Who's "These Eyes" < (Sean Carruthers)

Oh God in fucking heaven is this EVER the case. I always imagine him losing his place, running over the huge syllable-count in the chorus, and fucking up the rhythm before the key change, too, whenever I imagine the song.

(i.e. "These eyes / Oh, they're cryin' / These eyes have seen a lot of love, but they're never gonna see a lot of love like a woman like they've seen a lot of wacka wacka blacka like I've had ...um... ... (pause) with youuuuu... THESE EYES... AAAAUUUGGGGH THEY'RE CRYIN'" *(etc.)).

*in new key

― tom (alternate one), Monday, 20 January 2003 06:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

a to g

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 20 January 2003 20:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

The key change in "Thong Song" is fantastic.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 20 January 2003 20:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

I am a closet fan of minor-key songs that switch to the parallel major for the chorus.

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 20 January 2003 20:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

Key change when matched with tempo change = me sucker for.

Ref: Talking Heads (live that is - song transitions), funk bands (none that I can think of - hopefully you know what I'm talking about..)

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 20 January 2003 20:30 (10 years ago) Permalink

Goodbye Sober Day ownz the amazing key-change.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 20 January 2003 21:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Jesus Children of America". -Stevie Wonder

― Rommel Cox, Monday, 20 January 2003 21:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

Search: "Thong Song" by Sisqo. I've not bothered to search this page to find the bit where Alex in NYC says its the worst, but, Alex: pah-foooey!

― Cozen (Cozen), Monday, 20 January 2003 21:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

The "Thong Song" makes me embarassed to be human.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 20 January 2003 21:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

Oh man - I can't believe that SOMEBODY hates those pointless key changes even more than me! Hates 'em enough, in fact, to devote an entire web page to them:

http://www.gearchange.org/

― Myonga Von Ballast (Monty Von Byonga), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 03:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

Here's a few faves
Brian Wilson:
God Only Knows goes up a 4th (D to G) for the doobedoo middle section and then effortlessly returns to D for the last verse
Paul McCartney:
And I Love Her, key sneaks up 1/2 a tone just when the guitar solo starts, making the solo unusually bright sounding despite the minor key setting
Penny Lane, key goes down a whole tone from B to A in the chorus, while the melody line moves up
Paul Weller:
There's a great one in the album version of Headstart for Happiness, just after the word 'confidence'
Pete Townsend:
So Sad About Us. The step up from A to B after the lalalalalalalala bit
John Lennon:
I'll Be Back is his greatest example, constantly switching from A to Am
Happy Xmas War is Over. Song modulates to D, and truimphantly(?) returns to A by way of switching Em for E
George Harrison:
My Sweet Lord. A lovely change up, pivoted around a diminished chord

Great key changes can really make a song, but pointless ones abound. Loads of 70s pastiche rock n roll stuff did the so-called Truck Driver's key change, moving up a tone, more than once, to convey mounting excitement towards the end; but really it just serves to show up the paucity of musical ideas in the song. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree (Shakin Stevens?) springs to mind.

― dr x o'skeleton, Tuesday, 16 May 2006 08:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

You mean like "I've Been Everywhere" by Johnny Cash? I've never heard the term "truck driver's key change" but I like it!

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 13:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

I love a lot of those "last chorus a step higher" changes even when I know they're lazy, shameless, and creatively bankrupt, e.g. "Dance Into The Light" by Phil Collins. "Golden Lady" by Stevie Wonder is probably a bit more defensible, and I love that too.

However, the inarguable champion of all key changes has to be "Walk The Line". Not only does he change keys every verse, he actually HUMS the home note, on record, to make sure he knows what he's doing! Memorable, strangely hooky, and folksy/intimate in a way that actually serves the song's narrative.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

"I Hear a Symphony" (The Supremes) has the multiple key changes in the outchorus.

"Think" (Aretha Franklin) gets points for being one of the earliest key changes there is.

Generally speaking, I like half-step key changes more than whole-step ones. "English Rose" by The Jam, for example.

"Day After Day" by The Pretenders rules because a) it comes early and b) it's a step and a half.

"Just Once" by Jeffrey Osborne is a great key change not so much on its own terms but because it's led into seamlessly by a bizarro bridge.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

My fave is probably "You Know What I Mean" by the Turtles. Off the top of my head I think the key changes about four times, ending in the same key as it began. And the playing/singing/arranging is genius.

― JAS, Tuesday, 16 May 2006 15:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

Best modulation ever is going into the second guitar solo on Judas Priest's "Painkiller".

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 16:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

the bit at the end of 'wichita lineman' where it almost changes song, never mind key, is one of the most beautiful things in all of the creative arts.

oh FUCK yeah. OTM

also gotta give it up for badfinger's "baby blue" -- the key change into the bridge ("what would i dooooo..."), THEN the key change into the solo! they perfected that shit.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 16:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

That "Trucker's Gear Change" site is quite useful, listing some of the worst offenders - Michael Bolton, R.E.M. ("Stand"), etc. Nice to have a catchall term to describe 'em, too.

I remember one summer back in the mid-'80s hanging out in the park with a cousin, listening to a lousy local country-rock band play a free concert in the bandshell. They closed "Elvira", that Oak Ridge Boys song, an endless rendition that climaxed with, like, a dozen repetitions of the chorus, a steady half-step upward modulation on each one. It was horrible and hilarious all at once.

― Myonga Von Bartok, Tuesday, 16 May 2006 17:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

I like the key change from chorus to verse ("Yai-dai-dai-daaai"--->guitar solo) on "Caroline Goodbye" off of Colin Blunstone's "One Year". He does it twice, and both times it's really nice.

The modulation on Louis Philippe's "Sweet Dollar Bill" is brilliant, too, both into the chorus and out of the chorus.

AND

Both are tonic-mediant relationships, you uncaring non-technicians. The best way to change key, I think.

Although it's not a key change proper, the "I need your love..." section in Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's In Love With You" is pretty choice. The entire song sounds like it's in C, but then, in the chorus, it shifts gears and makes it sound like the entire song has always been in G.

― Owen Pallett (Owen Pallett), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 22:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oh!

The worst key change happens at the end of the bridge on The Left Banke's "She May Call You Up Tonight". Ruins an otherwise perfect song.

― Owen Pallett (Owen Pallett), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 22:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

They closed "Elvira", that Oak Ridge Boys song, an endless rendition that climaxed with, like, a dozen repetitions of the chorus, a steady half-step upward modulation on each one. It was horrible and hilarious all at once.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 22:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Leopold!

― Myonga Von Bunny (Monty Von Byonga), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 22:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

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

Skipping 27 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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

2 years pass...

2:46

wow

― Morrissey & Clunes: The Severed Alliance (PaulTMA), Monday, 19 March 2012 03:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

"Build me up Buttercup" changes up for the only time in the song, ten seconds from the end. Hardcore!

― Mark G, Monday, 19 March 2012 07:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

Intervention by Arcade Fire has a great key change from C to G that sounds like a bridge at first.

― B-Boy Bualadh Bos (ecuador_with_a_c), Monday, 19 March 2012 10:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Right, let's have a revive.

At Devon Record Club on Tuesday Tom said something along the lines of "all songs with key changes are horrible and rubbish", which is quite a statement.

After some confused discussion, we came to the conclusion that he specifically meant the type of really noticable, obvious, stadium-pleasing "take the chorus up a notch for euphoria" key changes (like Livin' On A Prayer) rather than the "subtle shift in the song's feel" key changes (like We Can Work It Out).

Which is kind of fair enough, but I'm determined to prove him wrong.

So, more examples please, of both kinds...

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 10 May 2012 12:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

this is good

― owenf, Thursday, 10 May 2012 12:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

i love the key changes in beyonce's 'love on top'!

― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

Worst - the end-of-bridge, last-verse upward key change, often accompanied by slowing down the last verse for added melodrama, as in the aforementioned "I Will Always Love You". The suspense-building last-verse upward key change is a hackneyed songwriting device used that in the hands of less adroit invariably sounds trite and cliched. Except in the adroit hands of a select few: the Who taking each verse of "My Generation" up a key, until by the end the song is in four different keys.

The Beach Boys were the masters of the unexpected key change. "Pom Pom Play Girl", though s slight song, manages to work every one of the 12 major chords into it, sometimes in major-7th variations, but avoids using even one minor chord.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" has a great modulation to a higher key in the last verse - a common musical feature, except that Brian Wilson starts the verse in the normal key an shifts upwards unexpectedly a few seconds into the verse after starting it in the usual key. But the best use of this technique is in "Girls on the Beach". This song, about how the attractive ladies lining the CA coastline beaches are not unattainable princesses, is set to five-part harmonies promising "one waits there for you" if you are respectful, each of the three verses featuring an unexpected key change smack dab in the middle as the title phrase is sung, only to revert to the original key near the end of each verse. You wouldn't expect any more key changes in a song where every verse changes key twice, but the final verse brings another, incredibly unexpected upward key change not at the conventional place right after the bridge, but rather one-quarter of the way through the last verse (on the crucial word "couples" no less), followed only a few seconds later by another upward key change that was already baked into the middle of every verse at the title phrase, before returning down one key on the last syllable of the phrase "and with their boys tonight" into a vocal/instrumental flourish (which appears nowhere else in the song - but again so skillfully blended in that it can easily go unnoticed unless pointed out) that leads to the outro and fadeout. Last-verse key changes are commonplace, but who else but BW would change the key one-quarter of the way into the third verse, in a song that already has two key changes built into every verse to begin with?

Incredifreakingbrilliant...

― Lee626, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

So many country songs from the 60s/70s have a modulation. "Coal Miner's Daughter" moves twice, both 1/2 steps.

A minor third step up seems to be more rare, but the Grateful Dead did it in their live version of "Around and Around" when Bob Weir could get up that high.

There's also that weird change in "Right Off" from In A Silent Way, I think it's a tritone change

― Johnny Hotcox, Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

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