Best/worst key changes

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"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

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

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