Things you never knew about songs you know by heart, old and new, with the moment to skip to so you can hear them.
Good Vibrations went to No. 1 in Britain 60 years ago this week, 2 days before You Keep Me Hangin' On did the same in America. Both are below with a moment to skip to, and under Good Vibrations sits an Olivia Rodrigo song from this May with chugging cellos of its own. About 4 minutes.
Skip to 0:25 There is no theremin on Good Vibrations. The high sliding note over the chorus is an Electro-Theremin, played with a slide by Paul Tanner, who built it (a theremin is played without touching it). Listen again and follow what's under it: a cello and a string bass sawing fast triplets (three notes squeezed into every beat).
The cello is Jesse Ehrlich, a session player, overdubbed on June 12, 1966, and the record is often credited as the first time a cello turned up in a rock song. Brian Wilson, who wrote and produced it, said in 1970 it was still his favorite of the band's songs, because of the cello.
The mono single, audio only, 3:37. The link lands 3 seconds early.
Same instrument doing the same job, 60 years later. Under the second half of the cure, low strings chug away much as Ehrlich's cello does, and producer Dan Nigro says the chug began on a keyboard. "Like the chugging cellos are all, like, MIDI." He liked how the programmed strings sounded, kept them, and had Paul Cartwright play real strings along to them.
The Supremes' record opens on one guitar figure pecking away by itself for about 8 seconds (by Chris Dalla Riva's count) before anyone else comes in. Kim Wilde remade it with her brother Ricky as hi-NRG dance pop (fast and synth-heavy), and the intro runs about 20 seconds by the same count. We'd take the Supremes', for those first 8 seconds. Thirty seconds of each, then vote.
In a real issue, you vote here.
Last week's tally, example numbers only:
songs have been No. 1 in America twice, in two versions by two different acts, by Chris Dalla Riva's count. You Keep Me Hangin' On is one. The other 8 are duels waiting their turn.
Put it on and ask whoever is in the room to point to Frankie Valli. Then give them a minute.
The verses are Gerry Polci, the drummer. Valli's voice arrives at the first bridge, and the second bridge and the falsetto part are Don Ciccone, the bass player.
Name a song where an instrument you'd never expect in pop steals the show, and tell us where to listen for it. Reply to the email with one song and the part to listen for (a time helps).
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This next song goes out to Dave, who says skip to 1:12.
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