The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time
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- Опубликовано: 22 июн 2021
- Is this the most complex song ever? In this video I answer that question.
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Hey Rick, is the beato book good for learning this kind of stuff? I would like to learn this stuff, as a musician.
I always thought that "Cherish" by The Association was pretty complex for it's era
Rick can you please make a video explaining all those weird chord shapes you had in this video.. or at least principles on how we can construct it
There is a story about Jerome Kern. The day after the play opened for which he wrote 'All The Things You Are' he had lunch with a theater critic for the New York Times. The critic asked him if he thought the song would ever really become popular. Jerome answered "No, the melody is just too complicated for that. People just won't remember it." They finished their lunch and as they walked out of the restaurant a stranger walked by whistling the melody.
Rick, for all of us non musicians, could you play what could be the vanilla version of this song, without over modulation, please? 🙂👍
"Never gonna pick a key...I'm gonna modulate the song forever"
Underrated comment
thats funny
Nailed it! Lmao
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"Gonna try and make up for all the times they bored ya so. Gon-na hold your ear close to mine. From this day on we're confused together. Oh I swear this time I'm never gonna change the key."
Rick... I was the girl singer on that gig - Beth Russo (now Graham)! What a fun summer gig that was - and I never quite realized then how tricky that tune was for you guys. Terrance Bruce was a wonder. Great vid - I enjoyed listening and remembering all that! @Rick Beato
Beth your vocals are great in this complex song
Wow! So glad you two reunited on this AWESOME video! :-)
How fun!!! You automatically awesome in my book!
She was the female vocalist in the cover band with Rick. She wasn't the female singer of the recording.
Awesome!! I wish I could have been there to see the band crumbling and laughing. So cool that Beth found this! This song is like trying to solve a rubric’s cube on stage!
Rick, I have been playing piano for 40 yrs. I put together a massive 80s playlist, found this song, downloaded the sheet music. I seriously had some wtf moments as I was sight reading. Took me 3 tries to get it down and after watching your video I was dying of laughter. I can’t imagine trying to memorize this song. Thx for the analysis!
difficult to play and sing at the same time, if you are accompanying a singer then a competent guitarist should be able to handle it. Happy Talk also sounds a simple song but wait till you see the chord changes!
This video is so epic that it's mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for the song!
In a June 2021 video posted on RUclips, record producer Rick Beato called "Never Gonna Let You Go" "the most complex pop song of all time", due to its use of frequent key changes, inverted chords and unusual chord progressions.[4] Beato's discussion includes a detailed harmonic analysis of the Sérgio Mendes arrangement.
Love that!
@MattsCrazyArt niceee
The genius of this song isn’t even the chords, it’s that they wrote a singable, hummable, memorable vocal melody over that!!!
I bet they wrote the melody first and got as tricky as they could with the chords after
I think a simpler way to arrive at such a song is to start with humming a melody, pivoting it across keys whenever you feel like. Or, in other words, neglecting the key and just trying to make passages move somewhere - jumping to an off-key tone here and there, and seeing where it leads. I don't see the chord sequences having a structure of their own in this song, they're just short tension and release cycles made to fit the melody. Resolutions that occur every other measure lead to apparent "normalcy", no matter how harmonically distant the start of every following cadence is.
Yeah, I wonder if it started as a regular pop song, then someone decided to entertain themself by making the chords as complex as possible while still going with the melody.
@@BellXllebMusic My thoughts exactly.
@@george474747 Not really, the chords follow the modulations of the melody in this song. A "jazzified" chord scheme looks very different!
Back in the day, in our wedding band, we prayed that the bride and groom NEVER requested this to be the song for their first dance!
Ahaha
Im going to request this at every wedding I attend that has a band, then stand where the band can see me laugh.
@@harrysachs2274 Absolute madlad
It could have been their last dance. 🤣🤣🤣
Maybe play it later, after everyones had a couple drinks they wont notice if youve made it simpler
You may know Sergio Mendes is brazilian and his major influence is "Bossa Nova" that has a lot of chords like those in its composition; even Mendes has done the arrangement, only. Names like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Lyra, João Gilberto, among other have been used these kind of sequence since the 60s and 70s. I'm Dilermando Nassif, from Belo Horizonte, MG. Brazil. I like your videos. You are a great musician. Congratulations.
But it wasn't written by Mendes. It was written by Barry Mann and his wife Cynthia Weil. Both born and raised in New York City.
listen in at 8:35. although i get your point
Did you know Sergio Mendes also has a cult following? Can't even walk down the street in South America.
@@petedavis7970 I'm going to explain something you might not know about music production: music is divided into 2 distinct parts, lyrics and harmony. The objective of this video is not to analyze the lyrics of the song but rather the harmony, especially the chosen chords.
@@petedavis7970 You're talking about the lyrics, not the song itself.
Absolutely god-level jazz composition. So complex yet sounds so natural and so beautiful,
especially with the male / female duet.
Quincy Jones can do that when he has access to many gifted musicians and arrangers all over the world.
Are you sure? Natural? Beautiful? What is that bar, then?
“Ok let’s play this new song tonight”
“What are the chords”
“All of them”
No lie there!!!
"Just hit the fretboard, something will fit"
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
"how many chords?"
"YES"
This needs 'Guitar George' to play it! :D
Am I the only non-musician here understanding like 10% of the technobabble but still enjoying this guy's enthusiasm tremendously?
I tried self-learning guitar in the late 80s and early 90s. I didn't even understand 1% of what Rick was talking about.
The thing you can surely understand about it is that as one of the musicians, there is a certain divine comfort in knowing that no matter how badly you completely obliterate a tune, even in front of people, in 3 minutes it will be over and nobody is gonna have any broken bones or even flesh wounds. Yes, extremely awkward at the time. But it's like...you know *in advance* that you are automatically guaranteed forgiven for any sort of mistake you can make. All you have to do is to go on to the next tune which you know you are gonna do anyway. Which is why between Rick & the bass player it is/was so double-over hilarious.
No I love this and I’m not a musician. I am a regular.
Count me in. I love this channel even though I understand almost none of the technical aspects of music.
Sign Up for His Courses. Learn How to Play.
That's why Sergio Mendes is still making music. Great music.
It’s amazing that the vocal melody is so easy to listen to having such a complex chord structure underneath
So well said!
You got my brain there
A given melody doesn't necessarily have a given chord progression. I said "necessarily." The melody and chord progression together are the total musical product. There are dumber ways of playing this melody that don't involve all the complex chord machinery that Rick is struggling with. If you sing the note "C" there are any number of chords that you could play behind that, the most obvious of course is Cmaj, but the A minor scale has the same notes as the Cmaj scale. If you're a piano person, it's all the white keys. Rick is a guitarist not a guitar player. That's a compliment. A guitarist has a general mastery of the instrument, a good working knowledge of music theory, and can play across styles. I am not a guitarist; I am a guitar player. Nothing wrong with that but I don't have a top-grade knowledge of music theory and couldn't pick out some of those chords from a lineup.
that is the magic of common tones and modulations. if youre interested def look further into it, but itll first take some basic understanding of diatonic chord structure and chord inversions. counterpoint is then where it all starts to get interesting.
@@noahyes god no need to be such a dork man. you can just feel these things
@@noahyes counterpoint is where it all begins; everything else is just an extension
As complicated as these progressions are, it never SOUNDS crazy. Just flows. Weird!
Yep. Honestly if I wasn't told this is the original I would assume this is like a modern day Jazz band doing a reharmonization but then on those the singers themselves never modulate this much.
It's like a Giant Steps lost track that was retrofitted with a nice, romantic melody and lyrics yet it still works as both.
@@IncredibleGoliath It feels like standard pop, because it is written as standard pop. Despite the modulations the song is written pretty generically and that is why it is not remembered, not because of the modulations. Modulations can actually help a song make it more memorable, you have Bohemian Rhapsody, one of the most memorable and recognizable songs ever and it has several modulations. So you can attribute that to the writing and not the modulations themselves.
Genius level melody writing.
@@IncredibleGoliath Oh ok, I thought you were making a point as to how the modulations in itself were a detriment to the composition, my bad.
The vocals by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller are STUNNING! Don’t hear too many pop singers like those anymore in today’s music. Another great song sung by Pizzulo is Alibis from the Sérgio Mendes album Confetti - there’s a great live video of it here on RUclips
This Song has more chords than the entire AC/DC catalogue
I know to which one I’d rather listen, tho.
not too hard tbh
I was hoping it had the two chords A/C and D/C but unfortunately the closest is Ab/c and D/C
@@donalmaguire6099 LOL. We used to joke that AC/DC named their band after the only chords they knew. Just joking of course - we loved their hard hitting, down-to-earth sound. I'm a firm believer that complicated harmony doesn't always equate to likeable, memorable, soul-stirring music.
The intro itself does.
I love his smile while he's playing along. Every version of the smile as each chord is played represents a new complexity proportional to the obscurity of the chord 😅 Such a musician thing to do.
Brasil 66 era was sophisticated jazz/pop/bossa nova that charted all over the planet. His version of The Beatles’ Fool on a Hill is outstanding.
Paul McCartney agrees. He said he prefers the Brasil 66 version to his own.
@@georgew2014 that's really cool! wow
agreed
Brazilian harmony is otherworldly.
Once I asked a Brazilian guitarist where he had learned all those cool chords and progressions. His response: "In the streets"
I had a Brazilian keyboardist play an amazing passage once. When I asked him what it was, he said, "I don't know"
He was serious
most musicians here in brazil actually did learn most things from the streets because it was where samba and pagode were presented, i think after the 90's that culture kinda ended tho
That's so badass
Try a song called ""Corsario" from the singer "João Bosco".
Funny thing is: A lot of Brazilian youngsters don't even know who Sérgio Mendes is, and half of those who kno, know him only as they guy that had his studio built by Harrison Ford (before he was famous).
The craziest part of the story isn't them butchering the song. Its doing an emotional love song for kids ages 8-10.
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Dude!!!!!!!
If it was no. 1 the kids wouldn't have batted an eyelid. People accept what they're exposed to. You hear something enough at that age, it'll probably grow on you.
Edit: Bohemian Rhapsody is the ultimate example. I was 12 when that came out and at first it sounded like a mess. Two weeks later I was buying it. And of course I'm now sick and tired of it 😉
Hahaha! :D I was like; "Wait . . . What? 8-10-12 year olds"? :P
@@mvunit3 I was four or five when this song came out and 100% remember hearing it on the radio.
lol this is classic 😂😂!! Great story Rick.. This is a great, intelligent creation, ive always loved this song, had no idea how complex it was!! it just sounds beautifully melodic to me.
I love it with Rick playing the chords over it. It simplifies the complexity somewhat and hear it as a set of chards rather than listening to all the instruments intertwining. It let's me appreciate its fantastic nature.
This song can only be played by Guitar George, cause he knows all the chords.
He's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing!
They said an old guitar is all, he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing
And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene.
He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright
This is how you write a song without getting sued for plagiarism lol.
Good one
@ape kaspank lol
Best comment of the night
Can't copyright chord changes anyway. Although melodies on the other hand... Sounds not unlike The Greatest Love of All..
Actually bits of it remind me of Could it be Magic which in turn rips off Chopin
Sergio Mendes is one of our treasures from Brazil, representing the MPB and bossa nova at it's finest.
Based on how the name was pronounced I assumed he was from Argentina or Mexico
I heard his group live, as Brasil '99. "Mas que nada" is probably the most exciting song live that I've ever heard. They start it at zero and build like waves crashing. And the girl singers were phenomenal (Kevyn Lettau, a brilliant jazz singer herself, was one of them for that concert, at the Hollywood Bowl, in L.A. Says a lot for Mendes that amazing singers were ready to sign up for ensemble work with his band)
Brasil '66, '77, I assume he had '88 too? He was always great.
But this is neither of those. This is needlessly complicated, disposable pop. There's nothing compelling about it.
@@fbarok5 That's because of the common root of portuguese and spanish. Mendez (SPA) and Mendes (Port) share the same origin, even though the two languages evolved differently. The same happens with English and German (both are germanic languages)
I watch this video over and over because I had the same experience with this same song. It was many many years later and I was playing for a woman who wanted to do it. I thought I've heard this song a hundred times. I can nail this right now. The guitar player didn't know it so we put the tape on. Suddenly I realised I didn't know it either. Same thing, wait go back, what? Glad someone like Rick had the same problem. This song is all over the place. I laugh so hard every time I watch this.
There're more chords in this song than in the whole Billboard hot 100.
hahahhahah
Niiiice, LOL!
key Metallica clip: "Sad but true!!!!"
Sadly, YES
trueeeeeeeee
I don’t understand 95% of what you’re talking about but I find these videos so interesting, intriguing, even often humorous! Thank you for your hard work on these.
96% for me lol
The case when it's no matter if you speak English or Russian - you still don't understand 95% of what is said 😃
Same lmao
I know nothing except you are great
And I thought I was the only "non initiated" having fun with those videos. They are awesome!
I’ve watched this video several times since it came out. Each time I think, “How come I loved that song and never noticed all those chord changes?” I still don’t quite get how hard it is musically and yet how natural it feels - it just keeps opening up. Amazing song.
Jazz often runs the circle of fifths descending and modulates to the minor of the tonic as the ii of the new tonic. Pop jazz more so. It seems pretty clear that the clever modulating was done in the Mendes song to accommodate the pitch positioning of the two vocal leads.
Rick: The Wikipedia page for this song already mentions that you analyzed the song and called it the most complex pop song ever, just 4 hours after you posted this video. You've become a cultural icon!
Deservedly so. Kudos, Rick!!!
Rick has become a “star music teacher” and rightly so.
Lol that’s awesome!
I subscribed to this channel after seeing this video!
Wow
That's why there's no chords left in contemporary pop music. Sérgio stole them all
^ Underated comment right here! 😄😄😄
Yep. He just left 4.
To people with a musical ear it sounds perfectly natural. Even logical.
I heard this for the first time on the background music in a charity shop ... I had to know what it was ... I love weird and cool chords ... but this one is just extraordinary ... so beautiful how they make it sound so natural when it ISN'T!!!!
I remember hearing this song a few times growing up, but hadn't heard it in a really long time before I saw this video recently. This song is phenomenal, and I have an appreciation for it now that I didn't as a kid.
This song is legit genius. Coming up with all of those progressions is one thing, but making it into a coherent song with nice singing parts, that's skill, man.
A friend of mine once said a winning pop song is the most difficult to write.
@@neilslade Bro, it's a targeted pop song, what are you expecting? The cool thing about this channel is that Rick never turns down any genre of music merely based on the lyrics, vocals, or whatever.. I'd imagine very few of us here would actually listen to this song or album in our spare time.. doesn't stop us from analyzing it from a musical perspective, though. It's not a song I'd rock out to, but props where they are due: within the genre, for what it wants to do, it's masterfully crafted, and far more ambitious than just about anything else you could hear in the genre. That to me is what makes it worth the praise, not necessarily meaning that I'm in love with it :D
I am pretty sure the melody was not made to match those chords. It was the other way around. About all successful songwriters start with the melody. After that, there are a million ways to do the chords. It's called chord substitution. Guitarist Joe Pass did it with standards.
@@WorldWarThree I remember, "back in the day", reading "Guitar Player" mag, and almost every interviewee indicated this, "melody first/chords after" approach to songwriting....I was composing music, but always chord progs alone, I thought, "I will never be able to write songs!", or maybe just instrumental music; but, about a decade ago, I consciously decided to see if I could just compose a melody "cold turkey" and chord it, after, and I (thankfully!) found out that I can!
Hmmm, (deep sigh) not convinced.
Even if our 'Guru on high' vouches for it! 😫
So what you're telling me is, Sergio Mendes enforced copy protection on this song by encrypting the chord progression.
and Rick hacked it... sort of 😅
Just about sums it up! ^_^
Actually people used to do stunts like that all the time.
@@redrick8900: Actually it's funnier if you don't explain it.
@@deusexaethera It wasn't funny to begin with.
This is spectacularly fantastic this video. I come from a Jazz family and have always loved this song. But your reactions and pure joy about those crazy and numerous key changes, it’s soo refreshing. Thank you for sharing 🍻🍾!
I agree completely. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so delighted!
I used to wail this song. The complexity of the chords express the emotional investment of the singers. There’s real passion here- “some flicker of love that still shines through”….”let’s talk about second chances…”. The words are as invested as the music.
A bit of trivia: The (first) studio for Sergio Mendes was built by a then young carpenter that would later become known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones.
10:46
@@GiacomodellaSvezia lol
@@GiacomodellaSvezia This is the best comment in a comment of the year.
@@GiacomodellaSvezia youre genius man LOL
Jesus?
I love that you write out the chord symbols by hand and then import them in
Wonderful experience watching you play all those chords and having them there
to read. Your comments and pleasant pure enjoyment of the complexity is delightful. Thank you Rick Beato. Just heard you for the first time about a week ago. 😊
Actually I knew I've heard this somewhere in Spanish, there is a Salsa version of this song and it's pure gold. It's called "Nunca te dejaré ir" by Gustavo Rodriguez. I somehow heard it when I was little and all the changes musically-wise blew my mind... Now I know why. What a masterpiece!
I'm singing like.. "I'm never gonna learn the chords, I'm gonna struggle with these chords forever"
Haha, lol ^^
Just brilliant!
LMAO 🤣
Now I want a Weird Al parody of this song with those lyrics, just talking about how complex this song is, lol.
And the end frase on the chorus "I'm never gonna learn the choooooords"
"Should we write a chart for this?"
"Naw, we can figure this out."
Backfires EVERY time.
"... no need for chart.."
Then comes first line
"I was as wrong as i could be..."
No truer word ever said! Lol
Im not a musician and basically know nothing about music production, but oh boy can i relate to that mentality backfiring. Im in movie production, and holy, backfires EVERY time indeed!
"Now we're in uncharted territory." Literally.
I had no idea it was so complex, just sounded like a normal pop song of the day to me. I was 8 years old when that song came out, a great song, always loved it.
Just loving Rick's reaction to the chord changes.
Frustrated not to be able to press “thumbs up” more than once. Fascinating, as non-musicians don’t realize how much goes on in a song.
And even some so-called "musicians."
You reminded me of a video I saw some time ago. At the end, the fellow said "if you like this video give it a thumbs-up." And with a straight face he added, "If you didn't like it, tap the thumbs down ... twice."
I had to try it, and sure enough, hitting it the second time removes the thumbs-down. Brilliant!
You’re right. I would never realise the complexity in this song. Ricks videos are brilliant as he shows the technical side of the songs. To me this sounded like many other songs, particularly Arthur’s Theme but clearly there is a lot more in it!
Pop is not always simple. This song is uninteresting, because it just sounds bad. The changes and melody don't produce a very pleasing response. The song may have been #1, but primarily for its sickening sweet lyrical content that resonated with sixteen-year-old girls. Compare with a pop song like Henry Mancini's theme from Pink panther. Its complexity comes not from chord changes and modulation per se but from orchestration and use of chromaticisn. No lyrics.
@@isohumulone pink panther is pop???? How do we define "pop"
"Let's write a song!"
"Cool, what chord we gonna use?"
"Yes..."
I got these 100. Whaddaya think of THEM?
Literally laughed out loud at this 😂
I legit laughed out loud
How every Jazz tune was written... 😉
PALPATINE VOICE: All of them...
Leeza Miller recorded the female vocal part on "Never gonna let you go". She was also part of the band on a couple of world tours in the early '80.
Hey, I’m not a musician, so I really appreciate your expertise in unpacking this song. You’re a pleasure to watch… Thank you for describing and explaining the complexities of the song. Fascinating!
The song is complex but not a great song; just a good romantic smooth jazz-pop song that is a bit too slick and dreary. Excruciating detail for a song that doesn't seem very good though it made no 1.
Producer: So which chords are you thinking for this song?
Artist: All of them
Producer: How many chords are there in your song?
Composer: Yes
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"We'll just tell you the chords that AREN'T in the song. It's easier that way."
Artist: All of them
Producer: Okay so we're going to add a few tritone substituations...
Artist: ALL OF THEM!
Hardly
To me the craziest part is how natural these changes sound!
Yes. It’s insane that is shifting keys and modulations as much as it is but it flows.
Sérgio Mendes is a giant. One of the greatest Brazilian musicians of all time. I know because I'm Brazilian
Not recognised in Brazil at all, because I am from there as well
Cheers my man, Brasil '66 was a pretty big deal up here in the States as well.
@@tiagocasanova7065
Also not valued in Europe, Asia or anywhere else outside the USA.
This is hard to believe but he invested so much work into one song and then it doesn't even make it into the 3 other major music markets besides the US. No chart entry in Japan, Germany and in the UK he only reached #45 😕
@stefankaiser3354 he became really famous with his jam with Black Eyed Peas these days, that was worldwide
@@tiagocasanova7065
Yes, the single with the Black Eyed Peas was at least a late appreciation of his artistic work, which certainly also had a financial impact on him ;)
But even without the big commercial breakthrough, he shaped the music, because after all he is a trained classical pianist who is at home in Jazz and without him, Bossa Nova wouldn't be what it is today✨ 😎👍
Fyi, this song was originally written for Earth Wind and Fire by Cynthia Weill and Barry Mann probably because of the similar difficulty in harmony and melody and
success of "After The Love Has Gone" which was written by David Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin which Maurice White and EWF produced and made
famous on their 1979 album "I AM". Dionne Warwick was the first to accept" Never Gonna Let You Go" after the rejection by EWF in 1982. Jay Graydon produced
and did all the rhythm arrangements and that was complemented by an elaborate string and horn arrangement by Jeremy Lubbock and Jerry Hey respectively.
That said, it was the production of Sergio Mendez on percussion(not kbds) and arrangements by keyboardist Robbie Buchanan, that took this soon to no. 1 on the
Billboard charts in 1983 for 4 weeks on the Adult Contemporary Charts.
It's for songs like this that the drummer is happy he's the drummer.
Right. Back there like "Good luck with that, y'all" 😂
And the singer is like... what’s wrong with you guys 😂😂😂😂
Until the singer wants to play a rush song…
Agrees in 4/4
@@davidboyer7706 that's when the drummer sez "yaaay" let's wake these people up!
As a child/teen of the 80s I’ve heard this song a thousand times....I never realized how intricate it was!
Me neither, cause I always changed the station immediately.
This is my favorite video from you. I only vaguely understand the musicology you describe, based on rudimentary music training in my youth. But your enthusiasm is contagious. Please keep doing what you are doing!
Figuring this out is just beyond me but turning your guitar away from the bassist who helped you out the day before is hilarious !! What a great story inside your memory and musicianship unsurpassed.
Rick, you are just a brilliant, funny man. Thank you for sharing.
I played this song in a wedding band i got hired to play in last minute when the normal guitarist was sick. I was reading it cold and must've said "what!?," with something close to the same surprise and tone as Rick does in this video, every third or fourth bar. It's this light-hearted, airy, little-bit-sappy, emotional thing that is covertly a labyrinth with a freakin-ravenous minotaur on the loose inside. The bass player and keyboard player were laughing at me thru most of it.
@@marktilley7222 nobody noticed. i made it thru it ok, and having the keys there helped a ton, but it was more just an earbending thing and me being shocked I had never noticed how weird the harmony was when i'd heard it on the radio so many times.
the « normal guitarist » fled the country
When the Sultans of Swing were asked to play this song, Guitar George quit the band.
But he knows all the chords! Shouldn’t be a problem for him
But Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't, make the scene.
@@NE0MAS I know, he's strictly rhythm
why did I laugh so hard at this joke
This song made him cry and sing
I love this song, it is one of my favorites. I brings to mind the difficulty of Earth, Wind, and Fire's "After the love is gone."
Mind blown. Although I have to disagree with one point. Even as a kid, I didn’t miss the chord changes. I was just too young to understand what was going on. The complex, nigh uncomfortable chord changes and progression create a lot of tension that emulates a feeling of passion. Even as a kid who didn’t know that kind of love yet, I felt it. Same feeling at 44, but now I know why. Absolutely brilliant.
He looks so overwhelmingly happy with the complexity of this song. Love it.
Like a cat with a laser pointer dot he can't quite catch!
I think this is standard Rick Beato. I wish I loved anything as much as Rick loves music. :)
I had a huge grin on my face this entire video. Totally remember playing this tune with a couple wedding bands around the same time in Boston. Very deceptive. The melodic hooks and strait ahead pop-ballad drum approach make this song sound fairly strait forward. As the drummer, I always wondered why the keys, guitar and bass had their heads buried in the chart, brows furrowed. Now I understand. Brilliant writing.
Not too tough for us drummers!
I grew up in The Bean.
They LOOOVED this song back in the day!
I love that you're grinning the whole time you're explaining this. Very entertaining!
I adore this so much. Thank you for the breakdown, I was smiling from ear to ear. The changes were soooo good to see. Absolutely amazing.
Laughing throughout this . . . Must have played this song a hundred times with varying success in different wedding bands in the 80s . . .
wait. "varying" success?
The only good part of wedding gigs is drunken brides maids. LOL
A F*** it lets just do it in C major guys…
@@shanewoolsey940 the best part of going to or being in a wedding is drunken brides maids. Me and my buddies in college used to suit up and go down to the local Holiday Inn complex and wedding crash throughout the spring and summer months. Oh glorious times.
Simple bloody chords... D# E7b5 F E 2-6 aFb#6 C.... That's it... Not so complicated
Years ago I was talking with a friend about playing guitar and he mentioned me the brazilians samba players. He said that they didn't know about music theory but instead they where skillful players who try and invent new sounds on the instrument. So when studied musicians tried to analize that tipes of sounds they discovered that it where the most heterogeneous and extravagant bunch of chords ever played, just like you did in this song. Sergio Mendes is an eminence in Bossa Nova, a mix of samba and jazz. Rick, if you play that progression but with an spanish guitar and in a faster speed simply you will hear the sound of Brazil. Grettings from Uruguay.(and sorry for my english)
You have nothing to apologize for my friend. Nothing at all.
Your written English is above and beyond that of most English speakers found in youtube comments, please, no more apologies for that! I am looking forward to being able to learn more about the sound of Brasil, I have always had a fascination since I read Jorge Amado’s Tent of Miracles, what a fabulous meeting of cultures, especially mesmerising for the young white Australian girl I was, and guess I still am even though getting a little long in the tooth.
Hola hermano Charrua!Esta cancion es una de mis favoritas nunca pense que era tan dificil para tocar.Saludos desde Australia
Interesting 💜🎶 Makes sense tho
@@michaelsorchantte3857 Hola Michael, igual me pasó. Creo que al estar acostumbrados a escuchar la música producida por Sergio Mendes, damos por sentado estos acordes y recién viendo a Rick romperse la cabeza y detener la canción cada 10 segundos nos damos real cuenta de la genialidad de esta melodía . Saludos desde Perú.
This is one of your best videos - I love the fun you are having with it and the way you show us the chords.
I enjoy watching Rick love the music as much as I enjoy the music itself. Always full of pure joy. I wish I could spend most of my time doing something I truly loved like that.
Pulling out a song with an impossible to memorise chord progression is such a singer move.
😂
As someone who loves music but is NOT a musician, listening to you speak music like its a native language is just so cool.
I love this. I’m the same way. My wife and I love watching these with our jaws dropped.
its just like knowing what lol means ... my grandma doesnt understand lol but she uses it .. i have 2 choices ... accept or attack
discuss
I know absolutely nothing about written music, but anyway you are so right; the music of today is much less complex than it use to be, and I hate that!! Getting back to the video, I love the song "Never Gonna Let You Go." I thoroughly enjoyed your explanation of the complexity of this beautiful song. Bravura, bravura, thank you.
I love how the chord notations keep getting longer and more insane.
"I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it."
Jajaj
Frank zappa did this hhh
In this specific case, that will not come true.
As generations pass, the kids get even more focused in crap music.
Ok Marty
@@josie1776 It's a joke/movie reference. :-)
"Which chords should we use for this song?"
"All of them!"
Remove a few notes, Mozart!
Thats my favourite kind of song!!!
Or none of them which would make 4 better listening
It is not only complex, it is truly beautiful! Quite an accomplishment! Wow wow wow! Mr. Rick Beato, I just love your analyses! Fantastic! I was (at one time) a pretty good guitarist and vocal performer, grounded in music theory... I once could name the key, given the flats or sharps in the music staff signature. No longer. But... I really do appreciate your marvelous musical knowledge.
Still one of my favs... the song, the musicianship, Sergio Mendez's production, and the mind-blowing analysis and humerous footnotes by Rick Beato. All excellent and entertaining stuff.👏😊
I’m not the only one who has no freaking clue what Rick’s talking about but thoroughly enjoys watching his videos, right? 🎸✌️
Yes indeed. I play the piano and I can hear it all but don't know my way round a guitar. Love these videos. You hear the songs with new ears.
Right there with you 😁
I’m a drummer so I just smile and bop along 😆.
Haha i understand all the terms cuz I’ve study music for years but the speed at which he understands is insane. Like I need to pause and work it through but he just does it lol.
Like that.
I'm having a HUGE Deja Vu moment here. My sister got married when this song was a big hit, so naturally she asked my wife and I to play and sing it for her wedding. I listened to it a couple of weeks before and thought, "Yeah another syrupy pop love song, I'll write out a chart a few days ahead of the wedding and not worry about it."
Three days before the wedding, I suddenly panic because this sucker starts to look like NASA's formula for moon orbit, and that's just the intro and first verse. So I run out and buy the sheet music. Then I woodshed like a mofo for the next two days to even get through it.
Day of the wedding… we got through it, but I ain't claiming it was pretty!
"like NASA's formula for moon orbit, and that's just the intro and first verse"
Hilarious. What a shame though that it's so complicated but that doesn't make it sound any better than a syrupy love song. All that effort just to produce a syrupy-sounding love song.
@@100pcRenewables whats so bad about a syrupy love song? I love 80s syrupy love songs!
the entire purpose of music is the expression of emotion. This composition uses modulation perfectly to express the emotion of the lyrics. It may b =e syrupy but it's a superb composition.
Syrupy love songs are much preferred to all the angst material out there. the question I have to ask is are you a mechanic or a musician?
@@pattunes1 exactly
Roll the VCR! 😍
Beautiful theme, and great genius from Sergio Mendez! There is a detail, a small detail to be able to understand and analyze a song like this in particular, that detail is the MELODY, the chords in this case can be anything... because the melody always goes in accordance with the bass and the chord remains as a filler that gives color and this is why many times the bass is not in the tonic, or the chord does not resolve in the tonic, it is simply because it is adding color to a melody that moves stable alongside the bass.
A very good example of this is the song "Wave" by Carlos Jobim, in which in the B part of it the bass remains in the third and seventh degree of all the chords... but what's the point? by itself, none, but when analyzing the melody, it is always in a third relationship with respect to the bass, surrounding and accentuating that interval on the downbeats, both above and below the bass note (relative, because the melody always goes on top, but theoretically the melody goes around the bass)
All of Bach's music recurrently supports this aspect between the voices, but today we see and analyze music as the chord, arguing that they are simply accompanying a melody... which is in the end the most important thing. Analyze Bach's minuet in G... the simplest of works by (Anna Magdalena) and you will see the relationship of the two notes that are always in counterpoint but coinciding... and so on until you reach the most complex works by Bach.
Never watch Rick without increasing my awe level at his prowess, genius, insight, and craft.
I found this absolutely fascinating, even though I didn't understood a single thing
😂 😂 Ikr?
That is so on the money - Rick is so watchable, so enthusiastic, he just carries you away on a tide of delightful ignorance
What Oniguma said.
Same here, lol. I couldn't stop watching, and i used to play a guitar a bit, and i still didn't get almost any of it yet I'm absolutely fascinated. Don't know if it's more the fact he can figure out and play all of this chords and chord changes with such ease or his facial expression and absolute enthusiasm about it - after already knowing it for 40 fricking years. 🙂
Exactly the same for me. I don't know why I look that video, I did not understand a single thing, but it has been a pleasant moment.
How many chords do you want?
Sergio Mendes: Yes.
Sergio Mendez: Mas que nada. Menos que todos.
What a great video!
I remember this song. I had no idea that it was a number one hit. Like he says, when you listen to it you've noticed there are some unusual chord changes but I had no idea how complex it was!
I hope the songwriters see this video and so know that all these years later someone appreciates what a masterpiece this song is!
Great song and Great story. Thankyou for sharing. Stumbled on you back when you did best guitar solo you never heard lol. Your love for music skill and experience has inspired me to learn an instrument starting with drums. Love the stories behind music and different interviews of artist. Hooked now!
Once again Rick takes a song that I've heard a few thousand times over the years without really listening to to it, and made me hear what I've been totally missing.
Rick, you're amazing!
Thank you!
100% I've always loved the vocal melody but never really noticed how complex the chords were.
That's sort of the goal of "music appreciation" classes. You don't necessarily break down every song you hear mathematically as you listen, but you get more out of it.
No doubt. Never did I look at it like this, like at all whatsoever... Cool beans!
It's incredible how they managed to make a song so complex which probably appears quite normal to non-musicians ears.
It sounds completely logical until Rick dissects it...
that’s when you know they are doing it because it works and not because they are trying to show off their technical ability. I never would’ve suspected that song of even being complicated. Certainly not compared to something like Steely Dan -which almost always works- or the absurdities that you sometimes run into with other composers who pride themselves on inserting a measure of 15/18 timing rather randomly ina song.
The half-step modulations are what kept the song fresh. Its what everybody liked about it. Like it just keeps getting better as the song goes on. Yeah, not a kind of song one can become familiar with easily. Its what Sting was talking about during your interivew. The song kept surprising. Your musical understanding is really unsurpassed in today's world. Carry on Sir Beato. :D
12:00 hold up he was a playing a FRETLESS?? For this song?? That’s simply amazing
Before Beato: throw away pop song
After Beato: stunningly complex gem
Exactly
Quit being so judgmental
Ppl need to relax
If you know yourself you don’t need to worry so much
They put a lot of thought into the song, but in the end it's still a schmaltzy song that has no appeal for me. Interesting only from a theory nerd point of view. Good video.
@@RCAvhstape Agreed, despite all this chord and key complexity it still sounds like generic melodramatic '80s pop. Quantity of chords and modulations does not define quality of a song
Why not both? Stunningly complex throw away pop song gem. :D
@@RCAvhstape that’s the sentiment I’m going with too. Smaltzy: it has that in spades! 110%.
I’m cool with the new series…What makes the song weird.
yes yes yes!!!
😂
Yesss
Great idea 😂
I've been p[laying the guitar for 60 years and this turned me into a mouth breather! I listened to this song years ago and never considered all of this!!!
I am not a musician but love the breakdown Rick does for this song, then you had me laughing too. Great video!
The chord changes aren't noticed by the audience because the vocal melody is wonderfully well constructed around these. For instance, sometimes, between section or key changes, the last and first notes of the vocal melody are the same. This helps to eliminate the feeling of confusion produced by these harmonic changes. They're genius!
How strongly does a melody imply its harmony?
@@NewMusicWeekly when one is singing, if the harmony goes up more than half a step and the singer repeats the previous verse or a chorus a whole step higher you notice the key change.
@@NewMusicWeekly Very strongly if you want to play it right as opposed to the Ultimate Guitar version or fake book. It sounds to me like the 2 writers are both musicians who were playing keyboards together and sort of melded their ideas for the movements (wow, that sounds great together) while some of the chords that resulted were those quartal harmony/steely dan-sounding.
It's certainly inventive and probably a challenge for all but the most seasoned wedding band player.
Those sorts of changes are called Enharmonic key changes.
Honestly think there’s a higher chance the melody came first then they put chords around it. I can’t see how you could get to these chord decisions without the melody and knowing what chords tones they’d be before hand
The secret What Makes This Song Great episode nobody asked for, but everyone appreciates.
I love that song. It pulls at both the heart and the mind. I am not a musician, but I appreciate your pointing out the complexity. As a funny side, one of the commercials stuck into your video seemed to pushing some fret cover to a guitar that would allow you to play the right note without thinking. Myself, I don't have tattoos but I was wondering if you might like to tattoo the inside of your arm with the chord changes but I am not sure there'd be enough room.
It actually reminds me of the constant jazzy modulations of "After The Love Has Gone" a lot.
Try and interview the people who wrote this song Rick. Id be intrigued to hear what was on there minds when writing it
Cocaine
@@nickwodka8080 🤣
This song has more chords than my entire playing-vocabulary
epic comment...I agree LOL
😂😂😂😂😅😅😅😅😅
Same xD
I'd never remember the progression
You could say that about even simpler songs than that!
That you were able to find those chords by ear amazes me. Forget about playing it live same day