• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Classic Songs that change the beat

C

cd637299

Guest
I cannot read music, but I know that some songs have more than one "beat" in them, making them kinda awkward.

Five I know, which I shall list here; but I am sure that you folk can come up with more:

"Stardust" - classic standard (intro seems 2/4, the rest of the song 6/8?)
"Dancin' Shoes" - Nigel Olsson (intro 3/4, the rest 6/8?)
"In Times Like These" - Christian hymn (a small 2/4 bit within the 3/4 song)
"Younger Girl" - Critters/Lovin' Spoonful (seems to start *and end* 6/8, the rest 2/2?)

...and the weirdest one, with 3 different beats in the chorus alone, from sheet music I saw once---

"Love is Thicker Than Water" - Andy Gibb (chorus starts 3/4, then 5/4, then settles into 4/4).....a #1 song you don't hear much anymore, and that's fine with me (nothing personal against AG)!

(BTW anybody feel free to correct me on the beats I listed)

cd
 
The beat does not really change in Dave Brubeck tunes, although it appears to at times. He has written in 5/4, 6/4, 7/4 and 9/8 time.
 
ah, thought of another one----

"All by Myself" - Eric Carmen (instrumental part 6/8 in otherwise 2/4?)

cd
 
I can't speak to the first poster's songs, but as a drummer (not professional, mind you), I'm pretty familiar with changing time signatures.

I once played a song that had about 17 changes in the time signature. It was absurd. In fact there were so many, you literally could not keep up with them. You were better off playing the song by feel, which is exactly what we did. It went fine.

One typical stumbling block is the "two bar." This is one measure in 2/4 time inserted somewhere in a song that's otherwise in 4/4 time. I've often practiced a song to a recording only to get tripped up by this - usually somewhere near the bridge. I've always thought the two-bar is an unecessary nuisance (I guess as opposed to a necessary nuisance) 8). If you're unfamiliar with time signatures, but you're counting along with a song and it seems to lose it's 4/4 beat (assuming it was 4/4 in the first place), you may have run over a two bar.

Another song with mixed time signatures is Pink Floyd's "Money" which, I believe, is 7/4 most of the way until you get to the instrumental bridge, which is 4/4.
 
As to the above post, I wonder if "Midnight Rocks" by Al Stewart would qualify as a two-bar....and/or, does the beat change? Definitely a weird song as far as beat.

cd
 
"Feels Like the First Time" by Foreigner has a kind of "extra beat" in between the first and second line of each verse. Dunno its sheet music though.

cd
 
Funeral For A Friend, By Elton John, definitely has a beat change in it. That one came to mind as a music theory study in school years ago.
 
Silkie said:
Funeral For A Friend, By Elton John, definitely has a beat change in it. That one came to mind as a music theory study in school years ago.
Click to expand...

But isn't that just a medley of 2 songs (the other one called "Love Lies Bleeding")? If so, I wouldn't count that; but if just the "Funeral" part is a change, okay! I haven't heard that one in a while, nor care to. :)

cd
 
Oh, one more, and a #1:

"We Can Work It Out" - Beatles

Sorry for post after post...

cd
 
cd637299 said:
Silkie said:
Funeral For A Friend, By Elton John, definitely has a beat change in it. That one came to mind as a music theory study in school years ago.
Click to expand...

But isn't that just a medley of 2 songs (the other one called "Love Lies Bleeding")? If so, I wouldn't count that; but if just the "Funeral" part is a change, okay! I haven't heard that one in a while, nor care to. :)

cd
Click to expand...

The funeral part is a change...well before Love Lies Bleeding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GYI6XJH9Ss
 
McArthur Park comes to mind.

The original Richard Harris version, lord knows what the charts for the Donna Summer version looked like.

And there was an early-ish Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach-Hal David song (Say a little prayer?) that was supposed to have had a lot of time changes in it. About 45 or so years ago, saw a documentary of it being rehearsed/recorded where they talked about it.
 
"Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie. An otherwise slow song, except for a brief uptempo bridge.

"Come Sail Away" by Styx. Starts slow, ballad-ish even, but then really builds!

"Angela" by Toto. From their very first album (1978).

"L.A. Woman" by the Doors "Mr. Mojo Risin'!"
 
A few more:

"Feelin' Stronger Every Day" by Chicago
"Band On the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" by Paul and Linda McCartney
"Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band (borrowing that one from the other thread)
 
The verses of Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" have a single 2/4 measure in what is otherwise a 4/4 song.

Has "Stairway to Heaven" been mentioned?  Weird time signature stuff going on in the guitar bridge between the slow 4/4 and the fast 4/4.
 
1979's "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand. Very slow first minute or so, to the disco beat.
 
"A Day in the Life" puts John and Paul's compositions together and another Beatles song, "Here Comes the Sun" has that weird bridge but it all comes together(no pun intended)as you would expect from them. In a recent Britney Spears song, "I Wanna' Go", she turns what would seem like four bars into three and the whole song is like that.
 
Proud Mary -- Ike and Tina Turner. Of course, Tina tells you right at the start that it's going to get "nice and rough" once the down-tempo "nice and easy" part is over.
 
"Hummingbird" by Seals & Crofts. One jock insisted on cuing past the slow opening and starting it at the point where the tempo increases. ::)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom