Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together

Subject: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 17 May 11 - 12:31 PM

Sha boom sha boom
Fish Gotta Swim
Blue Moon
26 Miles (Santa Catalina)

They can all be sung at the same time, or in succession, with the same chord progression. Can you add more songs to the list?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 May 11 - 12:40 PM

Aren't they four-chord songs? (C-Am-F-G[7], or whatever other key...)

The list of songs using that progression (tonic/relative-minor/subdominant/dominant-7th) is huge. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, in the rock-n-roll-era slow-song genre alone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 May 11 - 12:53 PM

... and Blues!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 May 11 - 01:59 PM

I've always heard that (C to Am to F [or Dm] to G7 and back around the horn again) as the "Blue Moon progression."   It works with so many songe it can easily be overdone.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 17 May 11 - 04:05 PM

I saw a funny clip once -- can't find it now -- where two guys with guitars claimed that some recent band "ripped off Journey", then proceed to prove it: the chord progression of the song in question had a definite resemblance to the chord progression in "Street Light People". Okay, not resemblance, exactly, more like identity.
Then they went on to prove that another band ripped them off, too... and another... and another... including the Beatles... and before you knew it you were back to Johann Pachelbel.
It was very well done. While of course the chord progression was the same (not this one though) they did a good job of making the songs all sound exactly alike.
Sorry I can't remember who did the thing or where I saw it.
Cheers
-Glenn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 May 11 - 04:20 PM

Don: "Blue Moon" progression, huh? Makes me wonder if Richard Rogers actually "wrote" (originated) that set of changes back in the 30s or 40s, whenever it was.

I'm pretty sure that there was ALWAYS at least pop song using those chords in the US Top Ten, and usually several, every single week from about 1954 until at least the early 70s...maybe even still, up til now.

Mostly slow, romantic, "belt-buckle polishing" numbers. Perhaps more children were conceived to that chord progression than to any other in the 20th century.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 May 11 - 05:21 PM

Richard Rogers? I doubt it. I'm pretty sure that chord progression has been around for a fair number of centuries.

Various things do get around. Leonard Bernstein was given a ration of grief by some sharp-eared music critic who claimed that he had "plagerized" Beethoven for the tune of "There's a Place for Us" in West Side Story (maybe missing the fact that West Side Story is a retelling in modern times of Romeo and Juliet). The theme came from the slow movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

"Did I use Beethoven's theme?" snorted Bernstein. "Of course I did! It's far too beautiful a piece of music to be used only once. And Beethoven may have gotten it from somebody else. Composers borrow from each other all the time!"

Which, of course, is true.

The only people who get bent out of shape about it are some folks who write rock songs and then sue each other. "He stole my chord progression!"

Ridiculous!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 May 11 - 05:30 PM

Well, I suppose it's impossible that such a simple chord progression would have gone unnoticed for all the previous centuries.

Let me rephrase: I wonder if that progression of chords was used only occasionally until the Rogers and Hart composition "Blue Moon" became popular, at which time to became absolutely ubiquitous. Or, was it perhaps always that wildly popular?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 May 11 - 06:40 PM

Can't say for sure, but I'm certain that John Verrall, one of the Profs I had at the U. of W. School of Music could have. Fantastic ear for recognizing bits of music and who used it in what.

Years ago (1950s) Leonard Bernstein had an hour-long television show on Saturday afternoons, aimed mostly at kids, but it attracted a lot of adults, too. I learned a lot of music theory quite painlessly by watching that show. He'd explain something about musical structure and then demonstrate how various composers and song writers had used it.

In one show, he took the first four notes of the song "How Dry I Am" (in C, it would be G, up to C, then on up to D and E) and spent the whole hour showing how, with nothing more than rhythmic variations, composers and songwriters started all manner of works with those same four notes.

I had just learned Plaisir d'Amour ("The Joys of Love") from a Richard Dyer-Bennet record, and lo! those were the notes it started with!

I learned a lot from watching that show! Thanks, Lenny!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 chord songs that go together
From: Genie
Date: 17 May 11 - 09:03 PM

Don & Poppagator, the Richard Rodgers score for "Blue Moon" actually does not use that chord progression for the bridge. Yes, you can kind of 'cheat' and keep doing the basic chord progression all the way through, but it doesn't really "fit" the bridge of "Blue Moon."

Same goes for "Heart & Soul," which can also be played with that same basic chord pattern throughout, although it's an imperfect fit.

But songs like "26 Miles," "Sh-Boom," & a number of other pop/ r&b songs actually do fit perfectly with that simple 4-chord progression.

There are lists that have been compiled of the various songs that fit the Pachobel's Canon chord pattern too.

They include:
Streets Of London
One Tin Soldier (basically the same)
I Can't Stop Loving You
In My Life
Don't Sleep In The Subway


Genie