It might be the song I have the most versions of, and now (thanks to this thread) I know why. I’m really intrigued by the version Roger Waters did at the Berlin Wall… with Van Morrison doing the chorus.
Anything by the Roches.
Their voices meshed perfectly.
The harmony vocals on Sloop John B are what makes the song, because the lyrics and main vocal are kinda mundane.
In “lead sheet” music, it might say that a song has a “C – G – Am – F” chord progression, which might indeed sound boring, but in a really interesting+good pop song that would be a coarse-grained view of what is really going on, even without crazy chord alterations &c. Surely this thread is a good place to come up with some examples of pop songs that have Pachelbel’s canon chords yet are good, and to figure out why?
Laura Nyro
True. Not Pachelbel, but similar example: the Eagles’ “Hotel California” has the same chords as Jethro Tull’s “We Used to Know” (composed years earlier), but “Hotel California” has tons of value added, for many reasons.
Carol Kaye’s fuzz bass on that tune is what really propels it for me.
Crosby Stills Nash (& optional Young) are another obvious add to the list. Every song is three-part texture.
That is interesting.
Years ago, I has having trouble chasing down a song that I tended to think of as a vocal group song with rich harmony. Song turned out to be Jon Secada’s “Just Another Day” and apparently most people don’t think of or notice any harmony because it is styled as “background vocals” with Secada’s lead on the verses and predominant even in the choruses. But the harmonic texture is, for me, what makes the song.
There are a lot of vocal bits in The Who’s proto rock opera, “A Quick One” that are more interesting than the lead melody (often Pete, leaving the fun backups to Roger, John, and Keith). Especially amusing is the bit around 4:40 where the three of them vocally represent a cello… by singing “cello, cello, cello, cello…”
Good one! “Soon soon soon be home…”