‘Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder) by Maxwell
Much of Maxwell’s material is more floaty than funky, but ‘Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder’ is both: the bass hits the One satisfyingly every couple of bars, with a hiccup-esque pair of notes in the middle of its line, before the One bumps you back down; the drums have just enough syncopation for that itchy-feet feeling; and Maxwell’s falsetto and sustain make his voice feel like a friendly ghost hovering around the ceiling above a party.
‘Runaway '67’ by Del Shannon
Decades before Kanye West’s acclaimed ‘Runaway’, Del Shannon had a hit with ‘Runaway '67’. The opening trumpet melody conjures similar feelings of longing. That melody is “answered” by an equally evocative violin line, followed by a drum roll and the whole band coming in.
Those opening seconds give an accurate impression of the whole arrangement, courtesy of Arthur Greenslade. Arrangers aren’t such a thing now, but they were a major part of ’60s music. Nowadays their duties are more likely to be credited to the producer(s) and/or writer(s). Greenslade also arranged for Cat Stevens, Diana Ross, and Genesis, among others.
Shannon’s voice isn’t often talked about, but his ever-subtly-changing tone and the wonderful “Wa-wa-wa-wonder” and “She ran away” in this song’s chorus is enough to remember it forever.
‘(What A) Wonderful World’ by Sam Cooke
A rather less-forgotten singer, Sam Cooke, had one of his most enduring hits with ‘(What A) Wonderful World’. 25 years after its release, the song reached No 2 in the UK (thanks to a cover being used in a TV ad for jeans, and thanks to it being a great song).
Cooke reportedly tweaked the lyrics to mention education more (Paul Sexton has noted it might be the only hit to have mentioned trigonometry) after Herb Alpert and Lou Adler had begun its composition. Cooke’s singing is so smooth, the melody so lovely, and the pauses so well-timed that awkward lines like “Maybe by being an A student, baby, I can win your love for me” sound faultless.
‘Wonderful Life’ by Irene Kral
On ‘Wonderful Life’, Irene Kral’s jazzy voice recalls the runs and pitch jumps of a saxophone or trumpet. It’s joined by horns after the end of certain lines, as at the end of the song – a sunny and sweet one minute and 45 seconds.
The drums, tuned and mixed so they may go unnoticed even as Hal Blaine injects rock-life energy into the final 15 seconds, make Kral’s advice to “live every wonderful day” seem more urgent.
‘Any Wonder’ by Jack Johnson
On 2022’s Meet the Moonlight, Jack Johnson got a little rainier, a little further from the sunny surfer vibes of many of his earlier songs. It was seen in the album artwork and felt in the slower tempos and minor chords, and, on closing track ‘Any Wonder’, lyrics like “It’s so hard to let go”. But there’s always hope in a Jack Johnson song: “You can always come back home”.
Top image from Discogs.