Listening Journal #4

The music of post-war America is eclectic and shows the expansion of musical tastes at the time. However, a great deal of music still had it's roots in tin pan alley. Frank Sinatra's Nancy (With the Laughing Face) is an excellent example of the still popular crooning style. The song is in the conventional AABA form and demonstrates Sinatra's use of strings as accompaniment. The strings play an introduction that is also used at the end as an instrumental tag. His singing style includes long phrases and occasional use of rubato. Sinatra was a master of using the microphone as an extension of his voice.

Included in the eclectic mix of the 40s is the "jump band" style. Louis Jordan's band, the Tympany Five, was a successful group included in the new rhythm and blues designation that played in the "jump" style. Jump bands were a downsized version of a big band (necessitated by wartime shortages) that played boogie-woogie influenced music. Louis Jordan would influence an number of early rock 'n roll artists as well as later performers like James Brown.

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie was Jordan's biggest hit. The song uses 12 bar blues alternating with a 8 bar chorus. The lyrics tell the story of a man returning from the war only to find a scarcity of jobs. He ends up as a poor hobo (a character familiar from the Great Depression). The song's style uses a shuffle beat, saxophone riffs and solos (including a introductory imitation of a train whistle), and rhythm section to create an up-tempo feel. Jump bands were on the "hotter" end of the R&B spectrum which included all sorts of southern-influenced music.

Chuck Berry was an extremely influential early rock 'n roll musician. His first big hit, Maybellene, was a synthesis of country (the song was modeled after a country song called Ida Red) and rhythm and blues. Berry used the 12 bar blues in many of his hits and Maybellene is no exception. He also used blue notes and a boogie pattern on his guitar to drive the song forward. The 12 bar form is maintained throughout, but the chord changes are nonexistent in the verses which helps to create  more distinction between the verse and chorus. The lyrics are immediately appealing to young people with fast cars and a pretty girl. Chuck Berry tells the story of a young man chasing after Maybellene in his "V-8 Ford" and leaves the listener to imagine what happens after he catches her at the end of the final verse.

Another rock 'n roll musician with widespread influence is Little Richard. His song Long Tall Sally is similar to Maybellene in that it uses the 12 bar blues structure. Little Richard also adapts the form to create contrast between a verse a chorus structure; the first four bars constitute the verse while the remaining eight are the chorus. This particular structure is widely used in early rock 'n roll songs. A great deal of Little Richard's appeal comes from his shouting style of singing and his outrageous stage presence. Unlike Chuck Berry, Little Richard led his band from the piano and used the boogie-woogie style developed by Count Basie and others. Richard's band is similar to a jump band using saxophone and rhythm section. 

Like Long Tall Sally, Elvis Presley's hit Don't Be Cruel used the 12 bar blues as its underlying structure. However, the verse is the longer (eight measures) of the two sections. His vocal style is a blending of rock and country sounds and is indicative of the rockabilly style he and others (Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent) are known for. The blending of styles is also found in the strong backbeat and repeated electric guitar riff in the introduction. Like much of the rock 'n roll produced by major labels, Don't Be Cruel is "sweetened" with background singing by the Jordanaires, but the song maintains it's rock 'n roll feel and tempo. 

Another important style of popular music in the 40s and 50s is vocal harmony groups. Stemming from the black gospel music tradition, vocal harmony groups infused their music with tight harmonies and gospel treatment of melodies. The Coasters song Charlie Brown, written by Lieber and Stoller (they wrote many classics including Hound Dog), is a prime example of the style. Lieber and Stoller pulls from a number of influences in the construction of Charlie Brown. The form is the familiar AABA, but the A sections are a 12 bar blues with a small form of their own similar to the verse-chorus form of Don't Be Cruel. The majority of the song is sung in tight harmony with one line spoken by the bass singer. The saxophone plays a call-and-response riff during the chorus. The lyrics are aimed at young people with it's story about a class clown. It's not hard to see Charlie Brown's popularity with its lyrics, fast tempo, and novel use of spoken word by the bass singer.